Lust For Life Film Analysis

The role of ideology in the biopic Lust for Life is ambiguous due to the many different interpretations of the term; critics over the years such as Marx and Engels have attempted to present how ideology plays a role in our perception of society. The idealised role of the individual artist is something which is highly romanticised and the presentation of Gogh as the stereotypical tortured genius is portrayed through the film’s artistic form . Fundamentally ideology is a social construct, and it is this constructed view of Van Gogh in 1950s America that plays a key role in determining the film’s overall purpose.
Lust for Life can be applied to the work of Marx and Engels, their ideas criticise the ways in which ideology is central in constructing the perception of Gogh as a singular genius. Marx and Engels hold the view that the collective consciousness of a society is related to labour productions, so the ‘Base’ affects the ‘Superstructure’ . ‘Consciousness is from the very beginning a social product’ , and therefore the representation of Gogh in Lust for Life is highly constructed. A Marxist interpretation would suggest that Lust for Life represents the contradictions of ideology, and it is up to the active viewer to make references to the films context . Bordwell and Thompson think ‘we …show more content…
It is clear the discussion of ideology in the film is highly ambiguous, and the amount of fact one assumes from the film is dependent on how form is interpreted. However there is an argument for an element of construction when approaching the character of Gogh, especially because of the socio-economic constraints that 1950s America was experiencing. Ultimately the artificial representation of Gogh in Lust for Life rests on the ideologies of gender, class and occupations of 1950s American people, and this shouldn’t be forgotten when thinking about the film as a