Van Gogh Movie Dafoe. The actor turned out at the venice film festival to chat all things van gogh, including playing this famous figure in at eternity’s gate. The movie is directed by julian schnabel, who made “the diving bell and the butterfly” and is himself an artist who recreated some of van gogh’s work for the film and helped dafoe learn how.
Whilst van gogh has been represented innumerable times on the big screen in the past, this time the baton is handed over to the reliably versatile willem dafoe. Willem dafoe is an impassioned van gogh in this fascinating yet frustrating biopic willem dafoe as vincent van gogh in julian schnabel's “at eternity’s gate.” (lily gavin/cbs films) by As much intensity as he has brought to the screen in his career, he is no longer quite right for the part.
Willem dafoe in at eternity’s gate.
Dafoe's work, the look in his searching, despairing eyes, feels beyond conventional acting, using intuition as well as technique to go deeply into the character, putting us in van gogh's presence. The plot takes place in van gogh’s final years, and we see the artist as erratic and unhappy. Despite that age gap, dafoe portrays the seminal artist with a physical and spiritual power not unlike his transcendent portrayal of jesus in. The movie also explores van gogh’s relationship with fellow painter gauguin.
