(Apparently Van Sant wanted even more Hanson; he recently told Genre: I just did an essay on Hanson for Inter- view . ... 1 spent, like, four days taking pictures of them just doing what they normally do in a day.”) Scott Green recalls working with Van Sant on a video for Elton John. “We shot it real quick, in one long nigh t.... Elton wasn’t there that much, but when he arrived he had a whole entourage— very dressed up, very Los Angeles.” Van San t directs R obert Brow n in Finding Forrester Green says Van Sant enjoyed requires his audience to enter his world slowly, working on most of the videos. When asked hut fully, and once he has you in his thrall, about the influence of M TV on filmmaking, you’re his for the full two hours. the director told Film Scouts: “W hat you have T his is the sure-handed work o f a mature now is a whole generation of viewers that will filmmaker that deserves to find a wide audi­ accept any format as valid. And that, to a very ence; it’s also the role o f a lifetime for Connery. large extent, promoted independent cinema, T h e O scar buzz you hear is probably more than which is still growing.” wishful thinking. Music is another passion for Van Sant, and according to pal Green, “He’s a very good gui­ s a graduate o f the prestigious Rhode Island tar player...he mostly plays his ^School o f Design, Van San t is, not surpris­ own music.” Green ingly, a multitalented guy. “1 started as a painter; should know— along that provided a groundwork for visual com posi­ about 1996 he and tion," he explains. “ 1 cam e to directing as an Van Sant and artist, not a theater director; a theater director Mike Parker can control the chaos, but I need it to be nice.” formed a short­ In addition to his features, Van San t has lived band called directed numerous short films and continues to the Dots. __ be attracted to that form. His latest, Smoking Their one and only Man, plays Jan. 12 at the Schnitz as part o f gig happened at Portland’s La Reel M usic/Nerve Endings with live music by Luna. Although Green says it “was just for fun,” the Oregon Symphony. Van Sant takes his music seriously enough to record some CDs for Tim Kerr Records. H e’s also dabbled in music videos, working According to Portland chum Heidi Snellman, with the likes o f k.d. lang (for Cowgirls), the Red “Lots of his friends played instruments, so they’d Hot Chili Peppers and the pretty boys Hanson. all jam in the basement of his house.... Thomas Lauderdale is a gtxxl friend.” She remembers how “Thomas once got Gus to sing Moon River a cap- pella at some big party we were all at. He has a wonderful voice— very Liu Reed-ish.” Snellman laughs softly as she ponders the complexity of the man. “In some ways he’s quite straight— he likes to play golf and he likes race cars.” Incredibly, one of his C D s consists of 18 songs about golf! His painterly side still gets exercised— he did the artwork for his album covers and for the Idaho poster, which featured floating sombreros. An analyst could have a field day with some of the surreal images in his work, especially things falling from the sky: a bam, cows, sombreros. One thing he’s not, according to Snellman, is very political. Although she adds, “During the first era of N o on 9, G us was very supportive and active in the campaign and also later with a spinoff group called Artists for Hate-Free America.” When we ask him if he felt like a part of the gay community in Portland, he displays his dry wit. “Yeah, but I didn’t run for office or anything.” S o is there a chance he might film in Port­ land again? “The film commission is concerned with making it easy...but the city doesn’t make it easy.... It wants conventions, not movies,” "In some ways he's quite straight— he likes to play golf and he likes race cars." —pal Heidi Snellman Van San t says, although he admits he hasn’t filmed in the city for about six years. He explains Portland has no one office to handle the myriad permits and requests and has no stages to shoot on, which is a Catch-22. “You need the stages to work; you need work to get the stages.” learly an artist in the prime o f his career, G u s Van S an t seem s to have figured out what H ollyw ood and, more im portantly, what audiences want and how to deliver it. Finding Forrester should cem ent his reputation as a gifted director and once again give him the license to nam e his next m ove. (L e t’s just hope h e’s gotten the rem ake bug out o f his sy stem !) O n e o f the interesting revelations in Forrester is that the source o f the title ch arac­ ter’s aversion to the spotlight was the never- ending analysis o f his work. Van San t, whose first two film s also went under the m icro­ scope, takes a different approach. Back in 1991 when R iver Phoenix asked him if it bothered him when people try to figure him out, he replied, “N o, not at all, because I’d like to figure me out actually. ” j n C Additional reporting by M A R C A C IT O ORIANA GREEN is the Entertainment Editor of Ju st O u t and can be reached at oriana@ justout. com . It’s Enough To Turn Santa Into A Cross Dresser. FRENCH QUARTER, I N K N H NK FOHTIiANI) 1 4 4 4 NK B R O A D W A Y 503-2H2-H200 FKARI. 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