Gus Van Sant: An Unauthorized Biography - Hardcover

Parish, James Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1560253371 ISBN 13: 9781560253372

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2001

Synopsis

Enigmatic, retiring, and openly gay, Gus Van Sant is one of the best-known independent filmmakers. An active and honored director for two decades, noted for his rapport with actors, Van Sant nevertheless remains aloof from Hollywood, preferring to live and write in Portland, OR. Extensively researched and based on interviews with the director, Gus Van Sant examines his career from the inauspicious debut Mala Noche to the haunting Drugstore Cowboy; from the angst-ridden My Own Private Idaho and the mainstream black comedy To Die For to the Oscar-nominated Good Will Hunting and the high-profile Finding Forrester. Van Sant remains committed to exploring themes of the outsider and presenting an idiosyncratic vision in an unobtrusive but compelling style. Equally important, under Van Sant's guidance many actors (Matt Dillon, River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, Nicole Kidman, Matt Damon, and acclaimed newcomer Robert Brown, whom Van Sant discovered) have done their best work. The first full-length biography of the Oscar nominated director, author Parish has interviewed Van Sant exclusively for this book.

About this title

About the Author

JAMES ROBERT PARISH, a former entertainment reporter, publicist, and book series editor, is the author of many published major biographies and reference books on the entertainment industry including Whitney Houston: We Will Always Love You; The Hollywood Book of Extravagance; It’s Good to Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks; The Hollywood Book of Breakups; Fiascos: Hollywood’s Iconic Flops; The Hollywood Book of Scandals; The Hollywood Book of Love; Hollywood Divas; Jet Li; Hollywood Bad Boys; The Encyclopedia of Ethnic Groups in Hollywood; The Hollywood Book of Death; Whoopi Goldberg; Rosie O’Donnell’s Story; The Unofficial “Murder, She Wrote” Casebook; Today’s Black Hollywood; Let’s Talk! America’s Favorite TV Talk Show Hosts; Prison Pictures from Hollywood; Prostitution in Hollywood Films; The Great Cop Pictures; Ghosts and Angels in Hollywood Films; Pirates and Seafaring Swashbucklers on the Hollywood Screen; Gays and Lesbians in Mainstream Cinema; The Jeanette MacDonald Story, Hollywood’s Great Love Teams; and The Fox Girls. Mr. Parish is a frequent oncamera interviewee on cable and network TV for documentaries on the performing arts. The author resides in Studio City, California.

From Publishers Weekly

This biography of director Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho; Good Will Hunting) is so crammed with details that it's a veritable encyclopedia of everything you ever wanted to know about the artist's life and career. Van Sant grew up in an upper-middle-class family in Connecticut and Portland, Ore., and attended Rhode Island School of Design. After working in smalltime filmmaking, songwriting, advertising and the garment business, he hit it big on the indie film circuit with Male Noche, a film about Portland's demimode of male hustling. Unlike most independent filmmakers, Van Sant landed gigs in Hollywood, first with Drugstore Cowboy and then with studio films like To Die For and Finding Forester, making him one of today's more successful directors. Drawing on published interviews with Van Sant, film reviews and interviews with his subject's family and friends, Parish charts Van Sant's life in particulars ranging from the mundane (his home address while growing up) to the spicy (rumors that he was sexually interested in River Phoenix while shooting My Own Private Idaho). While there is very little new material or in-depth analysis, Parish does document fascinating tidbits such as Van Sant's views on how gay directors have an artistic edge in filming heterosexual love scenes and the Village Voice's comment that Van Sant's loving camera angles of Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting nearly amounted to "boy porn." Certainly not the last critical word on Van Sant, this biography is a good introduction and will be the basis for future work. Agent, Stuart Bernstein.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1560253371
• ISBN 13: 9781560253372
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320