Passion and Pain, Love and Loss: Life of Vincent Van Gogh in the Movie “Lust for Life” (1956)
梵高的追求 – 兼谈电影《生活的欲望》
The world famous Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) led a life full of conflicts. He was passionate for art, but he went through tremendous pain – pain of poverty and being misunderstood. He loved earnestly each time, but he ended up losing each of his beloved. Life treated him unfairly. While alive, he earned nothing from his works except the pain of pursuing. Only after his death was he accorded fame and recognition, with his paintings acclaimed as invaluable.
Despite all this misery, Van Gogh is admirable. In the movie “Lust for Life” (1956), he is a hero fighting for art and love against any and all odds. His pursuits did not diminish a single bit no matter what bitterness he ran into. Van Gogh lived to pursue. His life is one of excitement, devotion and sincerity.
I watched the movie “Lust for Life” for the first time in 2004. It was an evening in the fall, probably in late September or October. In that season, the night weather on Long Island had turned quite cool, or to be more accurate, crisp. Tired of endless school work, several Stony Brook fellows and I went to Susana’s house in Port Jefferson. After chatting for a while, we went to Theatre Three, a small not-for-profit cinema which often screens quite interesting movies. (By “interesting,” I mean non-Hollywood-prototype movies.)
第一次看这部电影是在2004 年。那是一个秋天的晚上,印象中是在九月底或十月初。这个时节,长岛上的气温已很凉,确切地说,有点冷。厌烦了没有尽头的学业功课,我和石溪的几个系友到了杰弗逊港 Susana 的住处。海聊了一会儿后,我们去了 Theatre Three 影院。这是家很小的公益性影院, 经常放映一些不错的影片。
Main stream theatres in the U.S. are dominated by Hollywood commercial movies, which I do not like much. I usually feel that most Hollywood productions are carved out of a uniform model: they are either romances without much reality touch or cartoons featuring ugly monsters created by the modern computer technology. Movies of this model won’t be too bad, but they won’t have any special flavor either. Fortunately, there are some not-for-profit cinemas where movies of different styles are shown. During the many years at Stony Brook, I enjoyed going to these places to see a diversity of movies, including many foreign (i.e. non-U.S) and documentaries.
美国的主流影院大都被好莱坞商业片占领,而我对所谓好莱坞 “大片” (big hits) 已经厌倦了。 它们多数照一个模式制作的,大同小异。无非是些毫无现实基础的浪漫爱情篇,或者电脑特技做出来的怪物片。 这种模式的电影不会很乏味,但也没什么独特之处。幸运的是,美国有象 Theatre Three 这样的非营利性影院,可以使民众看到一些不同风格的电影。在石溪读书的岁月里,到这些小影院欣赏一些外国电影或别具风格的纪录片使我最快乐的事情之一。
In my company were Susana from Spain, Miran from South Korea, and an American friend Dianne. We strolled randomly in the town to search for a theatre. Close to where Susana lived, Theatre Three, a small community theatre, became our choice. In fact, the theatre sometimes shows from a laser projector rather than by using a real movie copy, especially for some films not easily available. This may be one thing that defines it as “non-main stream.”
The movie was directed by Vincente Minnelli. It presents a biographical account of Van Gogh (played by Kirk Douglas), from his early apprenticeship to his days as a priest and ultimately to his career as an artist. Interwoven in the narration are his relationship with his family, especially his brother Theo, and his friendship with another impressionist, the French painter Paul Gauguin (cast by Anthony Quinn). The film runs for 122 minutes, but I did not feel it to be that long. The story intrigued and grabbed the audience throughout the show, and I was completely immersed in it.
Van Gogh lived for art, although he did not like art very much in his early life. He was born in Groot Zunder, Holland, in 1853. His father was a pastor at a local church. After getting out of school at 15, he started apprenticeship at Goupil & Cie., an art dealing firm in Hague. He worked there for 7 years, one time during which he felt paintings and art did not interest him. In 1879, he became a clergyman in Wasmes, where he depicted life of the miners by painting. After his career as a priest, Van Gogh returned to art. His brother, Theo, supported his pursuit for art and his life until his death.
Van Gogh lived in passionate love. He gave full devotion and enthusiasm to each affair although departure was always the end story. Among his beloved are a prostitute Sien, and a girl to whom he gave his left ear cut off by himself. Even on the day in 1890 when he shot himself, his zeal for life and art stood as strong as ever.
梵高对爱情的炽烈毫不逊色于他对艺术的热爱。他爱过多次,每次都全力投入,激情波荡,但每次又都以失败结束。他勇敢地挑战世俗,和妓女 Sien 相爱; 他爱的真挚程度也非同凡响,可以到不惜割耳以赠。即使在开枪自杀的那天,他对生活和艺术依然热情如初。
Getting out of the theatre, we returned to reality, the immediate sign of which was the cool air of the fall at Port Jefferson. The streets were quite deserted, like most places in suburban communities in the U.S., where people withdrew to home quite early in the evening. The cold contrasted sharply with the passion and zeal of Van Gogh in the movie. For some moments, I was confused and wondered what was in fiction and what was in reality. Many of the details in the movie have faded in memory, but I do remember that in a cool fall night at Port Jefferson, I was touched by the passion of a devoted artist.