#robin hodges

[moviesallday5]

#454 #Loving Vincent

[lovingvincentmovie]

Lieutenant Milliet

Lieutenant Milliet became Vincent’s friend during his time in Arles in France. Paul Milliet was a Second lieutenant in the Zouave regiment. A career soldier who had an interest in art, Vincent gave him drawing lessons and painted him just once in September 1888. Vincent hung the painting in his bedroom at The Yellow House, and it can be spotted in his first version of Bedroom in Arles.

Vincent’s painting (on display at the Kröller-Müller Museum) and our keyframe painting.

Vincent subtitled his portrait of Milliet ’The Lover’, in reference to Milliet’s prodigious appetite for the women of Arles, as Vincent was jealous of his young friend’s success with the local ladies.

“Milliet’s lucky, he has all the Arlésiennes he wants, but there you are, he can’t paint them, and if he was a painter he wouldn’t have any” Vincent van Gogh in a letter to his brother Theo in September 1888

We decided to bring out Milliet’s arrogant side in his character in Loving Vincent, as he famously relayed years later, after Vincent was already famous, that it was he who had given Vincent tips on how to improve his work. When Milliet left Arles to return to Algeria he still kept in touch with Vincent via letters.

In our live action filming, Milliet was played by Robin Hodges - go behind the scenes of the shoot in the video below to find out more about his transformation into the lieutenant: