Editing Lust for Life (1956 film) (section)

==Plot==
Vincent has trained to be a minister, like his father, but the church authorities find him unsuitable. He pleads with them to be allowed some position and they place him in a very poor mining community. Here he becomes deeply absorbed in the miners' plight and begins sketching their daily life.

The religious leaders do not like his approach, and they frown on his social activism and care for the poor. He returns home to his father's house. Here a woman he obsessively loves (his cousin) rejects Van Gogh because of his inability to support himself financially. The infatuated Vincent follows her to her family home, where he holds his hand over a candle flame to prove his devotion, only to learn that she has said she is disgusted by him and doesn't want to see him again.

He takes to drawing. His cousin [[Anton Mauve]] gives him paint and art materials and encourages him to paint. His brother, [[Theo van Gogh (art dealer)|Theo van Gogh]], provides financial and moral support. Vincent takes up with a prostitute who eventually also leaves because he is too poor. His passion then turns fully to painting, which he pursues while agonizing that he is unable to paint precisely what he sees.

After his father's death, he goes to Paris with Theo, where he discovers the [[impressionism|impressionists]]. Theo cannot bear living with him and Vincent leaves for sunny [[Arles, France]]. [[Paul Gauguin]] (whom he met in Paris) joins him there, and for a while life is good. However, Vincent is too obsessive even for Gauguin's tastes and they argue, prompting the latter's departure, after which Vincent cuts off his own ear. Vincent begins experiencing seizures and voluntarily commits himself to a mental institution, where he is allowed to paint. He signs himself out, and with Theo's help returns to a rural area to resume painting. While painting cornfields, he is frustrated by the crows and, despairing at never being able to put what he sees on canvas, pulls out a revolver and shoots himself. He dies in bed a few days later.<ref name="allmovie.com"/>