Van Gogh (1990)

Originally run as part of the BBC anthology series Omnibus, Van Gogh (1990) tells the familiar tale of tormented Dutch beardo Vincent Van Gogh with a fragmented twist—it jumps around in time, weaving a fractured narrative to mirror the painter's mind. Linus Roache is Vinnie himself, a born-under-a-bad-sign bloke who can't quite get it together. Focusing less on the painting than on the man, director Anna Benson Gyles chooses the whackadoodle interpretation of Vinnie's inner doings. This Vince is a few petals short of a sunflower, and the frenzied flashbacks and fast-forwards may or may not represent reality as he travels from Paris to England, bros down with his brother Theo (Kevin Wallace), hangs with teeny-tiny Toulouse-Lautrec (Peter O'Farrell) and Paul Gaugin (Jack Shepherd), falls in love, goes nuts, goes nuttier, paints a bit, and goes nuts some more.