Lust for Life (film) Lust for Life (film) Lust for Life is a 1956 American biographical film about the life of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Irving Stone which was adapted for the screen by Norman Corwin. It was directed by Vincente Minnelli and produced by John Houseman. The film stars Kirk Douglas as Van Gogh, James Donald as his brother Theo, with Pamela Brown, Everett Sloane, and Anthony Quinn. Douglas won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for his performance, while Quinn won the Academy Award for
The Letters of Vincent van Gogh more about his techniques, his use of color, and his theories. Van Gogh was an avid reader, and his letters reflect his literary pursuits as well as a uniquely authentic literary style. His writing style in the letters reflects the literature he read and valued: Balzac, historians such as Michelet, and naturalists such as Zola, Voltaire and Flaubert. Additionally he read novels written by George Eliot, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Keats' poetry, reading mostly at night when the light was too poor for painting. Gauguin told him "that he read too much". Van Gogh scholar Jan Hulsker wrote of van