Originality: always a good starting point for art. A woman lives in a technocratic society in the 23rd society, regulated to the point of staleness. A mysterious "dust disease" is doing the rounds and friends are dying around her. Nearly ten minutes of wandering from one futuristic space from another go by before the opening credits confirm that yes, this is a movie about Vincent van Gogh.
What makes this possible? A time machine, naturally! Hence “a visit at Van Gogh’s”.
Horst Seemann (1937–2000) made about fifteen films which haven’t left many marks in the annals of cinema. The filmography includes crime movies, but also a Beethoven study. This sci-fi film about van Gogh was Seemann’s antepenultimate film and so ambitious, that the director even composed its music himself, in the manner of John Carpenter.
In all its sincerity, this curiosity offers surprising pleasures, and not only to van Gogh enthusiasts – and when an East German Dutch painter vents his angst on his patrons in Eastern German, one can’t help thinking, why couldn’t a Finnish van Gogh be filmed in Finland as well… (Anton Asikainen)
Language: German, subtitles: Finnish
