(Venice Luigi Noera with the kind collaboration of Marino fearful- Photos are published courtesy of the Venice Biennale)

First presented - and in the running for the Golden Lion - at the 75th Venice Film Festival in Venice, At Eternity's Gate is the latest in a long series of biopic on the life of the famous Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh, signed Julian Schnabel.

Starting from the moment in which the artist has forged his strong friendship with colleague Paul Gauguin, At Eternity's Gate shows us a Van Gogh suffering, misunderstood, living an eternal inner conflict, and he can feel himself only when he is alone, surrounded by unspoilt nature, and it is about to paint another of his paintings.

Needless to say - given also the parallel career as a painter of the same Julian Schnabel – this feature (probably one of the most personal works and necessary for the author himself along with Basquiat, of the 1996) It boasts a cure of the image and photography as few times ever see on the big screen. The paintings of Vincent Van Gogh are, so, recreated from a camera that, however, It turns out to be sometimes too shaky. Gratuitously wobbly. Doing, often, lose visual impact to the above images, but wisely focusing on the very first floor of the main character in every way is to remind us of his own Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (dated 1889).

Not afraid of silences, Julian Schnabel. Do not fear them, and, Unlike, It tends to exacerbate to the extreme, up to the maximum allowed, accompanying images of a Van Gogh in ecstasy in nature, only a measured music signed commentary Tatiana Lisovskaya, in order to ensure that the spectator becomes part of almost mystical ecstasy experienced by the protagonist. But, after all, a mass is really necessary in such an extreme scene? O such directorial choices only show a dangerous lack of ideas from the director himself?

Despite the striking images, despite the good intentions of the author, At Eternity’s Gate risulta, at the end, a work that fails to express to the full potential. As if, in recent years, everything had already been said about. The image people have, therefore, is that of a director not entirely at ease, who does not know how to end a now open discourse and, in front of an important issue so, He feels somewhat bewildered. Sin. Because, in fact, of interesting (especially from the aesthetic point of view) There were all right.

Feature naive and clumsy, At Eternity’s Gate vanta, however, an extraordinary test actor by the always excellent Willem Dafoe, in the lead role. It will be Volpi Cup?

marina fears