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Loving Vincent
12th February 2020
 Loving Vincent, the world's first fully oil-painted feature film, turns van Gogh's creative genius into a cinematic masterpiece in its own right. It invites us to reflect upon the search for meaning, life and love - some of the great spiritual issues that van Gogh explored through his life and art
The film tells the story of van Gogh's death, but does so through the artistic language of his life. Structured as a detective mystery, a series of conversations draw us into the mind of this intelligent, creative, and deeply sensitive genius who was passionate about the spiritual essence of humanity and nature
 Van Gogh's father and grandfather were church ministers. As a young man, he felt that his true calling was to preach the gospel, which he pursued with dedication, first as a student of theology and then as a missionary to coal miners in the Borinage, an impoverished region in southern Belgium. Deeply moved by the poverty around him, and passionate about following 'the Master who can comfort and strengthen a man', he gave away all his possessions, including most of his clothing. However, the church authorities viewed his zealous passion as scandalous, and he was forced to leave. So, he poured himself into his art, creating around 900 paintings such as the famous Starry Night which shows lights in the houses, whilst the church windows are dark; and, above them all, the greatest lights are the stars in the heavens above
In an age when many people are looking for spirituality but feel that the church is dark to them, perhaps this movie will give us all hope that, even if we feel misunderstood and excluded, we can still continue our spiritual search for meaning, life and love
as published by St Andrew's Church in the Gorleston Community Magazine
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