Lust for Life (film) scheme, noting the design team "consciously made the flow of color and the interplay of compositions and hues the most forceful devices for conveying a motion picture comprehension of van Gogh." "Variety" said, "This is a slow-moving picture whose only action is in the dialog itself. Basically a faithful portrait of Van Gogh, "Lust for Life" is nonetheless unexciting. It misses out in conveying the color and entertainment of the original Irving Stone novel." "Harrison's Reports" wrote that the film had been given "an excellent production" and that "Kirk Douglas does outstanding work as Van Gogh, and Anthony Quinn is
Health of Vincent van Gogh poisoning from his consumption of absinthe. Arnold has suggested the association between bipolar disorder and creativity is a popular one, and may be spurious in Van Gogh's case. Van Gogh is believed to have had borderline personality disorder; he "displayed symptoms best consistent with a borderline (personality) disorder: impulsivity, variable moods, self-destructive behaviour, fear of abandonment, an unbalanced self-image, authority conflicts and other complicated relationships." The most thorough argument is made by psychiatrist Erwin van Meekeren in his book "Starry Starry Night: Life and Psychiatric History of Vincent van Gogh". Van Meekeren proposes borderline personality disorder as the most likely