Gus Van Sant

This is one of my favorite director : Gus Van Sant.

First movie I saw, it's My Own Private Idaho.
Very poetic and strange...

Who is Gus Van Sant?

Gus Van Sant Jr. was born in Louisville (Kentucky, USA), but moved around the country as a child. After earning a B.F.A. in Film at Rhode Island School of Design, he moved to Hollywood, where he began working with Ken Shapiro, the maker of the cult classic, "Groove Tube". While in Los Angeles, he made a small independant feature (which he later cut to featurette lenght), "Alice in Hollywood", a tongue-in-cheek look at the perils of "making it" from the point of view of a naive young actress.

Moving to Manhattan, Van Sant spent the next two years creating commercials for a Madison Avenue advertising firm. After saving enough money to move, he crossed the continent to Portland (Oregon). He has lived and woked in Portland ever since, writing and diriting films, shooting commercials and music videos, and, for a brief period, teaching film production at Oregon Art Institute. He has also continued to paint, mostly landscapes with floating foreground objects - cows in one, sombreros in another.

Since the early 1980's, Gus Van Sant' short films have been winning awards in film festivals around the world. His work includes an adaptation of his literary hero William S. Burrough's short story, "The Discipline of D.E.", a deadpan black and white gem which debuted at the New York Film Festival, and the darkly personal meditation "Five Ways to Kill Yourself".
Van Sant's first widely acclaimed, "Mala Noche", is an extraordinary chronicle of a doomed romance between a Mexican migrant worker and a clerk in a skid row liquor store. It won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Independant Feature of 1987.



"Drugstore Cowboy", directed and co-written by Van Sant, starred Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch. Highly praised everywhere, it won the 1989 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Director.



The completion of "My Own Pivate Idaho", which Van Sant considers to be a more personal film, represents the fulfillment of a decade determination.
I used to like L.A. with all the Holywood lore, but now when I go back I just feel uptight, says Van Sant when asked why a major American filmmaker would choose to live in Portland.

Portland's a friendly place; I'm happy here - Gus Van Sant

Quote :

Resume:
Surreal character study focusing on the friendship between two male hustlers, Mike and Scott, in Portland, Oregon. They live on the streets, do drugs, and sell themselves to men and women. Mike (River Phoenix) is quiet, gay and suffers from narcolepsy. Abandoned as a child, he is obsessed with finding his long-lost mother. Scott (Keanu Reeves) is the rebellious son of a high-ranking family, who lives this life mostly to embarrass his father. Mike is in love with Scott, who still maintains he is straight and insists that his wild lifestyle on the streets is only temporary. Together, they embark on a quest to find Mike's mother, traveling from Portland to Idaho to Italy, with Scott picking up a beautiful girl along the way.

By the time Gus Van Sant's "Drugstore Cowboy" was honored with the 1989 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film, Best Director and Best Screen play, it was clear Van Sant's highly original work had at last broken through. Many people thought they were applauding a fresh, new talent. In fact, this "unknown" had been making short films for nearly two decades, developing a cinematic language all his own.
His short film, "The Discipline of D.E.", had been a highlight of the New York Film Festival over a decade earlier. For "Mala Noche", his first widely seen feature, Van Sant received the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Independant Film of 1987.

Van Sant's latest feature, "My Own Private Idaho", is a poignant story which follows the lives of two street hustlers in Portland, Oregon.
River Phoenix stars as Mike, a narcoleptic searching for his lost mother; Keanu Reeves co-stars as Scott, a young man who has taken to the streets as an act of rebellion against his powerful and controlling father, who happens to be the local mayor. Along the way, their lives are confounded and enriched by a colorful band of companions, "customers" and lost relatives.
The boys, with their uncanny knack for mobility, take off for Rome to follow the latest clues they've uncovered regarding Mike's missing mom. Once there, Scott falls for the exquisite Carmella (Chiara Casselli) and Mike realizes that he may be losing the one person who loves him. Scott and Carmella depart for the United States. Upon their arrival, they learn of Scott's father's death and return to claim the inheritance. An abandoned Mike returns alone to work the streets of Portland.

Fine Line Features presents "My Own Private Idaho", produced by Laurie Parker, written and directed by Gus Van Sant and starring River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, william Richert, Rodney Harvey, Flea, Chiara Casselli and Udo Kier.

People think of a movie about street hustlers as decadent and criminal, notes producer Laurie Parker. It's more Dickensian. It's unsentimental on the surface, but I think people will be surprised to see how sweet and tender the movie is.

The origins of "My Own Private Idaho" can be found in Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part One" and "Henry IV, Part Two" and on the streets of Portland. About ten years ago, Van Sant was working on two separate stories, one about a modern day Prince Hal (the character in the Henry IV plays who transforms from hooligan to responsible heir-apparent), and one about a narcoleptic street hustler.

One night I was watching Orson Welles' "Chimes At Midnight", and thought that the "Henry IV" plays were really a street story, Van Sant recalls, and I knew this fat guy, named Bob, who had always reminded me of Falstaff and who was crazy about hustler boys. It was then that I decided to combine the two stories.

Though he had originally planned to cast unknown actors in the leads, afte the sudden flood of critical acclaim for Drugstore Cowboy, Van Sant decided to go after his "dream cast", Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix.
I just assumed thier agents would say, "no", he recalls. But as we began to talk to River and Keanu, it was clear that they were up for the challenge.

At Parker and Van Sant's behest, the cast and crew studied Werner Herzog's Stroszek and Heart of Glass and Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange.
Keanu is the Shakespearean character, offers River Phoenix, and I'm kind of the reality check of the film. Mike, the character I play, reminds me a lot of Herzog's "Stroszek", but he drinks, while Mike sleeps.

When asked about their experiences working with Van Sant, the cast and crew invariably describe him with the same word, "open". Keanu Reeves praises the director for being "totally non-judgmental". River Phoenix calls him "very collaborative".

Gus speaks in an actor's language, an emotional language, observes co-director of photography, John Campbell. He's careful not to over-direct.

I work with him the same today as we did on our first film, 20 years ago: free, loose, spontaneous, adds the other director of photography, Eric Edwars.

Improvisation can be as important in camera work as it is acting.

Careful attention was also paid to the overall look of the film, it incorporates an interesting mix of contemporary and timeless elements.
The painters studies for the look are important, and we turned to Van Gogh and Vermeer, explains production designer David Brisbin, who worked closely with director Van Sant (a painter as well as a filmmaker).
A palette emerged that was primarily reds and yellows. Comtemporary remnants of the Shakespearean appear in the design, costumes and of course the Falstaff beer that everyone drinks.

Reeves and Phoenix had worked together and become good friends on Lawrence Kasdan's I Love You To Death.
When they committed to My Own Private Idaho and what are arguably the most controversial roles of their careers, the fact that they were doing it together made things a lot easier.
Keanu and I made a kind of blood brother pact, recalls Phoenix.
I can't imagine who else would have done it with.

Very interesting, thanks Phoebe
I dont know very well this director yet
I have seen Elephant which I really like especially the very original filming technic and the atmosphere
The short he made in Paris Je t'aime is also good!
I also saw the remake he made of Psycho but didn't really like it, I prefer the original

But Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho, I want to see

And especially his last one Paranoid Park which looks very good

You welcome Chrisy!

Very intesting director for me. He's an artist and I think he knows telling poetic and romantic stories even the images are often "hard", not violent, but... I can't find the good word for the moment !
I think Van Sant likes shooting marginal people, but in a romantic way, you know what I mean ?

When I saw My Own Private Idaho, I was surprise and intrigued, and this is an advice : see Even Cowgirls Get The Blues. The scene takes place in Portland, like My Own Private Idaho.
I even saw Drugstore Cowboys.

I think it's a trilogy :
1/ Drugstore Cowboy
2/ My Own Private Idaho
3/ Even Cowgirls Get The Blues

I saw Psycho but I prefer Alfred Hitchcock's film, like you Chrisy, and Elephant.
And I would like to watch Paranoid Park, I mean it could be interesting...

I loved Drugstore Cowboy & My Own Private Idaho but I really hated Elephant , can't really tell you why but , I guess the story didn't really relate to me and I really kinda hated the filming techniques he used + I thought it was really slow ... & his short in Paris Je T'aime I liked to, donno what but there's something about Elephant I didn't really like, it was a bit artsy for no particular reason imho... but its been a while so I should probably see it again so I can be a bit more objective...

terminaal wrote:

I loved Drugstore Cowboy & My Own Private Idaho but I really hated Elephant , can't really tell you why but , I guess the story didn't really relate to me and I really kinda hated the filming techniques he used + I thought it was really slow ... & his short in Paris Je T'aime I liked to, donno what but there's something about Elephant I didn't really like, it was a bit artsy for no particular reason imho... but its been a while so I should probably see it again so I can be a bit more objective...

I think the same about "Elephant", very slow for my taste. I´m prefer "My name is Harvey Milk"; it´s a little more commercial film but the performance of Sean Penn is brilliant. And also the theme is controversial for the traditional american society.
"Last days" is a pull one's leg: bored and nothing really happens.

First I watched his My New Friend (short) 1984 . Another film i saw 1987
Five Ways to Kill Yourself.