An Interdisciplinary Neoformalist Approach to Loving Vincent

Authors : Rahime Özgün Kehya

Pages : 1-15

Doi:10.31122/sinefilozofi.1729386

View : 300 | Download : 651

Publication Date : 2025-10-30

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This paper discusses Loving Vincent, the first animated film to recreate Vincent van Gogh’s painting style through a digitized multisensory experience. Blending traditional painting and digital cinema is innovative to shape the film’s narrative. Thus, the analysis used a neoformalist interdisciplinary approach referring to the philosophy of art and the concept of otherness and focused on the film’s novel narrative and formal features. It aimed to answer how Loving Vincent possessed formal and narrative features that would raise questions and lead the viewer to judge otherness. In the film, 21st-century transnational audiences witnessed van Gogh’s multiple ‘Otherness’. The film questioned the facts surrounding the death of a brilliant painter, whether it was murder or suicide, leaving the viewer with a hypothesis that can neither be confirmed nor falsified. In conclusion, van Gogh’s paintings and charcoal animation fused with digital features such as sound, editing, close-ups, music, and screen size are essential advantages that strengthen the viewer’s meaning-making process. Based on neoformalist and artistic philosophy, this paper revealed that the innovative fusion of multisensory digital and traditional meaning-making served as a pioneering guide drawing on a kind of self-narrative of paintings. The film’s interdisciplinary features can initiate meaningful discussions.
Keywords : Vincent van Gogh, Neoformalist Yaklaşım, Sanat Felsefesi, Ötekilik, Disiplinlerarasılık

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