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The making of From Sunflower to Olive Tree

  From Sunflower to Olive Tree was outright winner of the prestigious Czech celebration of art films: ArsFilm Festival in 2002.

Background

Though I don't have the sticker to prove it, "I love Provence" and go there every summer. Two years ago I wanted to film something other than a travelogue. Then it struck me - Provence through the eyes of Vincent van Gogh. I had long loved his work and had visited locations where he painted. That had been several years ago.

Pat Menmuir at Movie 2002. Title over scene in Provence. Subtitle - 'Vincent Van Gogh and Provence'.

Pat Menmuir at Movie 2002 where she won a Gold Seal Award for Sunflower...

Pre-production

Research was the easy bit - books and web sites galore. Also, Vincent's letters provide far more information and insight than you would get by interviewing a living subject. A full-length film or a TV series could have done justice - I had set a limit of 20 minutes for my amateur effort. By version 4 of the written outline things were becoming clearer (just!) - the video would aim to show the relationship of 3 "elements" - the feelings of the artist, Provence (two areas only) and selected paintings.

I've no special knowledge of art, so an important part of the research was to take notes about the interpretation of paintings which I might use. Each interpretation later included in the commentary comes from more than one expert or the painter himself.

My notes also included a reminder to film fruit blossom in our garden in May, against a sky blue enough to pass for spring in Provence.

Fruit trees - probably in Perth (!) Fruit trees - probably in Perth (!) Fruit trees as painted by Van Gogh.

Filming

We had altered our itinerary for the sake of the video but the timetable still allowed only 2 full days' filming. First stop was to buy postcards of paintings I planned to include - easily carried, and used for reference on site.

I filmed first around the church and psychiatric hospital of St Paul de Mausole. It is unspoilt and very recognisably "Van Gogh". At the main locations I was surprised to find large panels with reproductions of pictures painted there. These, I realised, were publicly available to anyone with a camera or camcorder, and who would ever know if they were actually the copies used in my video? That day went as well as I could have hoped. There were just enough people around to provide a bit of action, which would be important to balance against the shots of paintings.

Postcards reproducing Van Gogh's paintings. Church at St. Paul de Mausole. Psychiatric Hospital at St. Paul de Mausole.

In contrast the following day in Arles was fraught. It was exhausting to walk from one location to the next in intense heat through busy streets carrying a heavy tripod. I wasted time trying to film the famous Café de la Nuit in a narrow crowded space that made it impossible anyway; and besides it was grotty in the daylight and almost empty. All wrong! Another location, the avenue in the park, had been taken over by a group of bottle-waving drunks, keen to be in the picture. Filming les Alyscamps, lined with Roman tombs, I thought I'd got it right - two young couples slowly and gracefully leading the eye into the picture. In the viewfinder I failed to notice the cigarette smoke billowing above their heads. More time was wasted at the old hospital trying to get a shot - by now any shot - clear of tourist parties. So much for my "original" approach to filming in Provence! Van Gogh is big business.

The Arles section of the video uses up any half decent clips I had, plus some others. Filming abroad means no retakes!

The modern Cafe La Nuite. Van Gogh's impression of the Cafe la Nuite. The Roman burial plot at les Alyscamps.

Post-production

Commentary: The story of Vincent van Gogh has become hackneyed. In the commentary I was aiming for a tone which was sincere but not sentimental; which dealt with feelings as well as information but remained respectful. I have tried to achieve this through language which is formal yet straightforward. The occasional "big words" - tumultuous, vertiginous etc - were meant to match the impact of particularly powerful paintings.

A key make or break factor was the quality of the narration. Iain Anderson's beautiful voice and highly skilled delivery raise the quality of the video to a different level. All I did was to refuse to settle for anything less!

Mismatches: What do you do when the commentary is about something you can't go out and film? A summary of Vincent's earlier life is necessary to make sense of the Provence period. As a rather inexperienced video maker, I originally set this against some pleasant scenes of Provençal village life - all wrong! Someone else suggested using some of Vincent's self-portraits - my thanks to her, and a chance here to acknowledge in particular the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Kröller-Müller Gallery in Otterlo. They own the majority of the paintings in the video and raised no objections to my use of reproductions.

The mismatch problem also arose with the core of the Van Gogh story - the worsening relationship with Gauguin, the final quarrel, the ear… I'd had fancy notions about this, eg using actors and filming their shadows. I'm never short of unrealistic ideas! Eventually I settled for the oldest device in the book, using nature to reflect the mood of the story. The poplar trees in winter and the dark clouds were of course filmed in this country.

Self-portrait by Van Gogh. Artist walking to work. Poplars in Perth (!)

Transitions: The number of comments about the coloured transitions came as a surprise. Vincent in Provence is all about strong colours, so blue, green or yellow was used to link different sections. I tried to link the choice of colour to the tone of the previous or the following clip. This was not deliberately thought out. It just seemed natural at the time when I was so absorbed in the subject.

I also used wipes sometimes between live scenes and the corresponding painting. This was some sort of attempt to parallel the straight edges of the pictures. I'm still not sure if it works.

Example of cross-fade from real bridge to painting. Example of cross-fade from real bridge to painting. Example of cross-fade from real bridge to painting.

Sound: Hardly any ambient sound is used. In Arles there were too many distractions such as police klaxons and tourist guide commentaries in Japanese. Besides, I like continuity of background sound across clips in the same location. In the countryside, which in summer is dominated by the sound of cicadas and bird song, the original track was again replaced. The peace had been shattered that day by tree felling with chain saws.

The music is by Poulenc. I felt it had to be a French composer. Also, because Van Gogh's paintings are so far in advance of the times in which he lived, it seemed logical to have music from the first part of the 20th century. The themes are all different though recognisably by the same composer, with an attempt to match them to the different moods in the video. They are played by different woodwind instruments with the mournful oboe reserved for the final scene.

- Pat Menmuir


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Page updated on 09 October 2011
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