Julian Schnabel benefits from the dual identities of director and painter. Almost every movie can find a star-studded cast. In "Before Night" by the Cuban poet Renardo Arenas, there are Oscar actor Javier Baden, Sean Penn and Johnny Depp in the famous work "Diving Bell and Butterflies" in France Actor Matthew Amarek, Polanski's wife Emmanuel Senier and other acting groups helped. This new work is equally impressive. In addition to William Dafoe's brilliant role as Van Gogh, Oscar Isaac was also hired to play Gauguin, Danish actor Max Mickelson was to play the priest, and a group of French movie stars. The luxurious lineup is staggering, and even the final monologue has also brought the son of New Wave director Louis Garrell to give the voice.
As a purely author film in the competition unit, this "Eternal Gate" is like Hungarian director Laszlo Nemesch's "Sunset". The screen is full of director's stylized images, from unfettered hand-held photography to wide-angle lens. , Color filters, black-screen monologues, piano soundtracks, etc. The amazing labeling techniques used in "Diving Bell and Butterflies" reappear in this biographical theme. However, the director is not shooting a regular Van Gogh biopic, but through fragmentary fragments of his creation and life, allowing the audience to gradually enter the world of Van Gogh's thoughts.
Perhaps the director himself is a painter, so there are many shots of Van Gogh's painting process in the screen, which fully demonstrate his unique creative style: natural themes, rushing style, heavy paint and more like sculptures (in the play Gauguin's words) . However, these unique painting styles are not understood by outsiders, even the audience. As a result, the film shows that his mental state is gradually incompatible with the outside world, from being sent to a mental hospital to cutting off his ears as a gift to others. On this level, Van Gogh and the paralyzed protagonist in "Diving Bell and Butterfly" are also trapped in their own thoughts, and it is difficult to communicate effectively with the outside world. Therefore, stylized audiovisual methods such as using a monologue to speak inner words after a black screen, and a filter to show the blurred image in front of him, can indeed vividly and effectively present his isolated and unintelligible personality.
Compared with the full authoritative expression, the storyline and character dialogue appear empty and mediocre. Whether it was his family relationship with his brother, his friendship with Gauguin, or even the final tragic accident, it did not provide any fresh entry point, let alone a deep analysis. The overall feeling is only to provide an artistic popular science image to audiences who are not familiar with Van Gogh, but it fails to convey the moment of further empathy for the audience in the poetic image. This is the regret of the work.
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