Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2003)
march 2 1.2 0 0 3 » 37 FILM .......... V ......... PHOTO BY LISA Gus, anonymous The Portland director reaches back to his indie roots with Gerry by Gus Van Sant at home in Northwest Portland. His new film, Qerry, opens March 21 up the street at Cinema 21 L isa B radshaw us Van Sant moved back to Portland in 2002 after a two-year stint living in New York. It seems that for laid-back, queer, independent film directors (we lured Far from Heaven’s Todd Haynes, too), Portland is just a little more comfortable. “I think it’s the same thing that keeps other people here," Van Sant says. “There’s a lot of new people who’ve come here since I’ve been gone. It’s incredible.” But not off-putting. “Actually, you know, I have just as gtxxJ a time being here, if not better.” He certainly seems comfortable enough padding around his loft in the Pearl District barefoot, posters of teen-agers cast in his just- wrapped latest project— shot in Northeast Portland— on the walls. Unmatched furniture is LB: You went from big budget on your casually scattered around the large, one-room last two films back to a smaller budget on space. There's clearly a penchant for guitars (1 Qerry. W hich is more difficult? count six); otherwise, anyone could live here. GVS: It’s harder when you have a huge crew The director’s new release, Gerry, starring because the crew has to do their job.. .and Casey Affleck and Matt Damon, opens March 21 they’re a problem, you know, because you can’t at Cinema 21. A far cry from Northeast Portland, tell them not to do their job. I mean, you can, I Van Sant, Affleck and Damon wandered around guess, but then they would just be sitting around, with a small crew in Death Valley, Utah and i So if you don’t hire them in the first place, then South America to film this somewhat eerie tale of you’ve kind of, like, got something going.... All I two guys who get lost on a day hike. | notice is that it just takes a lot more time. The story is based on the trio’s own script (or, rather, lack of script) and will delight Van Sant LB: So you shot this film with no script, fans who think his HollywtxxJ films (Good Will right? Hunting, Finding Forrester) have sold him out. GVS: T hat’s also easier. It’s more, maybe, intense.. .you’re doing a lot more thinking on Lisa Bradshaw: You’ve received criticism the set.... The thing about having a script from fans of your earlier work regarding your Hollywood films. How do you choose your projects? G us Van Sant: T he ultim ate thing that guides me [are] things th at I really like.... G er r y T he first three films— Mala Noche, Drugstore Cinema 21, March 21 to 27 Cowboy and My O w n Private Idaho.. .were hunched together with the same point of us Van Sant’s latest movie, Gerry, starring view; they were Portland street stories. Good Casey Affleck and Matt Damon (and only Will Hunting, you know, the characters were Casey Affleck and M att Damon) ought to still street characters from South Boston. The put to rest those ideas that the Portland film only difference was up until then, they were maker has left his indie roots behind. Shot in the American West and Argentina all anti-heroes; they were all nefarious charac ters that were not heroic types.... I’d never with no script and a crew of 30, this minimal ist, yet strikingly beautiful, film follows two had a straightforward kind of positive, uplift ing story.... I d idn’t know w hether I needed guys who head out on a day hike (with no to be speaking from the point of view of an water or sun protection or anything else beyond the clothes on their hacks) in an anti-hero to really make a film. unnam ed desert area. A lot of the time, I’m chixising something because I’ve never done it.... But it went agaiast Choosing an alternative path to other tourists, they soon become completely lost and the grain of people who do know your history.... I was breaking whatever form people were expect unable to backtrack. They wander around ever- changing landscapes in ever-changing times of ing in an effort to see if I could make a popular piece that was not about me. ..the idea of having an identity as a particular kind of filmmaker— I’m not sure I really agree with it. I want it to be sort of anonymous. At least I think I do. [Smilesl G LB: You used to have a thing for Matt Dil lon; now you seem to have a thing for Matt Damon. W hat is it about those two guys? G V S: I like them as lead characters.... Am I supposed to say, like, I’m in love with them? [Smiles] I’m in love with all my lead characters.... A nd on their part, too; they generally want to be in love with the director. It’s sort of like they’re being admired by the c am era...it’s som ething they’re after as screen personalities. So hopefully the director is the person w ho’s admiring th e m .... It’s like a love affair, sort of. is.. .you’re basically reprcxlucing the script— that’s your daily job.... There’s not really any time to create anything new .. .it’s usually the way films are made. But all those ideas of “this is usually the way to do it” are kind of watch words. O n Gerry, the three of us were writing— Matt, Casey and myself—writing or coming up with ideas.. .it’s sort of like you’re creating it as you’re going.... We didn’t really know what exactly we were going to be doing. LB: T he film is so convincing at making these guys seem lost, I wondered how you kept from actually getting lost. GVS: Generally, we’re always near a road. I did get lost in location scouting, though. Not lost, exactly, but stranded. I had a .. .fan belt day and night, barely speaking to each other and becoming, with the audience, more and more panicky about how this story will end. And that’s it. Van Sant cites Hungarian director Bda Tarr’s cinematic style of long takes as a major influence in creating Gerry, which employs four- or five- minute continuous shots with no dialogue. This is certainly not commercially advantageous, but it’s worth it for an audience willing to endure the grueling, demanding jour ney with M att and Casey. By the time the boys shuffle into the white, industrial landscape of U tah’s salt flats (“almost like a heaven," says Van Sant), they’re barely alive, but you’ll be energized by what movie making can offer. Gerry is one of the best films you’ll see this year. Casey Affleck (left) and Matt Damon choose the road less traveled in Qerry —LB break. We were scouting in the Death Valley area, and I really didn’t think 1 was going to make it to the main road without passing out, and I thought if I passed out I would just sort of, like, bake [pauses] and die. I got very scared. I made it, but I didn’t think I was going to make it. LB: In the film, both characters are named Gerry. Why? G V S: They aren’t really both named Gerry, they’re just calling each other Gerry. The best word for it is “fuck-up.” ...S o they’re calling each other fuck-up.... It’s a word that they— Matt and Casey— use in real life.... “Gerry” became a term for something that w as...not put together well or messed u p ...an unsound idea or an unsound concept or person. LB: This film seems like an allegory about two average guys choosing the road less traveled and then making their way through difficult landscapes, trying to survive in a harsh world. G V S: It’s easy to read into it or have it be a symbol for life, a lifetim e... the selection of the actual story, you know, you start seeing the vastness of the actual idea of these two guys getting along and not making it o r.. .making it. That whole idea invites all of these symbolic and metaphoric things. It promotes that; and we’re trying to...encourage people to read into it and not discourage them to read into it by telling them what to think. LB: Last fall we interviewed Todd Haynes who said he didn’t think of mainstream, for mulaic film as “gay movies.’’ D o you think Qerry is a gay movie? G V S: He would say yes because it doesn’t fit into the industry standard of making a movie. He doesn’t want to see a movie that does fit into that standard without criticizing the standard because he’s very much into...subverting some of the same things that I’m into subverting, which is...how you’re communicating to people with film .... There is a kind of industry standard way of dealing with the vocabulary of a film. He doesn’t want to use that vocabulary because it’s not only a straight vocabulary, it’s an industrial revolution vcKabulary. It’s a really old, antiquated behe moth and, like, useless. LB: This year you’re both nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Director. GVS: We’re competing, yeah. I think he’s gonna win, though. [Laughs] I just can’t imagine that I would w in.... And, you know, I want to see him win, too. I’m a really big fan of his films. J H
