The release of Gus Van Sant's provocative new GERRY (opening at Cinema 21 on March 21) provides the perfect opportunity to survey the wonderfully personal shorts and feature films that launched his career. Equally at ease working with non-actors and consummate professionals, Van Sant has approached the cinema with the mind of an artist, unafraid to take risks and create dialogue with the history of the medium. That works as diverse as as MALA NOCHE, GOOD WILL HUNTING and GERRY can spring from the same source reveals an extraordinary sense of adventure and curiosity and a maverick delight in meeting his own expectations and not other people's-unless they are looking for fresh perspective on the familiar or introduction to the unconsidered.
MARCH 14 FRI 7:30 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE - VISITING ARTIST
MALA NOCHE
US 1985
DIRECTOR: GUS VAN SANT Based on Portland poet Walt Curtis' autobiographical novella, MALA NOCHE impressed both European and American critics and quickly established Van Sant as an important new voice in independent cinema. Set on the dark, rain-soaked streets of downtown Portland, Walt (Tim Streeter), a gay liquor store clerk, becomes obsessed with Johnny (Doug Cooeyate), a handsome young Mexican illegal who manipulates Walt's lust for food and shelter, but turns down his affections. Walt is forced to settle for Johnny's friend Pepper and becomes his protector, but can't shake his fixation on the boy of his dreams. "A film of rare tenderness and longing, involving both humor and anguish."-Kevin Thomas, L.A. TIMES. "Poetic, moody and impressionistic -the title is Spanish for 'bad night' -the fim is something to savor for the squalid world it introduces, and the way it presents its story, rather than for the specifics of that story."-THE WASHINGTON POST. (78 mins.)
MY FRIEND (1988)
The filmmaker pursues a straight friend. (2 mins.)
JUNIOR (1988)
Van Sant plays the guitar and his cat "dances" to a reflected
beam of light. (2-1/2 mins.)
BALLAD OF THE SKELETONS (1996)
Set to music by Paul McCartney, Allen Ginsberg sings his poem over images
civil rights unrest. (5 mins.)
FLEA SINGS (1991)
A capella Flea. (2 mins.)
THANKSGIVING PRAYER (1982)
William S. Burroughs tees off on American values. (3 mins.)
FOUR BOYS IN A VOLVO (1996)
A high fashion road trip. (4 mins.)
DE WITT CLINTON CHOIR (2000)
A spiritual performed by a high school choir in New York City. (5 mins.)
MARCH 15
SAT 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
DRUGSTORE COWBOY
US 1989
DIRECTOR: GUS VAN SANT Van Sant's acclaimed second feature is a daring
and uncompromising look at outlaw junkie life based on the novel by James
Fogle. Set in Portland in the early '70s, Matt Dillon gives the performance
of his career as Bob Hughes, the superstitious leader of an awkward band
of addicts who go directly to the source for drugs by robbing drugstores.
Bob's extended family includes his wife, Dianne (Kelly Lynch), the dim
Rich (James LeGros) and his teenage girlfriend Nadine (Heather Graham).
With a good dose of black humor, Van Sant follows the group's escapades,
which finally come undone when Nadine overdoses. Understanding that "Just
Say No" doesn't say anything to the drugged out, Van Sant neither
romanticizes nor condemns drug use, but probes the addict's psyche without
giving way to moralistic overtures. "Compelling, unnerving and often
darkly funny . . . Every minute of DRUGSTORE COWBOY is vital and alive."-David
Ansen, NEWSWEEK. (100 MINS.)
MARCH 16
SUN 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO
USA 1991
DIRECTOR: GUS VAN SANT Mike (River Phoenix) is a prostitute with narcolepsy-a
handicap in any case, but especially when one's profession involves letting
your guard down in the presence of strangers. We see the world through
Mike's eyes, falling into slumber when he does, sharing the disjointed
sense of time he feels and experiencing his confusion about where he is
and how he got there. His only protector is his friend Scott (Keanu Reeves),
another hustler, but one who is biding his time until his 21st birthday
arrives and with it, a huge inheritance. They are an odd couple; Scott
rejects his wealthy politician father, while Mike longs for the mother
that abandoned him. The story's parallels to "Henry IV" and
the use of Elizabethan dialogue marks a high point in Van Sant's examination
of the hidden eloquence of the lives of the underprivileged on the streets
of Portland. "Invigorating-written, directed and acted with enormous
insight and comic elan."-Vincent Canby, THE NEW YORK TIMES. (105
mins.)
MARCH 20
THU 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
TO DIE FOR
US 1995
DIRECTOR: GUS VAN SANT "TO DIE FOR is a sly, sardonic, and sassy
exposé of America's obsession with fame. Whether it is as the weather
girl on a backwater cable show, or preening before the media at a funeral,
Suzanne Stone (Nicole Kidman), a pert siren of alarming aspiration, soaks
up celebrity. But her hometown of Little Hope, New Hampshire, offers just
that, little hope. Kidman's chilling telecaster, at once small-town cutie
and big-time cut-throat, captures blonde ambition with caustic precision.
To head for celebrity central, Stone must cut her losses, a dead-weight
husband played by drolly good-looking Matt Dillon. Her arsenal, a dimwitted
teenager, a benumbed Joaquin Phoenix, who'll do anything for the lady
with the shapely weather map. Based on a notorious true crime, Buck Henry's
darkly comic screenplay indicts our murderous meteorologist, but also
glowers at her jury of peers. 'What's the point of doing anything worthwhile
if people aren't watching?': Stone's lethal self-delusions seep out into
a larger culture with like obsession."-Steve Seid, PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE.
(106 mins.)
MARCH 30
SUN 7 P.M.
whitsell auditorium
EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES
US 1993
DIRECTOR: GUS VAN SANT Based on Tom Robbins' classic countercultural novel,
COWGIRLS is an outrageous time-capsule of a hybrid western set to singular
visuals and the music of k.d. lang. Sissy Hankshaw (Uma Thurman) is the
world's greatest hitchhiker. "When I was younger," she tells
a friendly ride, "I hitchhiked 127 hours without stopping-across
the continent twice in six days, and cooled my thumbs in both oceans."
Thumbs, she fails to mention, that are over a foot long. After traveling
the globe with her enhanced digits during her youth, Sissy becomes a model
for the Countess (John Hurt in wild makeup) and is lured to the Rubber
Rose Ranch where she meets Bonanza Jellybean (Rain Phoenix), the head
of a renegade band of Cowgirls determined to take over the ranch. Fully
of whimsy and bizarre characters, the equally idiosyncratic cast includes
Keanu Reeves, Pat Morita, Angie Dickenson, Lorraine Bracco, Buck Henry,
Crispin Glover. "The pleasure of seeing Van Sant's impeccable imagery
makes COWGIRLS worth seeing for fans. His New York sequences that owe
a debt to Warhol, the Western landscapes that resemble Ansel Adams photographs,
the lithe image of a woman guiding her freakish thumbs through a roadside
ballet-all are stunning moments that exist only inside this film."-AUSTIN
CHRONICLE. (101 mins.)