‘Van Gogh’

The life, not the art, is what French filmmaker Maurice Pialat wants in this extraordinary film, which has Jacques Dutronc’s stinging performance as its centerpiece. As a director, Pialat is the master of the spontaneous moment, and here he and a remarkable cast convey something of the giddy pain of a life burning passionately over an abyss. We flatter ourselves that if we were around in 1890 we would have recognized Van Gogh’s genius and changed his fate. But we probably wouldn’t have--just as we probably don’t recognize the Van Goghs among us now. In this sad, brilliant 1992 film, Pialat (pictured) gives us a terrible inkling of why (Cinemax Wednesday at 8 p.m.).