At Eternity’s Gate
At Eternity’s Gate, written and directed by Julian Schnabel and released in 2018, is an intimate portrayal of the final stages of Vincent Van Gogh’s life. The biopic centers on Vincent’s time in Arles and Auvers-Sur-Oise in France; a period of intense creativity set against the backdrop of mental estrangement just prior to his capitulation and death.
The film is a delight for both the visual and auditory senses. The director counterpoises Van Gogh’s largely frustrated social interactions with those of luminous and hypnotic landscapes; the brutal beauty of sunflower fields blasted with age; vistas of ploughed fields fringed by poplars and cushioned with mountain ranges and various other rural scenes are accompanied with music that heightens the experience and appears to mirror Van Gogh’s mental state of mind – tortured, yet able to perceive and interpret the beauty of the world around him.
Willem Defoe gives a sensitive performance of the troubled man eager for acceptance and love and for whom such ambitions ultimately remain unreciprocated. The dialogue is spare, and the awkwardness of Vincent is perfectly matched by the short interactions. His intense personality and absolute dedication to his craft make him an intriguing yet difficult person with whom to engage. The more involved he is with his work, the more removed he seems to become from humanity, as though the two are somehow mutually exclusive, hinting perhaps at darker aspects of the creative process.
Schnabel resists the temptation for blatant lapses into sentimentality regarding the figure of the suffering artist and instead has given us a lucid portrait of a highly creative individual struggling with his own humanity and striving for connection while maintaining a devotion to painting.
Interestingly, the only fraternity Vincent achieves are with two doctor’s, Felix Ray and Paul Gachet who treat as much his physical and psychological health as his overall welfare as a person; they are curious and interested, asking questions that allow him to disclose depths to his being that previously only his art had rendered. For the first time in the film, the inner vision that compels Vincent in pursuit of its representation finally gains speech rather than a painted medium. Not surprisingly, these interactions show Vincent at his most casual and happiest moments.
At Eternity’s Gate is an apt title for a biopic on Van Gogh. Death’s threshold seems to settle a lens on life that quickens receptivity to beauty and the vitality underpinning it and to which Van Gogh has become its sensitive interpreter. A fascinating biopic that sheds light on the inner life of a troubled man and dazzling artist.
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