Editing Lust for Life (1956 film) (section)

==Production==
The film was based on the 1934 [[Lust for Life (novel)|novel]] by [[Irving Stone]] and adapted by [[Norman Corwin]]. [[Vincente Minnelli]] directed the film, while [[John Houseman]] produced it. They worked with Douglas on the 1952 melodrama ''[[The Bad and the Beautiful]]'', for which he was nominated for an [[Academy Award]] for [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]]. In 1954, Douglas secured the filming rights to Van Gogh's biography and intended to star and produce it through his own film production company, [[Bryna Productions]], with [[Jean Negulesco]] directing and financial distribution backing from [[United Artists]].<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/independentfilmj3435unse/page/84/mode/2up |title=Pine-Thomas In 3-Film Deal |magazine=Independent Film Journal |page=8 |date=February 5, 1955 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |url=http://archive.org/details/variety197-1955-01-12 |title=Kirk Douglas Packages Own |magazine=Variety |page=15 |date=January 12, 1955 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

Vincente Minnelli was finally chosen as director. The late screenwriter Norman Corwin recalled working with Minnelli: "There are directors who would have taken over. Minnelli was respectful of the script. He approached it almost as a writer would to get the essence, and be true to the material, true to history, true to the letters [Van Gogh had written his brother, Theo], true to what I had written."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Norman Corwin - Lust for Life |url=https://americanlegends.com/Interviews/norman_corwin.html |access-date=2025-04-05 |website=americanlegends.com}}</ref>

Principal photography started in August and ended in December 1955 and it was shot on location in [[France]], [[Belgium]] and the [[Netherlands]]. Two hundred enlarged colour photos were used representing Vincent’s completed canvases; these were in addition to copies that were executed by an American art teacher, Robert Parker. To prepare for his role as the troubled painter, Douglas practiced painting crows so that he could reasonably imitate van Gogh at work.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Walker |first=John A. |title=Vincent van Gogh films: Of Cypresses and Sunflowers |url=http://www.artdesigncafe.com/Vincent-van-Gogh-films |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100823044639/http://www.artdesigncafe.com/Vincent-van-Gogh-films |magazine=The Monthly Film Bulletin |date=July 1990 |volume=57 |issue=678 |pages=184–185 |access-date=October 12, 2010 |archive-date=August 23, 2010 |url-status=dead |via=artdesigncafé}}</ref> According to his wife Anne, Douglas would return home from work still [[Method acting|in character]]. When asked if he would do such a thing again, Douglas responded that he would not.