Vincent Van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing

The award-winning and highly respected film on Vincent van Gogh: Three years in production with exclusive and privileged access to the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

"The film is the most revealing portrayal ever made about Vincent Van Gogh", Axel Rüger, Director of Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Van Gogh’s life has long captured the imagination of storytellers. Delving deep into his fascinating and sometimes deeply troubled world comes this definitive, award-winning documentary directed by David Bickerstaff. Showcasing Van Gogh’s iconic works like never before, and shot in 4K exclusively for the big screen, this Exhibition On Screen favourite makes a much-desired return, screening in cinemas across Australia from 7 February 2019.

Vincent van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing provides an extraordinary biography of Van Gogh’s life made with privileged access to the treasures of Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, featuring interviews with key curators and historians including Vincent Willem van Gogh (great grandson of Theo van Gogh), Dominique Charles Janssens (President of the Institut Van Gogh), Axel Rüger (Director, Van Gogh Museum) and Van Gogh Museum Senior Researchers Teio Meedendorp and Louis van Tilborgh. With complete access to the galleries and the storerooms, this film gives audiences unprecedented views of Van Gogh’s remarkable paintings and drawings. The film also travels through Europe to the very locations Van Gogh worked.

The Van Gogh Museum houses the largest collection of Vincent’s artistic output in the world and features iconic works such as The Potato Eaters, Sunflowers, Irises, The Bedroom and many of his self-portraits. Vincent van Gogh: A New Way of Seeingprovides a high-definition cinematic experience of seeing Vincent’s masterpieces up-close on the big screen as well as offering great biographical insight, as the highly regarded Institut Van Gogh says ‘Discover the real Van Gogh’.

Vincent van Gogh was a prolific letter-writer and with access to an entire collection - to choose the most revealing and moving moments, Exhibition On Screen brings to life these illuminating letters with actor Jamie de Courcey, who gives an extraordinary performance of Van Gogh, tracking Van Gogh’s life from his beginnings in the Netherlands and England to his development as an impassioned artist in France.

Director David Bickerstaff says:

“Van Gogh became an artist at the age of 27 and made art for only 10 years before his death in 1890, but what most people don’t realise is that he only made drawings and watercolours for the first five years - no paintings. He produced over 450 paintings in the last five years of his life which is incredible when you think of how many masterpieces were amongst them. Imagine what he could have gone on to produce if he had not committed suicide? This film shows that Vincent was not some mad, isolated genius but a deep-thinking man who was extremely well-read, observant and dedicated to understanding the essence of making art. Through his letters we understand that he didn’t suffer fools lightly and was hungry to interact with the world, particularly with nature and ordinary people from everyday life.”

Producer Phil Grabsky says:
“Van Gogh’s life is shrouded in myth and misunderstanding. How many times have you heard that Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime? That’s just one of myths. This film seeks the truth about Vincent van Gogh. And what better way to discover the real Van Gogh than through his art? Vincent van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing looks intensely at the life of a man who reminds us, in his own words, that ‘Art is long and life is short’.”

From the press:

“Paintings shown in breath-taking detail.” - Daily Mail

“A revolutionary ‘gallery’ experience.” - Canberra Times

“Discover the real Van Gogh.” - Institut Van Gogh

“Nothing short of spectacular.” - Mail & Guardian