At Eternity's Gate Poster

At Eternity's Gate (2018)

Biography  
Rayting:   7.0/10 28.9K votes
Country: Switzerland | Ireland
Language: French | English
Release date: 7 February 2019

A look at the life of painter

Movie Trailer

Where to Watch

User Reviews

gortx 30 November 2018

Vincent Van Gogh is an artist seemingly tailor made for the movies - the brilliance, the madness, the short tragic life unappreciated in his time and....the ear! (the first I ever heard of Van Gogh was in elementary school. An artist so intense he cut his own ear off!? Cool!). Coming off last year's brilliantly animated LOVING VINCENT, comes the latest entry in the Van Gogh filmography, AT ETERNITY'S GATE. Played by Willem Dafoe, this Van Gogh isn't given the traditional bio-pic treatment. It focuses on the last few months of the painter's life. The main details are there (including, yes, the ear incident), as are the characters such as Paul Gaugin (Oscar Isaac), Dr. Gachet (Mathieu Almaric) and, of course, his beloved brother Theo (Rupert Friend). Director Julian Schnabel (DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, BEFORE NIGHT FALLS) and his co-writers including the esteemed Jean-Claude Carriere (who's worked with the likes of Bunuel, Schlondorff, Godard and Wadja) give us more an impressionist* treatment. Abetted by Cinematographer Benoit Delhomme, we get a kaleidoscope of images, sounds and visions. Delhomme's hand-held camera-work takes some getting used to, and, quite frankly, can be a bit distracting at times (the demands supposedly forced the camera operator to give up on the opening shot and Delhomme had to operate himself!). Tatiana Livoskaia's minimalist score adds to the disjointed perspective. Schnabel's fragmented style doesn't give the actors much room to breathe, but Dafoe et al. acquit themselves capably. The cumulative effect will certainly not be to everyone's taste (particularly those desiring a traditional biography), but, GATE is a vivid impression of what those final months may have been like. One artist's vision of another's.

* In the movie, Van Gogh and Gaugin discuss how they are more modernist than the classic school of Impressionism. They are often termed Post-Impressionist painters.

jimcheva 8 November 2018

Fmovies: I'm a big Van Gogh fan and not only do I love Dafoe but his face is perfect for Van Gogh. Schnabel is a filmmaker I have come to trust. For extra credit, this was written by Bunuel's scenarist. On top of all this, it turns out an old friend of mine did the costumes.

What's not to like?

Well, long wordless walks through beautifully photographed landscapes with Elvira Madigan style piano providing the emotion (along with portentous close-ups of Dafoe's face). The type of story telling which provides episodic vignettes without either explaining them (I know some of the backstory only because I know the painter's life) or crafting them into a sustained narrative. Spme over-clever cinematographic tricks. Producer John Kilik said Schnabel didn't want to make a "forensic" biopic. Fair enough, but story doesn't have to grow out of dry biographical details. This approach was just too scattered to build any momentum - as opposed to Van Gogh's own letters, which start wandering and formless but develop intensity and momentum as he builds towards both success and self-destruction.

Years ago, Schnabel had thought of directing the novel "Perfume", which he would have done wonderfully. Unfortunately those who got there first produced a bloodless, precious piece which gave no taste of the novel's vigorous forward movement. Ironically, he has done something similar with Van Gogh's life.

I look forward to seeing work from everyone involved (including one surprise from Van Gogh.). But this was a wrong turn.

Otherwise, you might consider that David O. Russell - no slouch himself - was at the screening and LOVED the film. So there's that.

lor_ 3 November 2018

Stealing many a technique from far better filmmakers, Julian Schnabel botches this obviously personal film about Van Gogh. It fails to deliver any insight into the artist and is surprisingly stupid in terms of its treatment of basic themes.

Schnabel begins by stealing the technique developed over 40 years ago by director Peter Watkins, best known for his "Edvard Munch" film that JS certainly has seen. It is the "You Are There" approach to presenting period material, ironically adapted from the 1950s CBS TV series of that name (CBS Films is releasing "At Eternity's Gate"). Watkins uses the conceit of a first-person camera documentary crew on the scene photographing and interviewing characters from previous centuries (before cinema had been invented), and Schnabel repeatedly uses hand-held & first-person camera that proves to be annoying and distracting from letting the viewer enter Van Gogh's 19th Century milieu.

For Vincent's immediate point-of-view we are subjected repetitively to camera mounted on (presumably) star Dafoe's chest aimed at his legs walking and the ground beneath, a technique Nic Roeg used memorably in the 1967 Hardy adaptation of "Far From the Madding Crowd". Completing a trifecta of self-defeating steals, many shots from Van Gogh's POV have the bottom half of the camera lens covered with vaseline to create a blurring effect, an artistic approach which was developed in the 1960s by the unsung masters of stylization (or over-stylization if one is not a fan of their work), the son/father team of Jean-Gabriel and Quinto Albicocco, famed for their classic adaptation of "Le Grand Meaulnes".

Another disastrous technique has several dialogue exchanges repeated on the soundtrack in mind-numbing fashion, as if our heavy-handed director was trying to underline their importance. Main themes covered in the movie revolve around Van Gogh and Gauguin's differing ideas about what drives the creative artist and how he should approach his art, but even though actors do a good job at their craft (acting), both Dafoe and Oscar Isaac, the dialog is blunt and unsubtle, like the rest of the movie.

Worse yet, Schnabel refuses to let the viewer do any independent viewing, forcing one to look at what the director wants, especially in the ill-advised shaky hand-held sections. In a film about art one should be permitted to rove arouund looking at what's in the frame independent of such artificial spoon-feeding, and even when a painting or the creation of one (by Schnabel or Dafoe's hand) is shown we are denied the chance to linger and absorb the content.

So we are left with a remote, unmoving portrait of the artist as a troubled individual, gleaning next to nothing about him or his art. Post-movie emphasis (in the end credits) on a notebook of drawings not discovered till 2016 is strictly a gimmicky anti-climax, worthy of a horror movie director rather than an artist turned director.

ebbyamir 5 February 2019

At Eternity's Gate fmovies. This film doesn't follow the Hollywood structure. It's not a biography like you might expect, and the plot isn't defined. Instead, this is an attempt to get inside Van Gogh's head, and a brilliant one at that. Imagine being the world's greatest artist, with zero validation and constant ridicule by the establishment around you. That's the torturous state of being this film encapsulates and does it with purpose. At times, the cinema language gets more experimental than necessarily to accomplish its goal, but I commend the director for pushing the boundaries of standard filmmaking and letting us inhabit Van Gogh's mind for this brief period. I genuinely felt a loss for this escape from my own mind when Van Gogh passed. I recommend anyone involved with artistic or creative thinking to watch this film.

PotassiumMan 21 November 2018

Vincent Van Gogh's last days in the south of France are depicted in this heartfelt drama by Julian Schnabel. Willem Dafoe gives a powerful performance as the destitute, troubled painter who was not understood by those in his own time. As Van Gogh seeks to express his extraordinary eye for nature and portraits, those around him are either put off, wary or sometimes intrigued. His brother is his only real comfort.

A deliberately paced film with a mournful soundtrack, this will leave you in a contemplative state. It does not tell you everything about Van Gogh or when his self-isolation began but it does seek to offer insight into his profoundly troubled mental state. His demons are quite evident throughout the film- everything from his intolerant response to the curiosity of schoolchildren to his difficulty explaining his world to whatever doctor is examining him, Van Gogh is exemplified in Dafoe's anguished face. Schnabel, himself a painter, brings his own perspective in piecing this film together, especially in showing how Van Gogh paints and goes about his craft.

The film is not without drawbacks. Oscar Isaac is miscast as Paul Gauguin, the French painter whom Van Gogh couldn't bear losing company with. And Mads Mikkelsen gets minimal screen time in a very thoughtful performance as an inquisitive priest who recognizes Van Gogh's uniqueness. But this film is Schnabel's interpretation of Van Gogh and Dafoe's exemplary portrayal of him and in that regard it works quite well. Recommended.

j_chenier 6 December 2018

Although offering an interesting perspective of seeing life from through Van Gogh's eyes, this film suffers from slow pacing and a disjointed narrative that never really gains any momentum. The acting was solid from Willem Dafoe in the lead role as well as from the supporting cast, but I don't see this film appealing to most casual film audiences. If you are however, interested in the story of this beloved artist, I'd recommend 2017's innovative (and much better) Loving Vincent.

Similar Movies

9.0
Rocketry: The Nambi Effect

Rocketry: The Nambi Effect 2022

7.0
Gangubai Kathiawadi

Gangubai Kathiawadi 2022

7.6
Elvis

Elvis 2022

8.3
Major

Major 2022

7.8
Thirteen Lives

Thirteen Lives 2022

7.4
Jhund

Jhund 2022

7.1
Rescued by Ruby

Rescued by Ruby 2022

6.9
Jerry and Marge Go Large

Jerry and Marge Go Large 2022


Share Post

Direct Link

Markdown Link (reddit comments)

HTML (website / blogs)

BBCode (message boards & forums)

Watch Movies Online | Privacy Policy
Fmovies.guru provides links to other sites on the internet and doesn't host any files itself.