New releases from The Orb, Meredith Monk, and Marconi Union
At Eternity's Gate (12A, directed by Julian Schnabel)
An impressionistic biography draws an outstanding performance from Willem Dafoe as Vincent van Gogh
RITA DI SANTO draws attention to a new film that features Ken Loach and Jeremy Corbyn, and their personal experience of media misrepresentation
JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime
MARJORIE MAYO welcomes an account of family life after Oscar Wilde, a cathartic exercise, written by his grandson
KEN COCKBURN guides us through a survey of Chekov’s early short fiction, and the groundwork it laid for his later masterpieces
ANDY HEDGECOCK revels in a hugely enjoyable but deadly serious examination of the 1930s, that is an indictment of our own era
The bard distills our hellish times into fiery words
“MAYBE God made me a painter for people who aren’t born yet,” Willem Dafoe’s Vincent van Gogh confides to a quizzical priest (Mads Mikkelsen) in this film set during the last two years of Van Gogh’s existence in Arles and Auvers-sur-Oise in France.
This no straightforward in-depth biography but a painterly film from co-writer and director Julian Schnabel that attempts to show what it was like to be the painter and walk in his shoes.
As the poor and struggling artist traipses through the French countryside, he attempts to be at one with nature and capture the glorious sunlight.
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