Name: Gus Van Sant
Gender: Male
Birth date: July 24, 1952
Occupation: Director, screenwriter
Place of Birth: Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Keywords: same-sex, marginal, independent
Masterpieces: [Unruly Skies] (1991), [Mindcatcher] (1997), [Elephant] (2003), [Milk] (2008)
As one of the most important directors in the contemporary American independent film industry, Gus Van Sant's exploration and excavation of adolescent issues and fringe culture has never stopped. The strong spirit of independence has injected a distinctive aesthetic label into this literary and artistic director.
You need a wandering, with Mr. Sant on the way.
One Migration
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Gus Van Sant moved from childhood to small, medium, and small cities in the United States with his father, who was a sportswear manager. The growing up experience of constantly changing residences subtly affected Van Sant's creative ideas and creative tendencies in the future.
The film [My Own Idaho] is deeply imprinted with Van Sant's memory, and the protagonist's life is back and forth between Idahua and Portland, always on the way to the next stop.
▲ We look pretty much the same, so let's be together. ([My own Idaho])
Traces of the search for a family are all over the director's film texts, from stowaways to robbers, from tramps to backpackers. The desire for a sense of belonging is rooted in the inner world of the characters in the film, in fact, this is a mirror reflection of the director's childhood thinking.
Homosexuality
The emotional world of the gay community is van Sant's tireless object of exploration. From "Deep Night, Hard to Love" to [Milk], the director's gay group portraits are like a clear stream in a complex social environment, washing away people's increasingly polluted view of love.
In "Deep Night, Hard to Love", the fragmented narrative makes the ether smell of tobacco emitted by the film appear particularly melancholy under van Sant's damp lens, and at the same time sets the tone for the atmosphere of Fan's same-sex film: hope and despair coexist, and love should have the power of love.
▲ In the history of gay equality in the United States, Milk's name will always shine ([Milk])
In [My Own Idaho], the director opens a gap for the audience to re-examine society and self through the portrayal of homosexuals.
What kind of state does friendship, affection, and love take on under the cloak of homosexuality, and what separates two people who love each other.
Gently erasing the appearance of fragile relationships between homosexuals, the director puts the hidden interpersonal crisis in society on the table.
Three edges
The protagonists of Gus van Sant's films, wandering on the fringes of society, living in vain and confused by the lights of the world. Character flaws that distinguish them from the mainstream form a huge gulf in their desire to integrate into society, and only pain and loss can be filled.
Life is disappointing. Young people linger in the sound, decadent and confronted with great psychological pressure.
▲ They have no place to live, they wander around ([Blues Cowboys])
Male prostitutes, homosexuals, goons, terminally ill... The edge of the city and the underground culture outline van Sant's film world. In this world, the world of youth and adulthood are intertwined intricately, sometimes warmly, sometimes cruelly.
The Godfather
Van Sant maintains a state of mind that is both attentive and restrained to the rebellious youth he portrays, and this concern does not examine their behavior from a lofty perspective, nor does it show the encounters of marginalized groups in society.
Van Sant showed a more rigorous approach to the moral territory of the teenagers than other directors. Injecting the role of a spiritual mentor who is also a mentor and a friend seems to be the best way for the director to give humanistic care to the film.
Professor Shane in [Mindcatcher] is the life mentor that many students dream of
Unlike other directors' portrayal of "father", patriarchal consciousness is not Van Sant's primary role appeal. On the contrary, the role of "father" often shows a warm side in the film.
Father Mayfay transforms Bob's life in [Psychedelic Cowboy], freeing him from the vortex of drugs. Professor Shane and Frost helped and even accompanied the campus geniuses to integrate into the normal social order and build personality confidence at the level of social morality.
Wu died
"The Last Step Before the End" served as a philosophical motif that was repeatedly explored in the first few years of the century under Van Sant's minimalist approach.
There is no doubt that [Elephant], one of the trilogies, has received more credit for the director than the other two. Regarding the title of the film, Gus Van Sant did not shy away from expressing that he took the french of Alain Clarke, both in terms of title and shooting methods.
▲ Every ordinary life in life has its meaning of existence ([elephant])
A large number of long shots crowd out the line space of the film, and the story and character emotions are constructed and dissolved in the fragmented narrative rhythm. "The film is not analyzing the psychology of the characters through words and actions, but mobilizing the audience to think and analyze in their own minds through everything they witness." The director's pace of exploring the field of human spirit never stops.
Lu Experiments
From the early days of cinema, he came into contact with American avant-garde filmmakers such as Andy Warhol and Stan Braquecky, along with the influence of his own painter background, encouraged Van Sant to explore new cinematic languages and forms.
Some commentators have pointed out that [Deep Night, Hard to Love] is in a way a tribute to Andy Warhol, not only inheriting Warhol's deep concern for gay marginalized people in terms of theme, but also following the sharpness and experimental style of underground films in temperament, and even using Andy Warho's usual Plus-X reverse film on film. This film is suitable for producing a strong contrast between light and dark in the case of insufficient light sensitivity.
▲ Cold and beautiful teenager, silly and sexy ([Deep night, hard to moan])
The self-consciousness of image exploration and the increasingly exuberant spirit of experimentation make Van Sant's films full of the colors of magic realism and the ghost of pop art.
QiWenqing
At that year's Hollywood Roundtable, Van Sant expressed his view of being inseparable from the film industry: "Yes, I am also wondering if anyone will ask me to make a movie again in the future." But if that does happen, I think there are some other very good careers, like painting, writing, and so on. ”
The energetic Van Sant still maintains a wide range of involvement and exploration in the field of art. Literature, fine arts, music... In the director's film text, these artistic elements fully mobilize the mood of the film, and build a bridge between the dialogue between the image and the artistic system and the artistic language.
Van Sant will not miss an opportunity to confess to literature and writing ([Spiritual Visitor])
In [Visitors to the Heart], Van Sant expresses his deep tribute to writer J.D. Salinger through the library's borrowed episode of Catcher in the Rye; the fables looming in [Cowboys in the Blues] exude the unique atmosphere of García Márquez; and in [My Own Idaho], the textual framework provided by Shakespeare and his masterpiece Henry IV injects classical charm into the director's script.
In Van Sant's film dictionary, classics and surreality are thus nestled in a close connection, never absent.
Pick up the naughty boy
"I like to use nameless actors because the stars are already inseparable and it's hard to cramp and bone out my character."
"They all say I can only make 'anti-hero films', okay, let's try mainstream films like [Mindcatcher]?"
▲ Shadow Emperor Matthew McConaughey in a mysterious forest in a foreign country ([Aokihara Sea])
In an official interview at last year's Cannes Film Festival, the playful Van Sant even brought the camera that Du Kefeng gave him into the interview room and talked about the gift.
Despite the unprecedented attack he has brought to his recent game [AokiHara Shukai], the natural optimist Van Sant still maintains his Louisville boy's proud and open-minded mentality, just like Professor Shane in [Mindcatcher].
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