Lust for Life

1956

Action / Biography / Drama

21
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 80% · 15 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 81% · 2.5K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.3/10 10 12456 12.5K

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Plot summary

An intense and imaginative artist, revered Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh possesses undeniable talent, but he is plagued by mental problems and frustrations with failure. Supported by his brother, Theo, the tormented Van Gogh eventually leaves Holland for France, where he meets volatile fellow painter Paul Gauguin and struggles to find greater inspiration.


Uploaded by: FREEMAN
April 29, 2016 at 03:34 PM

Director

Top cast

Marion Ross as Sister Clothilde
Kirk Douglas as Vincent Van Gogh
Laurence Naismith as Dr. Bosman
Julie Robinson as Rachel
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
882.36 MB
1280*502
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
2 hr 2 min
Seeds 1
1.84 GB
1920*752
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
2 hr 2 min
Seeds 12

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by SnoopyStyle 6 / 10

Quinn improves rather bland biopic

Vincent Van Gogh (Kirk Douglas) fails as a preacher activist in a coal mining town. He returns home. He struggles against his father and his love Kay rejects him. He takes care of the homely Christine and her baby but she leaves him due to his obsessive painting. All the while, he diligently works on his art supported by his brother Theo van Gogh (James Donald). He befriends fellow artist Paul Gauguin (Anthony Quinn) and the two live together to paint. However the partnership doesn't last and he falls into a depression.

Kirk Douglas is fine but the first half lacks drama. It's a simple recitation of his life with little tension. It tries to fill the blandness with Kirk's narration. The paintings are interesting and beautifully colorful. The movie gets better in the second half with the arrival of Anthony Quinn. The two artists' companionship has some compelling tension. The movie improves a bit at that point.

Reviewed by Ben Burgraff (cariart) 10 / 10

Brilliant, Yet Painful Classic Offers Douglas' Finest Performance...

"Lust for Life", Vincente Minnelli's rich interpretation of Irving Stone's Vincent Van Gogh bio-novel, is a film both compelling and repelling; in delving into the psyche of the artist (unforgettably portrayed by Kirk Douglas), one can see an untrained, unbridled genius smashing convention to open viewers' eyes to a world defined by passion; yet in doing so, we share in the growing nightmares and agony of his creative mind, teetering toward the madness that would destroy him, and it is an unsettling experience, to be sure!

This is a film so rich in visual imagery (with a Technicolor 'palette' that attempts to recreate Van Gogh's view of his world), that it demands repeated viewings, just to savor the details. From wheat fields 'aflame' in color, to night skies that nearly writhe in waves of darkness, the elemental nature of the artist's vision is spectacularly captured. And in experiencing the world through his eyes, the loving, yet uncomprehending concern of his brother (James Donald), and more hedonistic, shallow patronizing, and gradual disgust of fellow artist Paul Gauguin (Anthony Quinn, in his Oscar-winning performance), become elemental 'barriers', as well. Van Gogh wants to 'speak', but no one can understand his 'language', not even the artist, himself!

Kirk Douglas never plunged as deeply into a portrayal as he did, in "Lust for Life", and the experience nearly crushed him, as he related in his autobiography, "Ragman's Son". His total immersion in the role SHOULD have won him an Oscar (Yul Brynner won, instead, for "The King and I"), and his bitterness and disappointment at the snub would haunt him, to this day. With the passage of time, his performance has only increased in luster and stature, and it certainly shows an actor at the top of his form!

"Lust for Life" is an unforgettable experience, not to be missed!

Reviewed by JohnHowardReid 8 / 10

Despite two or three problems, a must-see movie!

Copyright 1956 by Loew's Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Plaza: 17 September 1956. U.S. release: 21 September 1956. U.K. release: 25 August 1957. London opening at the Curzon. Australian release: 7 March 1957. 10,991 feet. 122 minutes.

NOTES: Young photographed the European locations, Harlan the Hollywood studio scenes.

Academy Award, Anthony Quinn, Best Supporting Actor, defeating Don Murray in "Bus Stop", Anthony Perkins in "Friendly Persuasion", Mickey Rooney in "The Bold and the Brave", Robert Stack in "Written on the Wind". Also nominated for Best Actor, Kirk Douglas, losing to Yul Brynner in "The King and I"; Norman Corwin for Best Adapted Screenplay, losing to "Around the World in 80 Days"; Color Art Direction, losing to "The King and I".

Negative cost: around $2.5 million. Initial domestic rentals gross: $1.6 million. Foreign rentals: around $1 million. Initial loss: around $1.2 million.

The final film to be photographed in Ansco Color, a process which M- G-M had actively helped to develop.

VIEWER'S GUIDE: Not suitable for children, but make them watch it anyway.

COMMENT: Based on Irving Stone's superficial and romanticized biographical novel of Vincent Van Gogh, "Lust for Life" was adapted for the screen by (of all people!) radio playwright, Norman Corwin. The result is the one-dimensional characterization and comic caricatures of "The Odyssey of Runyon Jones". A faulty script was then aggravated by handing it over to a sympathetic director — Vincente Minnelli, a specialist in caricature cameos. Minnelli has enjoyed himself hugely; we have his sarcastic observation of the roisterers at the fair, and to cap one of the film's more solemn and dramatic moments, the scatter-brained stupidity of the asylum doctor, hilariously portrayed by Lionel Jeffries.

Nonetheless, Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn handle the script better than could be expected, and as might be anticipated from the director of "The Bad and the Beautiful", Minnelli's treatment of the scenes of dementia are quite effective. Miklos Rozsa's evocative score is also to be commended, as is Dore Schary's enterprise in allowing the film to be produced at all — one of the reasons why he got the sack.

Visually the film contains some attractively composed French and Dutch exterior scenes and the reproduction of the paintings is often above average, although CinemaScope seems an inconvenient shape for the display of such canvasses (Frederick A. Young and Russell Harlan photographed).

For his brief role as Paul Gauguin, Anthony Quinn received the lion's share of the critical acclaim, as well as his second Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor. Kirk Douglas, however, won the New York Film Critics Award as Best Actor for his interpretation of Van Gogh.

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