LUST FOR LIFE (1956) Masterful portrait of a painter

In LUST FOR LIFE, Kirk Douglas doesn’t play painter Vincent Van Gogh – he is Van Gogh. It's a magnificent, impassioned performance in which Douglas shows us the painter's pain, his joy, his talent, and, sadly, his undoing! And this movie looks like one Van Gogh painting after another come to life. Directed by Vincente Minnelli and co-starring Anthony Quinn as the painter-with-machismo, Paul Gauguin, this film gives you an honest, yet artistic, look at the painter’s short, tragic life.