Two weeks ago my father rented a house in Duck, North Carolina, on the beach, and scattered family members made the trek south to spend a week together swimming, reading, cooking, watching movies, and, of course, assembling a thousand piece puzzle. My mother had bought a puzzle that contained numerous paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, which was great as it gave us all a rich experience studying his work as we tried to assemble the pieces. As we worked on this puzzle, I found myself sputtering all sorts of facts and theories about Van Gogh, and I soon realised that I seemed to know quite a bit about the man, despite having never studied him nor even reading a single book about him. Everything I know can be credited to two films – Loving Vincent (2017) and Lust for Life (1956). I saw Loving Vincent at the Princeton Garden Theatre last year, and was absolutely mesmerized by it. I...
Malcolm Coates