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PAINT A PICTURE: VINCENT & THEO, BLUE STEEL

© Sean Gallagher

Robert Altman has often compared his films to paintings, especially in the sense that just as in paintings, he aims for his films to be seen more than once, so that you can get the full effect. This may sound incredibly arrogant to some, and this attitude is part of the reason Altman has always been a maverick in Hollywood. The 80's were not his most fruitful period; though Altman did win praise for his adaptation of the one-man play SECRET HONOR, starring Philip Baker Hall, and his made-for-cable series TANNER '88, which followed a fictional candidate played by Michael Murphy, most of his films garnered mixed reviews at best, or, as with POPEYE and BEYOND THERAPY, scathing reviews. 1992's THE PLAYER was considered his comeback film by many people. However, in 1990, Altman had already righted himself somewhat with VINCENT & THEO.

The title characters in his film are Vincent Van Gogh (Tim Roth), the famous painter, and Theo (Paul Rhys), his brother. According to this film, Theo was Vincent's barrier, protecting him from the world so that he could paint or rage against the world. Even though he was married to Jo (Johanna Ter Steege), she seemed to understand Theo's real bond was with Vincent. He was an art dealer so Vincent knew he had one place his art could be shown, he allowed Vincent to never compromise his integrity, and he even found patrons for Vincent, like Dr. Gauche (Jean-Pierre Cassel), whose daughter Marguerite (Bernadette Giraud) enters into a brief relationship with Vincent.

One would, of course, expect Altman to take an offbeat approach to the material, since in life, he seemed dismissive of the rules of any genre piece, preferring to shape them his own way (which, of course, could result in contempt for the genre, as with his most overrated film, 1973's THE LONG GOODBYE). It comes as a surprise, therefore, to find Altman making his most straightforward film here, essentially following the rules of a biopic, and staying close to Julian Mitchell's screenplay. Altman had, it's true, done movies in a straightforward manner before, but not to good effect (his segment for the 1988 anthology film ARIA). Here, however, because the relationship between Vincent and Theo is so well portrayed, it works. It also helps that Altman and cinematographer Jean Lepine (who also photographed TANNER '88, and went on to photograph Altman's THE PLAYER and READY TO WEAR) are able to give us a photographic version of Van Gogh's paintings, especially his use of colors. The fact that they're able to do this without ever becoming showy also helps. All of this helps offset the somewhat subdued pace of the story, which does hamper it somewhat.