You are now qualified
for evangelical work...
under the auspices of the Belgian
Committee of the Messengers of the Faith.
May the Lord guide you
and sustain you in all your ways.
Congratulations, Dr. Bosman.
A very creditable group of young men.
Now about this
other young man, Dr. Bosman.
Are you sure he's quite hopeless?
Gentlemen, I've trained a great
many students in evangelical work...
but never in my life
have I come across a case quite like this.
He is completely unable
to speak extemporary.
He prepares long and obscure sermons
which he's unable to memorize...
and has to read
like a stumbling and inarticulate child.
Now, gentlemen, can we send
that kind of man out into the field...
to represent our society?
Dr. Peeters, I think that's conclusive.
Dr. Bosman, ask him to come in, please.
Mr. Van Gogh, we have Dr. Bosman's
report on your progress here.
- In view of what he's told us...
- You understand...
if your teacher feels
that you're unqualified...
this committee cannot give you
an appointment.
We regret it more than we can say.
Gentlemen, I think that concludes
Committee business for today.
Mr. Van Gogh, do you feel that the
Committee were unjust in their decision?
- No, sir.
- We did what we had to do...
in view of your records.
- Yes, sir.
- Come here.
Your father is a minister, is he not?
I'm not trying to put myself
on a level with my father.
I only hoped in some way
to follow in his footsteps.
Yet, until a year ago...
you showed no inclination or desire
to follow your father's calling.
Believe me, this is something I have to do.
I want to help the unfortunates.
I want to bring them the word of God.
Even if I'm not qualified,
there must be some way I can serve.
Isn't there any place for me?
Somewhere no one else wants to go?
I'll do anything. Only use me. Use me!
Come here.
- Do you know this part of the country?
- No.
It's a coal-mining region, the Borinage.
There exist no more miserable people
on the face of the earth...
than the miners who live there.
If you really mean what you said
about wanting to help the unfortunates...
here's your chance.
"The heart that seeks God...
"has more storms than any others.
"Life is a struggle here below.
"Yet out of our sufferings...
"God teaches us higher things.
"He wills..."
"He wills that man should live humbly...
"and go through life
not reaching after lofty aims...
"but fitting himself to the lowly
and learning from the Gospels...
"to be meek, simple of heart."
Father, we pray to thee
to keep us from evil and despair.
Feed us with the bread
that does not perish, which is thy word.
O Lord, amen.
Mister!
- I don't know what your name is, but...
- Ducrucq.
Why did you leave?
Did I say something wrong?
I saw you leave.
What did I say that offended you?
Just because it's Sunday...
you don't expect us to listen
to the kind of pious bilge...
- you gave us just now.
- Bilge?
Look, I worked all week on that sermon.
I meant every word of it.
Listen, mister. Every now and then,
somebody comes here from the outside...
and tries to help us.
They mean well. So do you, probably,
but that doesn't help us at all, does it?
I want to bring you the word of God.
- What can I do? Tell me.
- I don't know.
Help me. Help me
to understand you people...
to know you. Take me into your homes
where you live.
We don't live here.
We only come here to sleep.
Down there, 2,000 feet underground,
that's where we live.
Can I go down? Take me.
- Will you take me down?
- Sure, I can arrange it.
Be here in the morning when I go to work.
At 4:00.
I'm trembling inside of me
just as much as you are.
And I've been going down for 33 years.
- How old is that child?
- Eleven.
- How long has she been working here?
- A year.
Her father was killed in the explosion.
Listen, mister. Every now and then,
somebody comes here from the outside...
and tries to help us.
They mean well. So do you, probably,
but that doesn't help us at all, does it?
Ducrucq.
Come down! Somebody...
Why don't you come down
and wait with us?
What are you waiting for?
I've got a blanket in there
for one of the wounded, and some bread.
What about you?
Wait for me.
Van Gogh.
I see you don't remember us.
From the Committee
of the Messengers of the Faith.
I'm glad you've come. Did you bring
food and clothes for the families?
- Families?
- Another accident?
- You didn't know?
- I'm sorry to hear it.
- Were there many lost?
- Six.
- Four men, two children, 28 injured.
- Terrible.
I'll see what we can do.
It's unfortunate our visit
should have come at this time.
But it was Rev. Peeters' wish.
The purpose of our coming here
is an inspection.
Excuse me, gentlemen. I'll be right back.
- Just what is the meaning of this?
- You receive an allowance.
Why have you chosen to live in the most
wretched, filthy shack in this village?
Because we have no right to spread
the word of God to these people...
unless we suffer as they do.
You yourself are unclean.
Your clothes are ragged and dirty.
There are people here
who have no clothes.
Do you mean to tell us
you actually sleep on this dirt and straw...
like a beast of the field? You,
the spiritual leader of the community?
I gave my bed to a sick woman
who needed it more than I.
You are new in this work.
I have no doubt you mean well.
But by your behavior, you've degraded
the dignity of the church...
- whose representative you are.
- Have you no sense of decency?
Don't you understand
that if the clergy is to be respected...
I don't care to be respected!
I'm trying to live like a true Christian.
I'm not going to worry about how I sleep.
Look at the fresh graves of the children
in the cemetery.
Scrub floors and pick coal
with the women.
Get those fine clothes dirty
with the blood and sweat of dying miners.
Then come here
and lecture me about Christianity!
Hypocrites!
But you must have heard of him.
He came here about a year ago
as a preacher. Vincent van Gogh.
Yes, mister.
You'll find him in the little shack.
Vincent.
Who is it?
It's Theo.
- Vincent, what have you done to yourself?
- Theo.
What's happened to you?
I was sick for a while,
but I'm all right now.
Doesn't anyone look after you?
- I'd better go and get you some food.
- Don't go. Stay and talk.
- Where's the nearest place where I can...
- Please don't go, Theo.
It's been such a long time.
What are we going to do about you?
Father wrote and asked me
to come and find you.
- For months he's not heard from you.
- There was nothing to tell.
What right have you to decide that?
Cut yourself off from everybody,
even from me.
You've become a stranger.
You've changed.
I haven't changed, Theo.
Outwardly, perhaps, but inside me,
I still want the same things.
What things?
The things we talked about
in the old days.
To be of use, to work,
to bring something to the world.
Do you think this is the answer?
I don't know.
We've grown apart, Theo.
Look, you found what you wanted in Paris
and I'm glad for you.
I've found nothing anywhere.
I've made one bad start after another.
One mess after another.
I thought I was on my way here
by doing God's work.
That was the worst failure of all.
But no matter how often I fail,
there is something in me.
- That I am good for something.
- But this is not the way to find it.
Hiding away here, wasting your time.
You've become an idler.
An idler? Yes.
But there are two kinds of idlers.
There's the man who's idle
because he wants to be, out of laziness.
How easy that is. I envy him.
There's the other kind...
the man who's idle in spite of himself.
I want nothing but to work.
Only, I can't.
I'm in a cage, a cage of shame
and self-doubt and failure.
Somebody believe me.
I'm caged. I'm alone.
I'm frightened.
Vincent, listen to me.
When we were children,
I used to follow you about.
If I was frightened, I'd run to look for you.
If I got lost, you'd always come to find me.
We're still brothers, we're friends...
we can trust one another.
That's stronger than any cage.
Whatever you do, from now on,
wherever you go...
promise me, make me part of it.
Don't ever cut yourself off from me again.
- What is it?
- My pipe.
Let me take you home...
where you can live and be cared for.
Until you find your way.
Tell me, if you were me...
which would you want
to have your money in?
These are both accredited canvases.
Both were exhibited in last year's salon.
Perhaps you'd prefer to be left alone
for a moment to make your choice.
I shall be in the next room.
Dear Theo...
you were right. It's so good to be home.
To live in peace for a time.
Once again, thanks to you,
life seems precious to me.
Something to be valued and loved.
Once again I'm working.
You know how for years,
whenever I saw anything that moved me...
I felt the need to draw it.
To get it down on paper,
no matter how crudely.
Now, for the first time,
I've begun to wonder...
could this be the way for me?
A man or a woman at work.
Some furrows in a plowed field.
A bit of sand, sea, or sky.
These are subjects so difficult,
and at the same time, so beautiful...
that it's worth spending one's whole life...
trying to capture the poetry
that's hidden in them.
Vincent, have you lost all track of time?
Father's upset,
we're practically through dinner.
You go ahead. I just want to finish this.
Couldn't you try to be on time
just once in a while?
Especially with Cousin Kay here.
She brought little Jan with her.
And, Vincent, try not to argue with Father.
Not today.
I'm sorry I'm late.
Vincent, aren't you going to say hello
to your cousin Kay?
Hello, cousin.
Hello, Kay.
You must pardon Vincent.
He's so interested in his new work,
he forgets where he is sometimes.
- Vincent is an artist these days.
- Draws on paper.
Lovely things: Swamps, woods, people...
He's made a drawing of me.
He makes us all pose for him.
If you don't watch out,
he'll make you pose, too, cousin.
And Jan.
You should see the way
he makes people look.
Vincent, you're looking at me
as though you've never seen me before.
It's been a long time.
Not since before Vos died.
I'm sorry.
I guess I shouldn't have mentioned it.
Even though it's been almost a year.
Vincent.
One doesn't measure such things
in weeks and months, Vincent.
No, of course not. See, I only meant that...
I was gonna write to you, Cousin Kay,
but I'm not very good at those things...
and then so much time went by that I...
Jan's being very quiet.
I hope he's not getting up to any mischief.
Excuse me.
- Vincent, really...
- Couldn't you see how she felt?
You know how it was with her and Vos?
It's not right to grieve that long.
God didn't intend the living
to mourn forever.
I hardly think you're the best judge
of God's intentions.
Do you realize you haven't been to church
once since you got back?
You, the minister's son.
What do you think
they're saying in the village?
I act out of my beliefs, Father.
Not because I want to please the village.
I happen not to believe
in the God or the clergymen.
For me, he's as dead as a doornail.
Children, if you've finished,
leave the table, please.
Go into the other room.
Vincent, before the children?
Do you realize what you said?
Yes, Mother. But I must say what I feel.
I'm not an atheist. I do believe in God.
A God of love, Father, and I believe
there are many ways to serve him.
One man does it from a pulpit,
another through a book or a painting.
Let's not discuss it.
I'm sorry, Father,
but I was just telling you my opinion.
Did you have a good morning
in the fields, Vincent?
Like any other.
Do you feel the drawing's going well?
You work so hard and...
I can't help noticing
you go over and over your drawings...
and often as not, you throw them away.
What Mother means is, we'd hate
to see you keep struggling, Vincent...
only to realize in the end,
it was just another failure.
Maybe he could visit Cousin Mauve
in The Hague. He's a successful artist.
Ask him his opinion of your drawings.
I'm sure he'd be glad to help you.
I'm not ready to show my work to Mauve.
When I am, I'll go to him.
I'm sorry, Vincent.
- How's Jan?
- He's all right. Thank you.
I'm glad you're here, Kay.
Please, Theo, send more paper
and drawing ink.
I'm afraid I quickly used up
what you sent last month.
As I work at my drawings day after day...
what seemed unattainable before...
is now gradually becoming possible.
Slowly, I'm learning
to observe and measure.
I don't stand quite so helpless
before nature any longer.
Come on, Jan, you rascal.
I know there's still something
harsh and stiff in my style.
Although, to tell the truth, I believe
the presence of Kay here this summer...
is beginning to have a softening influence
on my work.
Time for your nap, now.
There we go. Cover you up.
He fell asleep almost as soon
as I put him down. Thank you.
He's getting to be such a boy.
It's been a wonderful summer
for him here.
It's been a wonderful summer.
- How did it go today? Well?
- When you're with me, it always goes well.
I'm glad, Vincent.
You work so hard.
I see your light on often,
halfway through the night.
There's so much to learn,
not only about drawing, but people.
How they feel and think,
the world they live in.
Before you can paint them,
you have to know that, too.
So I read everything
I can get my hands on.
Dickens, Zola, Michelet.
You know what Michelet says?
"Blessed is the man
who's found his worth...
"and one woman to love."
- I need love, Kay.
- Of course you do.
I need it to be myself,
to be able to breathe it.
I want a home. I want children.
Vos felt the same way. He made
Jan and me the center of his existence.
- Nothing else counted for him...
- Stop talking about Vos. He's dead.
And we're alive, Kay. In the present.
The present.
- I love you, Kay.
- No.
Listen to me,
we're both alone in the world.
We need each other.
Look, we'll have a home.
We'll be happy. I promise you.
No.
In God's name, don't be frightened.
I'm only saying I want to marry you.
To be your husband, and a father to Jan.
No. Never!
No. Never.
I tell you, Theo, this thing threatens me.
Love is something so strong, so real...
that it's as impossible to quench it...
as it is for a man to take his own life.
I must see her face again
and speak to her once more.
- I'd like to see Miss Kay.
- I'm afraid she's out, sir.
No, you can't go in there, sir.
The family's at dinner.
He pushed his way in, sir.
I see now what people mean when
they complain about your bad manners.
- Where's Kay?
- She's not here.
She's visiting friends.
- Vincent, please, sit down.
- She was just sitting here.
Can't you understand
a simple word like "no"?
Don't you realize what it meant
when Kay returned your letters unopened?
May I speak to Kay, please?
My dear, will you leave us alone, please?
Must you persist in the face of everything?
Try to be reasonable, Vincent.
Even if Kay returned your love...
how could you possibly hope
to provide a home for her?
You haven't earned money in a long time.
- You don't even have...
- lf a man loves, he lives.
If he lives, he works.
If he works, he has bread.
You think I'm a tramp?
I'll be penniless all my life?
- It's not just a question of money...
- Listen to me!
All I ask is a chance to show Kay my love.
To help her understand
why she must love me.
Surely you've been in love.
You know what agonies a man can suffer...
Agonies? Are you such a weakling...
that you can't stand the little pain
of a disappointment in love?
Do you have to whimper about it?
What do you know about pain?
I've seen agonies
that you've never dreamed of.
Let me talk to Kay for as long as
I can keep my hand in this flame.
Vincent!
Have you gone out of your mind?
- Do you hear me whimpering?
- Listen to me, my boy.
I'd let you talk to Kay
to your heart's content, but for one thing.
She refuses to see you again, ever.
I don't believe it.
She said that your persistence
disgusted her.
There are some things
that can't be controlled by wishes.
Love is one of them.
I'm sorry.
But did she say I disgusted her?
Yes.
- Did she actually say that?
- Yes.
All right, I'm sorry, too.
- I'll be going.
- Where are you staying?
- Would you like to spend the night here?
- No, thank you.
- Lf Kay leaves the house...
- Let me take care of your hand.
- Take care of yourself, Vincent.
- Our love to your family.
- Good night.
- Good night, boy.
Come on. Let's get out of here.
Come on. If you want to sit here,
that's all right.
More wine?
- On credit?
- No.
You all right?
I'm sick. I'm tired. Just leave me alone.
Everything's rotten. Now I understand
why people drown themselves.
- Don't say things like that.
- Why not?
- Suicide's a terrible thing.
- What do you know about it?
What are you, anyway? A working man?
- Yes.
- You don't talk like one.
Thanks for the brandy.
I'm a laundress,
when I have the strength to scrub.
And when I haven't, I look for easier work.
I have a baby to feed.
He's at home with my mother.
- Where's your husband?
- What husband?
I've been at the tubs all day.
They were supposed to pay me tonight
but they put me off till tomorrow.
- Can't your mother help you?
- She's helped plenty.
She's taught me all I know.
Can I have another?
Here. Put this in your pocket instead.
- I'm only sorry it isn't more.
- Who bit your hand?
- I burned it.
- Let me see it.
What were you trying to do?
Fry it for dinner?
- I'll get something for it.
- It'll be all right.
Got any oil or butter
in this cockroach trap?
We sell drinks, not food.
It's a bad burn. Come home with me.
- I'll dress it for you before it gets worse.
- Thank you. It'll heal.
What's the matter with you?
You're afraid to be seen with me?
This is a woman, Theo,
who is far from young, far from pretty...
but she was good to me, and kind.
She's evidently had a great deal of trouble
and a hard life...
and there's nothing at all
distinguished or unusual about her.
We talked about all sorts of things. ;
her life, her troubles, her poverty...
her health, her loneliness.
If you had nothing at all,
it'd make no difference.
Since you came over and talked to me,
I don't feel alone anymore.
I don't know how to say it.
The clergymen would call us sinners.
Is it a sin to love, Theo,
to be in need of love?
Not to be able to live without love?
Cousin Mauve.
Vincent. I'm sorry to put off seeing you...
but we artists have to be selfish,
you know.
We have to save ourselves.
After all, with each painting,
we die a little.
What have you there?
I'm trying to draw.
I was wondering if you'd be willing
to help me.
I wouldn't ask much. Just let me
watch you work now and then.
And sometimes, when you're resting...
if you would look at my things
and tell me my mistakes.
You think that's not asking much?
But these are just copying exercises.
Don't you have anything of your own?
You've been out at the beach
at Scheveningen.
Don't be in such a hurry,
seascapes are difficult.
Yes, indeed.
You know, I expected to find you a dullard.
I was wrong.
They're clumsy, most of them,
but I can see what you're getting at.
And that you've worked.
Yes, that...
Tell me something.
What kind of an artist do you want to be?
I want to create things that touch people.
I want to move them so they say,
"He feels deeply and tenderly."
That's fine.
But before you can move people...
you first have to learn your business.
It needs skill as well as heart.
Tell me something.
- Have you ever worked in color?
- No.
You better start working right away
in watercolors and oil.
It'll help your drawing.
- I don't know anything about color.
- I will teach you.
We'll work together here.
- Cousin Mauve...
- No.
When I'm less tired.
Now, you'll need some watercolors.
Here they are.
Some brushes, some oil...
and... No. This is an incomplete set...
but it'll do for now.
There's a palette, palette knife,
oil, turpentine.
Better have a couple of these.
Now, to improve your drawing,
you'll need to use casts.
Now let me see. Yes.
Take these home with you
and see that you work from them...
not less than
three hours each day, faithfully.
- Have you a place to work?
- I found a flat near the market...
- Has it got good light?
- I usually work out...
- How are you fixed for money?
- Theo's been sending me money.
The first few months
are always the hardest.
I don't suppose
a little extra will be unwelcome?
- Cousin Mauve...
- That will help you set yourself up.
- I can't tell you how...
- Not at all.
Now, come back next week,
let me see what you've done.
Please forgive me for barging in
when you're so tired.
Don't. That's all right.
- Just take these with you.
- Yeah.
- I can't tell you how grateful I am.
- That's all right.
Now take that.
How much longer do you need us?
I can't get supper ready
sitting in this chair, you know.
I'm sorry. You can get up now.
I'm going to the market.
Next time, will you keep
some money for food?
If we could eat drawings,
it might be different.
I saved some money.
You dropped it on the beach.
I didn't give it back to you.
My mother was right, getting myself
hooked up with a crazy painter.
Keep an eye on him.
Dear Brother, I think of you so often,
so very, very often these days.
If only you could be here
and see for yourself how it is with us. ;
that this is a real home, rooted in life...
with a woman and a cradle,
and a child's high chair.
The feeling I have for Christine is real, too.
I'm tired.
I'm going in to feed the baby.
Not yet. Christine, come back!
I'm fed up.
Month after month, it's the same thing.
- What's the matter now?
- I'm fed up with living on bread and coffee.
You take every penny you're given
and throw it away on paints and canvases.
- Don't start that again.
- Look at these.
How much do they cost?
You haven't even used up the old ones yet.
Shut up. Don't interfere with things
you don't know.
I won't. I have to pick up after you,
mend those rags you call clothes...
pose for you for hours,
on top of everything else.
- What do you think I am? Your slave?
- Stop nagging!
Sometimes I wonder if I wasn't better off
the way I was.
Don't you dare. Do you hear me?
If only we could have a piece of meat
once in a while, or an egg.
I'm sick of worrying every night
how we'll get money to eat the next day.
You call that a life?
Couldn't you write to your brother?
I can't ask him again.
He's helping all he can.
What about the man
who wanted to meet you?
- Tersteeg.
- Maybe he could sell some of your stuff.
I went to see him. Offered me
a hand-down like I was a beggar.
Didn't you take it?
He said I had no talent.
Even if I did, I started too late.
That leaves only your cousin Mauve.
Couldn't he help?
Or did you have a fight with him, too?
Did you?
Mauve can go to hell.
He helps me when he's in the mood.
The rest of the time,
he doesn't care whether I'm dead or alive.
"Oh, I'm sorry, my boy.
Go home. I can't see you now.
"Go home and work with those casts."
I'm sick of working
with those idiotic casts!
Don't look down your nose
at those casts of his.
He sells what he paints!
I don't want to hear about those casts
from you or from anybody else!
Cien?
Where've you been?
I asked you where you've been.
- At my mother's.
- For two days?
- You said you wouldn't go back.
- There was something to eat.
You promised
not to get into that life again.
And some jokes for a change.
- Where are you going?
- My father's ill. I have to go back.
- How long will you be gone?
- Depends on what happens.
- Vincent, I...
- Yes?
What is it?
Nothing.
There's some painting muslin
left in the cupboard.
Make some shirts for the boy.
I won't be there when you get back.
- Don't say that.
- I didn't want to tell you.
I've been feeling restless.
Besides, my mother's right, what she said.
You don't earn enough
for me and the baby.
- It's a bad life.
- This is no time for...
You'll forget about us once you get home.
It won't be hard.
- Where will you go? How will you live?
- It'll be the old life, I suppose.
Vincent, it's not your fault.
You've been good.
You're the only person
who's ever been good to me and the baby.
Just as if he was your own.
All aboard.
What is it
that came between Father and me?
Why couldn't I have shown him
a little more consideration?
Given him some pleasure
while he was alive?
It wouldn't have hurt me
to come to his church once in a while.
We always assume there's time...
and that we can give love
on our own terms.
Then one day we wake up and find
it's too late to give it on any terms.
Will you go back to your life in The Hague?
That's over.
It was wrong from the beginning.
Come to Paris, Vincent.
We could live together.
You're not the only one that's lonely.
Not yet, Theo. Some day, but not now.
You could meet other painters.
See what they're doing.
If I'm to be anything as a painter,
I've got to break through the iron wall...
between what I feel
and what I can express.
And my best chance of doing it is here...
where my roots are, the people I know...
the earth I know.
Dear Theo, thank you for the money,
the paints, and canvas.
With your help, I go forward.
I feel the force to work
growing daily within me.
Do your realize, Theo,
that what I'm doing is new?
In the paintings of the old masters...
did you ever see
a single man or woman at work?
Did they ever try to paint a laborer,
or a man digging?
They didn't.
And for good reason. ;
because work is so hard to draw.
Just look at the way he's dressed.
That old sheepskin.
Oh, my. I tell you, I'm sorry for the family.
To paint these people means to
be with them in the fields day after day...
and by their firesides at night.
Since the rains came,
I've become absorbed in the weavers.
They make such good subjects.
The old oak wood
darkened by sweating hands...
and the shadows of the looms
on the gray mud walls.
All these months
I've been trying to find a pattern...
trying not so much to draw hands,
as gestures...
not so much faces,
as the expressions of people.
Men and women
who know the meaning of toil.
I want to make clear that these people...
sitting around a meal of potatoes
in the evening...
have turned the soil
with the very hands they put in the dish.
That they have honestly earned their food.
I want to paint something
that smells of bacon smoke and steam.
Something that's the good, dark color
of our Dutch earth.
Willemien. Come in.
Here, sit down.
What's the matter?
- The neighbors been at you again?
- You know how they are.
Such a small place.
What is it this time?
It has to do with
the way you dress, partly, and...
I dress this way
because I work in the fields.
Because I have nothing else.
And the way you behave, too.
They don't understand it.
It makes trouble for us.
Since Father died, it hasn't been easy.
People have stopped coming to the house.
They avoid us.
It isn't very comfortable and...
Is your young man
one of those who's stopped coming?
Yes, he is.
But that doesn't matter so much.
- Yes, it does.
- It's the rest of the family.
Mother pretends she doesn't notice,
but I know it's upset her.
She'll never tell you, so I felt I must.
I'll get out. Take a few days to finish this,
and then I'll leave.
No, Vincent. I didn't mean that.
Of course you did, Willemien.
It's all right.
I've accomplished
what I stayed here to do...
and maybe it is time to move on.
I'm sick and tired of these cheap jokes.
Art is a serious business.
And in Paris, at least.
An artist with a new idea should be...
For once I agree with you, Durand-Ruel.
Impressionism is not a joke.
It's a cancer and it must be cut out.
Condone anarchism in the arts,
and you seal the doom of France.
What would you do?
Padlock the galleries...
- and ship the painters off to Devil's Island?
- No.
They don't paint.
They load pistols with tubes of paint...
and fire them at the canvas.
And then have the audacity
to sign their names...
Czanne, Signac, Pissarro,
Gauguin, Renoir, Monet.
You know these men.
You handled some of them.
Why didn't you tell me about it?
I wrote you in Antwerp.
Don't you read my letters?
But seeing them, the colors,
and what they've done with light.
- Is that painting?
- The critics and the public don't think so...
nor do my employers at Goupil's.
I can't believe it.
Now, if they're right,
then everything I've done is wrong.
Do they really know what they're doing?
You've got to meet and talk to them,
see what they think.
That's why I wanted you in Paris.
Where can I meet them?
I got so many questions.
- At 2:00 in the morning?
- Why not?
Listen, take that thing off and settle down.
You live here, you know.
We've got to make a Parisian out of you.
You'll have lots of time
to get your answers.
Tomorrow, we'll start with Pissarro.
It's the problem of translating light
into the language of paint.
Those leaves there,
if they were the only thing in sight...
they'd have one color, their own.
But the shade and reflection
of everything around...
the sky, the earth, the water,
give them more than their own color.
That's why, when you paint from nature,
don't fix your eye on any one spot.
Take in everything at once.
And above all, don't be timid.
Trust your first impression.
Everything you've been doing,
what we've all been doing. ; obsolete...
the whole lot of us
guessing with every brush stroke...
pouring rivers of paint
into haphazard combinations...
when actually, everything we're after
can be achieved mathematically.
What are you talking about? Seurat again?
Do you really think
a painting can be done by formula?
Can be? Is being done, right here in Paris...
through precise, scientific methods.
I don't mix my colors on canvas.
I mix them in the eye of the spectator.
Once you accept the phenomenon of
the duration of light in the human retina...
Excuse me. But this is a sunlit exterior.
Now, why do you paint it indoors
by gaslight?
- I mean, how can you judge your colors?
- Why not?
Come on, Seurat,
put him out of his misery.
- I've tried, but he's still in darkness.
- All right, Bernard. Come here.
Everything I do is worked out in advance...
with mathematical accuracy,
through precise scientific methods.
I know exactly
what colors I'm going to use...
before I pick up my brushes.
And my palette is methodically prepared
in the order of the spectrum.
As you see, blue, blue-violet,
violet, violet-red...
red, red-orange, orange-yellow...
Theo.
- Can't it wait till morning?
- No, please, I need your help.
Here.
- What is it this time?
- Look at this.
Yes, it's coming along.
It's got a very good sense of light.
- What's the matter? You look terrible.
- Will you be able to sell it?
I'll try.
It's hard to sell any of the new painters,
even the ones with some sort of name.
You know how Goupil's begrudges me...
the little space I can get for them
in the back room.
Then why don't you leave Goupil's?
Set up for yourself.
- Why waste time with idiots like that?
- Vincent, don't tell me how to run my life!
It's taken me a long time
to get where I am.
It may not be ideal, but, to me,
what I'm doing seems worthwhile.
And you don't make it any easier.
I haven't had any sleep for six months.
When people come to the house,
you insult them.
Don't I have a right to express my opinion?
This is my home.
You have no right to insult my guests!
Maybe I shouldn't have come to Paris
in the first place.
Vincent, all we've got
is what we can give each other.
You know how much joy it would give me
to sell your paintings.
I show them whenever I get a chance.
But perhaps you should take some
to some other dealer.
The more your work's seen, the better.
Go to Pre Tanguy.
I'll talk to him about you.
- Why should...
- See what he can do for you.
And show him some of your old work,
not just the new stuff.
Is that your way of saying
the new work's no good?
Vincent, I'm not going to argue with you
when you're in this mood.
- What mood? All I'm trying...
- Good night.
- Theo!
- Good night!
Vincent, it's all good, all of it.
The important thing is
that one day it could be sublime.
Between then and now,
there's one thing you could do for me.
A little thing, that's all I ask.
Let me get a night's sleep.
It's still the same. Nothing's changed
since I left here a year ago.
That's right.
You owed us 112 francs then
and you still do!
- Tanguy, remove your wife.
- Get in the back.
This man is absolutely correct, Tanguy.
You cannot handle painters
and woodpeckers, too.
The fact is, my dear friends,
that you are not painters.
You are tattoo artists.
You are chemists with little pots of paint.
You cover canvases with colored fleas.
You are so busy
imitating each other's tricks...
you've forgotten what painting is about.
You all make me sick.
What doesn't make you sick, Paul,
besides your own work?
Would you really like to know? That.
Look at that. The clarity, the calm.
The Japanese paint
as simply as we breathe.
- Maybe they pay for their paints.
- Who is he?
Paul Gauguin.
You have to go halfway around the world
to find something you like?
I don't have to leave this shop.
Look at that. And that.
- And that, and that.
- Czanne.
- Yes. Czanne.
- Yes. Czanne.
King of the unsaleables.
I suppose you call this painting...
Give me that painting!
Yes. It's direct, it's vigorous.
- What's your name?
- Vincent van Gogh.
He has a statement to make
and he makes it. Theo's brother?
Glad to know you. It's honest.
It owes nothing to anybody. Nothing.
Because it has nothing.
No tone, no values...
- No color relations.
- Sense of space.
The little men are at it again.
My friend, will you join me in a drink?
- What about the 112 francs?
- Lady, go back to your kitchen.
Get back.
You see, down there the sun invades you,
gets into your blood.
Not that Martinique was a paradise.
Between hunger and fever,
I was lucky to get out alive.
But if I could, I'd go back there tomorrow.
- How long you been in Paris?
- Over a year.
How can you stand it?
I can't work here. It strangles me.
- Where would you go?
- Brittany.
There's a place up there I can stay.
It's just a hole, but it's all I can afford.
Wouldn't you miss your friends in Paris?
Friends? A woman or two, maybe.
When you start as late as I did,
you find yourself measuring...
who and what you give your time to.
Friends, comforts, family.
If they interfere with your peace to work,
you cut them off...
and you spend the rest of your life
wondering if it was worthwhile.
If they're mad enough
to buy Impressionist paintings...
it only proves that they're savages.
I haven't seen the place looking so neat
since Vincent came to stay here.
What got into him, cleaning it up like this?
I do hope he's out.
Never would get any business done
if he's in.
What is it?
It's from Vincent.
"I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused you,
and endlessly...
"grateful for all your kindness.
"I've hung a few paintings
to remind you of me."
- He's gone?
- He's on his way south to Arles, Provence.
"I've thought it over
these past few weeks...
"and decided the time has come
to make a change.
"I want to see nature under a clearer sky.
"Have to work by myself for a while."
No offense meant, but you'll be better off
without him around your neck.
I think I'm the best judge of that.
No, the worst.
You've been pushing his paintings.
And every time you do that,
we lose a customer.
As your employer,
I tell you for your own good...
your love for Vincent has blinded
your judgment. It's affected your work.
Please don't let's wrangle again
about that.
I'll fight for every good painter
who deserves to be recognized...
and Vincent is one of them.
He could be the best of them.
What? Well, you're his brother.
- You're emotional about him.
- That has nothing to do with it.
What is it when you brood about him?
When you agonize over his every failure?
When you support him
to the point of denying yourself?
You've saved every letter he wrote
as though it were Holy Scripture.
Come now, Theo. Don't you really think
you've done enough for him?
How much is enough...
for a man who's struggling with himself
the way Vincent is?
I know he's crude, quarrelsome,
and excitable...
but inside that tormented head of his
there's something wonderful.
In those letters, there's a gifted man,
a tender man...
and there's far more passionate beauty
and strength in his work...
than there is in half the stuff
you see in the museums today.
Wonder if there'll ever come
a happy time for him.
It seems impossible for him
to have a quiet life.
The change may do him good.
Maybe he'll find himself.
Or will he only find more loneliness?
This is it.
At that, it's worth
more than you're willing to pay.
- Anything else?
- No, thanks.
That'll be 8 francs for the week.
Get these pictures out of here!
- I told you a week ago.
- Don't touch that, you fool!
Can't you see it's still wet?
You're getting paint over everything.
That's why I raised your rent.
You had no right to do it
without telling me.
Whoever heard of a storage fee
for using a landing?
- Then get your stuff out of here!
- I will not!
Then pay me!
- Allow me.
- No, don't.
With your permission.
- Looks like you're moving.
- I'm getting out of that hellhole.
Here. I think you need some help.
That swine of a landlord.
Here you are.
I wondered how long you'd stand him.
Where do you think you're going
with all this stuff?
I don't know.
You're gonna have to find some place
before night.
I'd ask you to stay with me,
but it's a bit crowded with a wife...
- and four kids and one on the way...
- Thanks, anyway.
How'd you like a house?
- Too expensive.
- Perhaps not.
Come along, let me do the talking.
If there's one thing I hate, it's landlords.
Come along.
You wouldn't want a dump like that.
It should've been pulled down years ago.
Hey, wait a minute!
What are you trying to do to me...
talking like that about my property?
Is that what you're looking for, a house?
This is a fine house.
Look, my sister lived in it for 17 years
and then she died. God bless her.
That's what I mean.
Would you want me to show it to you?
How long would you want it for?
He won't want it at all,
not when he's seen it.
Now, look here, mind your own business
or I'll report you.
I'll let you have it at a good price, too.
How about 15 francs a month?
You stay out of this.
On top of that, I'll let you have
the use of an extra room.
A house, Theo. I found a house.
A place of my own
where I can work without a trouble.
And where there's plenty of room.
Roulin lent me a mattress to get started,
and I bought some chairs and a bed...
and a few other things
that were necessary.
With this and with what I spent
on paints and canvas...
my money for the month is almost gone.
But it was worth it.
Theo, you'd like this house.
It's yellow on the outside
and filled with sunshine.
Later, two could live in it.
One day, perhaps, Gauguin will come...
and then, who knows,
this might turn into a colony of painters.
I'm up at dawn and out on the road.
Now that summer's begun,
it's all very different here...
from what it was in the spring.
But I love it even more.
Everywhere is old gold, bronze,
and copper.
I wish you could see
these lovely days here, Theo.
But if not, you shall see pictures of them...
for these colors
give me an extraordinary exultation.
The whole earth is glowing
under the southern sun.
Lemon yellow, sulfur yellow,
greenish yellow...
all under a sky blanched with heat.
What a country it is.
It absorbs me so much
that I let myself go...
never thinking of a single rule.
I have no doubts, no limitations.
I'm working like a steam engine,
devouring paints, burning up canvases.
Whole days go by
without my speaking to anyone.
And every day my concentration
becomes more intense...
my hand more sure.
I have a power of color in me
that I never had before.
A sense of breadth and strength.
The summer has vanished
in a fever of work.
And now the mistral is blowing.
Always the wind, restless and unceasing.
Sweeping among the dead leaves
in a rage...
so that I'm forced to remain indoors.
Now and then,
when the storm inside me gets too loud...
I take a glass too much to distract me.
I must watch out for my nerves.
I'm getting haggard, I know.
If I go on this way...
some day or other there may be a crisis.
Yet I can't stop.
Sometimes I work on into the night.
And I'm hardly conscious
of myself anymore...
and the pictures come to me
as in a dream, with a terrible lucidity.
- What time did he get here?
- About 4:00 this morning.
As usual, two coffees, three absinthes.
- Did he eat anything?
- What do you think?
- Good morning.
- Good morning, Roulin.
I brought something for you.
From your brother.
What I want to know is,
when do I get paid?
I don't mind carrying him for a day or two,
but this time it's over two weeks.
I must be as crazy as he is.
What do you think this is, a reading room?
- How much does he owe?
- 13 francs.
Here's 10 francs. Shut up.
Now. Here, let me give you a hand.
Come along.
Where were you painting last night?
We were looking for you everywhere,
all over the place. Couldn't find you.
- Theo's leaving.
- What?
No, it's good news. He's getting married.
That's wonderful.
Let's go right back and celebrate.
Do you know the girl?
She's a Dutch girl.
He's going to Holland this weekend
to meet her family.
Mother will be happy.
She's always wanted
one of us to get married.
When you write your brother,
wish him well from me and my family.
Yes, I will.
Thank you.
"But this doesn't mean
that I don't wish you both happiness...
"with all my heart.
"With your wife,
you won't be Lonely anymore.
"Your house won't be empty."
He must be so alone down there.
You two have always been so close.
Is there anything we can do, Theo,
to help him?
I wish I knew.
If only I could sell something of his.
Just one, that'd be a help.
Heaven knows I've tried.
He asks about Gauguin again, too.
He wants me to persuade him
to go down there.
- Gauguin?
- It might work.
When they were here last winter,
they seemed to get on.
Vincent was one of the few people
Paul didn't attack.
Perhaps if they were together...
If Vincent could have someone with him,
to whom he could pour out his heart.
Another painter.
- Do you think Gauguin would do it?
- He might.
I'd have to send him some money.
Enough to pay his debts in Brittany...
and get him down to Arles.
It could be the solution for both of them.
- Vincent!
- Paul?
- You're here. You're really here.
- Yes, I'm here.
You're a day early.
Theo told me you wouldn't come till...
Here, let me take these things.
Come on up, Paul.
Did you have trouble finding the place?
Your painting things are here,
and canvases.
They arrived the day before yesterday.
I fixed this room up for you.
- It's very nice.
- Thanks.
I painted them for you.
That's very friendly of you, Vincent.
That's very friendly.
Have you had anything to eat?
Come on downstairs.
I've got something on the stove.
I can't wait to see the things
you did in Brittany.
- I think you'll be interested.
- The way you wrote about them.
I may have hit something there
I never quite got before.
Sounds wonderful.
It was all I could do
to keep from opening them up...
and looking at them.
- Be ready in just a minute.
- Take your time.
I see you've been working.
That's not difficult
in this part of the world.
- I can't tell you, Paul.
- Yeah.
You'll see for yourself.
In the morning, you open the window,
see, there's the green of the gardens.
Wait till you see the yellow fields at noon
under the full sun.
And the light, you wouldn't believe it...
but all the time,
these yellows are really here.
Everywhere you look,
there's something to paint.
What an artist like you would do out here.
We'll go out this afternoon.
Wait a minute. I'm not one of
those painters that gets off the train...
and turns out a sunlight effect
before he's even unpacked his bags.
Paul, show me the Brittany paintings.
There's plenty of time for that.
- Come on, let's eat.
- All right.
A little heavy on the turpentine, isn't it?
What did you do,
boil some old paint tubes?
Smells like it.
Vincent, from now on
you better let me do the cooking.
All right.
Even my worst enemies
won't deny me that talent.
Do you really have to live like this?
- What do you mean?
- Look at it. How can you stand it?
Look at the paint in those brushes.
How can you work this way? It's a mess.
If we're going to live together,
might as well start right.
- Let's get this place in order.
- Show me the paintings.
That can wait.
If there's one thing I can't stand,
it's confusion, mental or physical.
There. Now, this'll have to last us
till the first.
After that, everything Theo sends us
every month:
Your allowance,
his advance on my paintings...
goes into this box.
Anything we spend, we write down.
So much for food, so much for drink,
for tobacco and other relaxation.
That way there'll be no more starving
at the end of each month. Understood?
Understood.
I still can't believe you're here.
Before you came here,
I was a little frightened.
I'd been alone so long that...
I hope you, too, will find
what you want here, Paul.
A chance to create in peace.
This could be just the beginning.
We could get other painters here.
Make a colony of it. A studio of the south,
with you at its head.
- A Father Superior?
- As its guiding force.
I thought maybe we'd ask Bernard
and Lautrec, only he'd never leave Paris.
- And Signac.
- Haven't you heard?
I've dismissed Mr. Signac
from the legion of my devoted admirers.
He bores me.
What about Guillaumin and Seurat?
- You know what I think of Seurat.
- He's so ill.
- This place would do him good.
- It wouldn't do me good.
I don't want that kind of painting
around me.
Vincent, I've just spent a year
beating my brains out.
I've sacrificed everything:
Execution, effect...
all the things that come easiest to me,
for a style.
A style that'll convey the mood
of what I see...
the idea, without regard
for concrete reality.
What do you paint, then?
What's in my head.
Art's an abstraction, not a picture book.
A painting is a flat surface
covered with lines and colors...
arranged in certain order.
Yeah, but what about the arrangements
that exist in nature?
I choose to disregard nature.
What I'm after are harmonies...
harmonies of pure color, deliberately
composed and carefully calculated...
that move you as music moves you.
But then you deny
the greatest artists of all:
Rembrandt, Rubens, Delacroix, Millet...
Millet?
Millet! That calendar artist
with his dun-colored tones...
- and sentimental insipidities.
- How dare you say that?
Millet's one of the few artists
that ever really captured the human spirit.
Here. In the dignity of toil.
Millet uses paint
to express the word of God.
Then he should have been a preacher,
not a painter.
If there's one thing I despise,
it's emotionalism in painting.
- Vincent, painting is for painters.
- Like your friend Degas, I suppose...
who's done nothing but ballet dancers
and racehorses for 10 years.
You can learn from him.
You can learn control!
I don't want control!
I'm not afraid of emotion.
When I paint the sun,
I want the people to feel it revolving...
giving off light and heat.
When I paint a peasant...
I want to feel the sun pouring into him
like it does into the corn...
Is that what you do
when you overload your brush?
When you slap paint on like putty?
When you make your trees
writhe like snakes...
and your sun explode all over the canvas?
What I see when I look at your work
is that you paint too fast!
You look too fast!
Whatever you say, brigadier.
Maybe you're right.
Maybe we need another drink.
I'm sorry, Paul.
Look, Paul, when I painted The Night Caf,
I tried to show evil.
The most violent passions of humanity.
I painted it blood red and dark yellow.
And a green billiard table in the middle.
Four lemon-yellow lamps...
with a glare of orange and green...
in an atmosphere of pale sulfur,
like a furnace.
I tried to show a place
where a man can ruin himself...
go mad...
commit a crime.
What's all of this talk
about Arlesian women?
- I haven't seen a good one yet.
- They must have heard you were coming...
- and they locked them up.
- Yeah.
Wait till you see.
There's something about them...
the way they carry themselves...
even the old ones,
a certain classic grace and dignity.
Dignity? I'm talking about women, man.
Women.
I like them fat, vicious, and not too smart.
Nothing spiritual, either.
To have to say "I love you"
would break my teeth.
I don't want to be loved.
You really mean that, Paul.
Let's get out of here.
Show me the rest of the town.
Wait a minute. Here.
You pig! Kill him! Tear him apart!
You pig!
You didn't tell me the ballet was in town.
Wait a minute. You're tired.
There. That's more like it.
Now the town's coming to life.
Come on. Stop it.
Stop that. Get her out of here.
And you, I don't want any more trouble
in this place. See?
Come on, now get out.
I told the Captain
I wouldn't return until tomorrow.
- Pierre.
- Hello, Vincent, my friend.
- Hello, redhead. Where have you been?
- Hello, Rachel.
- I thought you must have gone away.
- I've been working.
What's the matter?
Don't you like me anymore?
Hi. Buy me a drink?
My friend's come to town.
I've been getting the place ready for him.
- That tough?
- No, he's a painter, like me.
Thanks, sir.
- He's not like you, redhead.
- Hey, Vincent.
Look, a masterpiece,
direct from the salons. See?
Symbolism. Better send it to Theo
before the Louvre grabs it.
Paul, this is Rachel.
Vincent, why do I do it?
Here I pride myself
on my sense of logic and order...
and inside I'm a savage.
I have this attraction to violence.
Violence makes me sick.
I have too much inside me. I'm afraid of it.
That's why I let it out before it hurts me.
Last winter in Martinique...
I got into a fight with some sailors.
I was in the hospital for a month.
But it was worth it.
Even that piddling brawl out there...
made me feel better than I have in weeks.
And I know why.
Because suddenly
there's something in front of you...
something you can hit at.
He stands there, you smash his teeth in,
or he does it to you.
Either way, it's all right.
There's a decision.
- Two absinthes.
- Right away.
Three absinthes.
- Is everything all right?
- Yes, brigadier.
Dear Theo, I'm so happy
to have Gauguin here.
Not to be alone anymore.
It's of tremendous value to me
to see him work.
He's a very great artist, and a good friend.
Paul.
It doesn't seem to work. Doesn't work.
Paul, could you come over
and take a look?
Vincent, I'm trying to catch this light.
I remember what you said.
I soften my colors, I try to control them.
- Then I lose everything.
- Go back and try again.
That's what I mean.
You see how pale and thin that sky is?
You use the same brush strokes all over.
- It's got no texture, no energy. It's all flat.
- That's the way I see it!
Flat!
We argue, of course,
mainly about painting.
And our arguments are so electric...
that I come out of them often
with my brain tired...
like a run-down battery.
- What are you nervous about?
- We should be out there working.
- Look at that sunlight, Gauguin.
- Yeah.
- Listen to that wind.
- Wind doesn't show in a painting.
- What about it?
- I'm doing fine right here...
or I would be if you'd only like some place.
I'm tired of being cooped up here.
It wouldn't hurt you to work inside
for once.
- Use your imagination, invent.
- Why should I invent here...
when nature does it so much better
out there?
Go out there then, who's stopping you?
This is ridiculous. I can't work like this!
Tie down your easel.
No wonder they call you crazy
around here.
Come on, Vincent, let's get out of here.
Give it up! You can't paint in this gale.
- I've done it plenty of times.
- Yes, and I've seen the results.
I'm going back. I'm sick of all this.
The sun burns the eyes out of your head.
The stinking mistral blows you to pieces.
I'm sick of this whole miserable
countryside. And that house, too.
I don't know what I'm doing here
or why I ever came.
If that's the way you feel,
then why don't you leave?
Do you want to know why?
Because I haven't got the money.
Paul!
- Our money from Theo.
- Yeah.
- Can I pour you a drink, Paul?
- No, thanks.
Paul, all the way home, I kept thinking...
I wonder, Paul, if only we'd tried a little.
If we'd made some effort
to remain friends...
if it wouldn't have been better
for both of us.
I see you finished it.
Yes, because, Paul, when you look back...
so much of life is wasted in Loneliness.
There's not one of us
that doesn't need friends...
companionship, attachments.
I can do without attachments.
I've learned to avoid them.
How can you say that, Paul?
I mean, even you have your family.
Do you ever think of them?
Your children, you see them so seldom.
Mind your own business.
Paul, all I mean is that...
you, too, must have times
when you have a terrible...
Why don't you shut up?
If you have to slobber, don't do it over me.
You'll have no trouble finding subjects.
You mourn over a pair of old shoes.
You cry when you read Uncle Tom 's Cabin.
You bleed with Millet
over the nobility of toil.
For weeks I've been listening to that slop,
and I'm tired of it!
What do you know about toil?
When have you done
a stroke of manual labor in your life?
I have. I've dug ditches
in the stinking heat of the Tropics.
I've worked on the docks
in weather so cold...
my hands froze to the ropes.
And I can tell you there's nothing noble
or beautiful about it.
I did it so I could go on painting!
I didn't have a brother to support me!
Don't ever do that again.
Paul, where are you going?
I'm getting out
before one of us gets killed.
- Don't go.
- I'll be back for my things.
Please don't go. If you only knew
how Lonely I was before you came.
I know all about Loneliness.
Only, I don't whine about it.
- What's your name?
- Gauguin.
Your friend is in there...
dying.
- Why haven't you sent for the doctor?
- There's one on the way.
- What happened?
- His ear's been slashed off.
- What went on last night?
- I don't know. I wasn't here.
You live here.
Why did you leave?
- Did you two have a fight?
- Look, l...
Inspector, the doctor's here.
- Inspector.
- Right this way, Doctor.
- When did you find him?
- About an hour ago.
- Has he been conscious at all?
- Not at all.
It's a wonder he didn't bleed to death.
- Self-inflicted, Doctor?
- Looks that way.
What do you think, Doc?
Don't worry. You won't have
a corpse on your hands.
The thing is to get it cauterized
and cleaned.
- Gendarme, water and towels, please.
- Right away, sir.
You might as well know
that man's unbalanced.
Don't take my word for it.
Ask anyone around.
Last night, he got worse.
Just my being here
seemed to drive him out of his mind.
If I'm here when he comes to,
and he sees me, after all that's happened...
it could be fatal to him.
Will you need me for anything more?
No, I guess not.
I'll notify his brother.
What do you want here?
Nothing better to do than hang around
cluttering up the square?
Why don't you go home
and leave the man alone?
He's sick and he needs rest!
This is no sideshow!
You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!
Go on home! Go on!
Leave me alone!
- Come on, redhead!
- Leave me alone!
What happened to the other ear?
Vincent, I've just been with Dr. Rey.
You're doing very well.
Quite soon, now, you'll be able to travel.
- Johanna and I want you to...
- Theo.
I want to have myself committed.
I want to go to an asylum.
I have to, Theo.
One more of these attacks
could leave me helpless...
like a crab on its back.
Unable even to do away with myself.
You could come and live with us
in Paris and have a reasonable life.
I'll see that none of this
ever happens again.
How, Theo?
Will you and Johanna
take turns watching me...
to make sure
the symptoms aren't coming back?
When your baby's born...
I'm a danger to others,
I'm a danger to myself.
Believe me, I'll be better off in an asylum.
Vincent, don't. You mustn't think like that.
Find a place for me to go. Please.
Don't be sad. It won't be for long.
Just long enough for me
to find a little order in my life.
A little peace.
Yes, your brother has stated the case
most clearly...
including the fact that you have
voluntarily committed yourself here.
Now, you know, mental disease
is no different from any other ailment...
you might have contracted.
And these hallucinations you speak of,
once you recognize them...
as the normal accompaniment
of disturbances of this sort...
whether congenital or acquired...
once you accept your state for what it is,
half the terror has gone out of it.
- You do see that, don't you?
- Of course.
Beyond that, peace and rest.
Regular routine in agreeable surroundings.
You know, in this entire institution
at the moment...
we've no more than11 male patients.
The food is plain but healthy.
And above all, it is quiet. Yes.
Yes, it is quiet.
Now, here is our superintendent.
And this is Mr. Vincent van Gogh
from Holland.
Now, why don't you
take Mr. Van Gogh to his room...
and let him know
some of our rules and habits.
No, we'll store those away for you
for a little while...
until you see what you need. Yes.
Meanwhile, any time you need me...
...mutilated his left ear.
In view of the above...
and in the light of my examination
of the patient...
it is my professional opinion...
that it will be necessary
for Mr. Van Gogh...
to undergo extended observation
and treatment...
in this institution.
Signed, Dr. Peyron,
dated Saint-Rmy, May 9, 1889.
Van Gogh, Vincent, June 14.
The patient's condition
appears satisfactory...
with continued improvement.
Continues to suffer, however,
from a condition of chronic inertia...
accompanied by symptoms
of extreme terror.
Would you like me to open the window?
The view is lovely from here.
General condition of patient: Fair.
Non-violent.
He has requested
that his painting equipment...
and other personal effects...
be placed in his room.
Request granted.
It's beautiful.
But the mower? Is he imaginary?
There's no one in that field.
That's just any man struggling in the heat
to finish his work.
It's the figure of death.
- It doesn't seem a sad death.
- It's not, Sister.
It happens in the bright daylight...
with the sun flooding everything
in a light of pure gold.
It would appear
that painting is beneficial...
perhaps even necessary...
for this patient's well-being.
Provided, of course...
that he is not permitted to indulge...
in those excesses of work and emotion...
that induced his former crisis.
This latest seizure was the most severe...
and prolonged...
that your brother has suffered to date.
As a result of constant attention...
and observation...
he is today approaching physical recovery.
He now expresses the desire
to leave this institution...
with the intention of taking up residence
in the north.
And since you support him...
in this request...
he will be discharged...
as soon as he is considered fit to travel.
- Vincent.
- Hello, Johanna.
- It's good to see you.
- It's about time.
You're just as pretty as I thought you'd be.
Don't you think he looks well, Theo?
- He looks better than I do.
- Where's that baby?
- When do I get to see him?
- He's asleep...
but since he's your namesake,
you can go in.
You try and keep me out.
I brought him a little present.
I hope he likes it.
- There's your nephew.
- He's a real van Gogh.
When Willemien was here, she said
he looked more like Father than anyone.
No, there's some of Johanna in him.
Look at those hands...
- and see how well-behaved he is.
- Just wait till he gets hungry.
Vincent! Are you all right?
Come sit down.
You'll be all right.
I'm fine. I was dizzy for a moment.
- You're tired.
- I'll get you some coffee.
Thanks, Johanna.
I'm all right, really. It was a long trip.
I left the best news until you got here.
- Your painting of The Red Vineyard.
- What about it?
It sold for 400 francs.
Who bought it?
A painter. Anna Bock.
She lives in Brussels.
That's fine. I'm glad...
Theo, I had no idea
I'd sent you so much stuff.
It certainly adds up.
I've hardly given you room
to move around.
We still have some space
to squeeze a few people in here.
As a matter of fact, I was thinking of
asking some of your friends over tonight.
- Where's Paul?
- He's in Brittany.
But Lautrec, Pissarro, Bernard,
they want to see you.
We ought to celebrate your first sale.
Or would you rather leave it till later?
No, make it tonight.
I think the sooner I get settled in Auvers,
the better.
It isn't as if I were going a long ways off.
Why, you can all come out and see me
on Sunday.
Is everything set there with Dr. Gachet?
- Is he expecting me?
- Pissarro made all the arrangements.
They were here together last week.
- Did they see my new things?
- Gachet got so excited.
He wouldn't leave
until I'd lent him a couple.
- Did you explain to him about me?
- Yes, Vincent, I did.
He seems very confident.
Thanks, Johanna. Good Dutch cookies.
I don't understand you, Theo. With such
fine Dutch cooking in the house...
you know it's about time you
put some flesh on those bones of yours.
I'm really very hopeful, Vincent.
Dr. Gachet's got a very good name...
and he says that...
Dr. Gachet, you see,
that's what I have to know.
Will there be a warning?
Will I have time to...
About those seizures of yours,
do you want my opinion?
Forget them, completely.
Tell yourself you're finished with them...
and work boldly and joyously.
Vincent, you don't know
how lucky you are.
To have done one painting
like that cypress in there...
or those sunflowers
that your brother showed me...
I'd give 10 years of my life.
- Don't you like your wine?
- I don't drink much these days.
Yes, for a painter,
work is the only medicine there is.
And this is the place for it.
Come in.
Czanne's. Do you recognize it?
He painted it right in this room...
and that is this house.
He painted that from across the street.
Yes, as a matter of fact,
there's hardly a canvas here...
that wasn't done right in this house
or within 100 yards of it.
Have you seen this Daumier?
It's a wonder.
Strong, isn't it?
Yes, he came here many times, Daumier.
He was a strange one.
So, you see, when I tell you...
that I understand
the artistic temperament...
When Manet was dying,
they called me in for consultation.
They wanted to amputate.
I said no. No, not for a man like that.
But they wouldn't listen.
- Lunch is served, Doctor.
- Good, Therese.
You can put it on the table now.
We'll be right out.
Yes, sir.
- Guillaumin.
- It's a beauty, isn't it?
If you like, I'll take you out
and show you where he painted it.
I wanted him to join us at Arles.
- Look, it's warped.
- Is it?
You better have it framed.
I was meaning to take it in. I will.
I'll do it tomorrow.
Dear Theo, I've seen Dr. Gachet.
He's a pleasant man.
He has some good paintings in his house.
He wants me to do his portrait.
But as for his helping me...
I'm afraid we mustn't hope for too much.
When the blind lead the blind...
don't they both fall in the ditch?
Mr. Vincent, at what time would you like
to have your breakfast in the morning?
Don't worry about that.
I'll be out early, before you get up.
Just leave some bread
and some cold coffee. That'll be fine.
Gachet is right about one thing.
This place is beautiful.
It tempts me to paint
and the work goes well.
You'd think being a doctor,
seeing so much of pain and suffering...
that I've got problems enough
for one man.
But, no.
I go around founding societies
and joining groups...
and then this passion of mine for art.
Besides portraits,
I've been doing some landscapes.
I have a feeling of being
surer of my brush than ever before.
So I work in haste from day to day...
as a miner does
who knows he's facing disaster.
Vive Monsieur le maire!
It's impossible.
I can make a joke
of this whole sorry business...
if it wasn't for the trouble I've caused you.
If you'd at least have gotten back
the cost of paint and the canvas.
Doesn't matter.
- Is the baby really better?
- Yes.
We were worried about nothing.
He was just teething.
That was all of his trouble.
I only hope he has a quieter soul
than mine...
'cause mine's sinking.
Sinking.
Theo?
I'd like to go home.
My own brother.
My poor, poor brother.
- It doesn't seem a sad death.
- It's not, Sister.
It happens in the bright daylight...
with the sun flooding everything
in a light of pure gold.
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