Lust for Life (1956) - IMDb
IMDb
There was an error trying to load your rating for this title.
Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later.
X Beta I'm Watching This!
Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.
Error
The life of brilliant but tortured artist Vincent van Gogh.
Directors:
Norman Corwin (screen play), Irving Stone (based on the novel by)
Stars:
From $2.00 (SD) on Amazon Video
ON DISC
‘T2: Trainspotting’ Soundtrack Includes Iggy Pop, Wolf Alice, Underworld, And More
10 January 2017 6:37 AM, -08:00 | The Playlist
a list of 30 titles
created 04 Sep 2011
a list of 37 titles
created 16 Oct 2012
a list of 45 titles
created 28 Feb 2013
a list of 25 titles
created 01 May 2013
a list of 33 titles
created 14 May 2013
Title: Lust for Life (1956)
7.4/10
Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.
You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin.
Won         1         Oscar. Another       3 wins & 6 nominations. See more awards  »
Photos
An unscrupulous movie producer uses an actress, a director and a writer to achieve success.
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Boxer Midge Kelly rises to fame...mainly by stepping on other people.
Director: Mark Robson
A slave and a Viking prince fight for the love of a captive princess.
Director: Richard Fleischer
A fiercely independent cowboy arranges to have himself locked up in jail in order to then escape with an old friend who has been sentenced to the penitentiary.
Director: David Miller
A movie adaptation of Homer's second epic, that talks about Ulysses' efforts to return to his home after the end of ten years of war.
Director: Mario Camerini
On one day in the 21st Precinct squad room, assorted characters form a backdrop for the troubles of hard-nosed Detective Jim McLeod.
Director: William Wyler
A frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to re-jump start his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control circus.
Director: Billy Wilder
The slave Spartacus leads a violent revolt against the decadent Roman Republic.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Edit
Storyline
Vincent Van Gogh is the archetypical tortured artistic genius. His obsession with painting, combined with mental illness, propels him through an unhappy life full of failures and unrewarding relationships. He fails at being a preacher to coal miners. He fails in his relationships with women. He earns some respect among his fellow painters, especially Paul Gauguin, but he does not get along with them. He only manages to sell one painting in his lifetime. The one constant good in his life is his brother Theo, who is unwavering in his moral and financial support. Written by John Oswalt <jao@jao.com>
Magnificent in CinemaScope and Color See more  »
Genres:
15 September 1956 (USA) See more  »
Also Known As:
La vie passionnée de Vincent van Gogh See more  »
Filming Locations:
122 min
Sound Mix:
Mono (Perspecta Sound® encoding) (35 mm optical prints) (Westrex Recording System)| 4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) (Westrex Recording System)
Color:
Average Shot Length (ASL) = 15 seconds See more »
Goofs
Camera shadow falls across Ducrucq as Van Gogh finds him dead. See more »
Quotes
Vincent Van Gogh : If I'm to be anything as a painter I've got to break through that iron wall between what I feel and what I express. my best chance of doing it is here, where my roots are... the people I know, the earth I know.
(Denmark) – See all my reviews
When I hear the name Vincente Minnelli certain scenes pop up on my inner screeningroom: A tracking shot at the fair (Some came running), the low tracking zoom towards Douglas and Turner at the pool (Bad and the Beautiful), snowmen (Meet me in St Louis) and the agony in Douglas's face in "Lust for life"; in fact as soon as his redbearded agonized face pops up, all the other movies fade away and "Lust for life" takes over my inner screening room.
But apart from being my favorite Minnelli movie, its a movie that more than any other shows his genius in use of colors; every scene is composed in breathtaking technicolor with the deepest respect for Van Gogh's own use of color, and Douglas's acting is filled with the same agony and passion as the strokes of Van Gogh's brush. As the other great movies who uses color to its fullest (Wizard of Oz, Black Narcissus, Ten Commandments), the simularities between the director and the painter is obvious. Hence, Minnelli's struggle for "painting" the scenes with the richness of technicolor becomes an echo of Van Gogh. It also reads as a textbook in composition from Steinberg's Dead Space to Eisenstein's juxtapositions. In all, Minnelli is of great skill and uses it to the fullest.
The story, which focuses on the struggle for a new way of expression, is tame at times and the acting (apart from Douglas) seems static most of the times, but the tortured face and body of Douglas and the use of color makes this one of the greatest achievements in MGM's history and one of the best movies Minnelli ever made.
27 of 34 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?
Yes