Vainglory and the Oscars 2— “At Eternity’s Gate”

Another calculated Oscar gamble fails, because it lacks a compelling narrative.

In early 2017, when Julian Schnabel decided to commit millions of dollars to putting the last few years of Vincent van Gogh’s life on film, “Loving Vincent” was still in production. Had Schnabel and his star, Willem Dafoe seen what would eventually be a wonderfully inventive and beautifully executed film they couldn’t hope to match, they might have picked a different project, not just to avoid audience fatigue, to avoid an unhappy comparison.

Or not.

Because of its unusual technique (It’s composed of hundreds of thousands of frames hand painted in oil, in van Gogh’s trademark style.) “Loving Vincent” took years to produce. Maybe its existence seemed as unlikely to Schnabel as its reality turned out to be beautiful to us.

(For more about “Loving Vincent” see my in depth review at: https://medium.com/@Penseur/loving-vincent-how-the-ignorami-killed-a-masterpiece-in-oil-c533c80262d3)

No matter why, eight weeks into its domestic run it appears Schnabel’s choice has become a commercial failure. The box office for “At Eternity’s Gate” has just topped $2 million. The international box office is barely more. Clearly this isn’t a…