Van Gogh

Maurice Pialat’s visually stunning penultimate work is an epic, masterful dramatization of the final months in the life of the troubled painter (played by musician Jacques Dutronc in a César-winning performance) that focuses less on his creative genius and more on his complicated personal relationships with those in his orbit, including his brother Theo (Bernard Le Coq), doctor Paul Gachet (Gérard Séty), and the physician’s daughter Marguerite (Alexandra London) who becomes Vincent’s lover. Pialat’s sober, defiantly unsensational approach illuminates the human side of an artist whose legend has often obscured the complex, nuanced reality of his life.