saw “loving vincent” – what an experience to penetrate van gogh’s arresting work and meet many of the characters he knew and painted. i read irving stone’s “lust for life” when i was quite young and was captivated by the life, art and person of vincent van gogh. i was particularly taken by his guilelessness and generosity and the love between him and his brother theo. my dad bought us an art book full of well-known western art and i pored over that book for hours, focusing on van gogh’s work in particular, and wanting to be absorbed into the dazzling, dizzying magic he created – something raw, something true. it’s unbelievable that every frame in the film is painted by hand. it’s also interesting that the story is not so much about the excessively dramatic and emotional ups and downs in van gogh’s life (lavish material for any film) but rather it’s a detective story about the circumstances of his death. the film ends with a cover of don mclean’s song, which i discovered much later in college while still in love with van gogh’s art, and a notebook full of paintings, sketches and actual photographs of the people we meet in the film, such as père tanguy and dr gachet. what a treat for an addict like myself.