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Personal info | Biography | Trivia | Filmography | Pictures |
| Name | Gus van Sant | Date of birth | 24th July 1952 |
| Marital status | Birthplace | Louisville, Kentucky, USA | |
| Personal links |
Unofficial site The God of filmmaking: Gus van Sant Fansite of Gus van Sant The Gus Van Sant Fan Dedication Page |
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If you have ever seen a Gus Van Sant movie, it is not going to come as any surprise to you that he is “family”.
Born in Kentucky, Louisville to be exact, on July 24, 1952, Gus Van Sant has a way of making the unconventional a pleasure to watch. Because of his father’s job, Van Sant moved around a lot as a child. Having developed and interest in painting and Super-8 filmmaking; while still in school he began making semi-autobiographical shorts costing between $30 and $50. During college, Van Sant developed a strong affinity to off the wall directors like Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas and Andy Warhol; this introduction quickly inspired him to change his major from painting to cinema.
After College Van Sant went to Europe and returned to Los Angeles in 1976; Van Sant credits his time spent with LA’s fringe groups with most of his story lines. It was not until 1985’s Mala Noche did Van Sant finally get some measure of success. Van Sant financed Mala Noche by working in New York at an advertising agency. Mala Noche tells the tale of a Gay liquor store clerk and his doomed love affair with a Mexican immigrant. The film taken from Walt Curtis’ semi-autobiographical novella featured Van Sant’s hallmarks, mainly unfulfilled romanticism, a wicked sense of the absurd, and the refusal to treat homosexuality as something deserving judgement. Van Sant refuses to use homosexual relationships as political statements, although he features such relationships in many of his films.
Shot in black in white, Mala Noche, made Van Sant an “overnight” success on the film festival circuit. This success brought the attention of Universal to Van Sant who pitched the ideas to Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho. Universal passed on the ideas.
1989’s Drugstore Cowboy stars Matt Dillon as the leader of a gang of four junkies who rob Drugstores to support their habits.
Van Sant again explored the outer fringes of society in 1991, with My Own Private Idaho. My personal favorite Van Sant movie, stars Keanu Reeves and the late River Phoenix. Shakespearean in its form Idaho tells the story of two gay hustlers, a spoiled rich boy (Reeves) and narcoleptic boy toy (Phoenix). It is a tale of unrequited love and the concept of family. It is a moving film that won several independent awards and showed that Keanu Reeves could play more than a pretty boy.
Next up was 1994’s commercial flop, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Starring Uma Thurman, John Hurt, Rain Phoenix and Keanu Reeves (can you blame Gus for wanting to work with the hunky Keanu again?). To try sum this movie up in the limited space is to do an injustice to the movie. It is not as bad as the critics made it out to be, but you will have to watch it and make that judgment yourself.
Next up for Van Sant and much more liked by the public and critics alike was To Die For starring Nicole Kidman as a psychotic weather girl who is trying to kill her husband, Matt Dillon, with the help of her asinine lover, Joaquin Phoenix. Released in 1995 this was Van Sant’s first film for a major studio (Columbia) and the success lead him to other projects, notably Larry Clark’s Kids as executive producer. (Personal Note here: Larry Clark’s Ken Park will probably be the most controversial and talked about films of the next year).
It was 1997’s Good Will Hunting did Van Sant achieve true mainstream acceptance. It was Good Will Hunting that gave Van Sant his Academy Award nomination for best director.
In 1998 Van Sant remade Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, exactly as it was made before. The public and critics alike had one thing on their minds… Why? When asked "Why in the hell would you want to do a shot-by-shot remake of Psycho in color?" He serenely replied "So no one else would have to."
In 2000, Van Sant made Finding Forrester, the story of an Afro-American writing prodigy who finds a mentor in a reclusive author William Forrester played by Sean Connery.
Gerry, Van Sant’s next film was an almost straight to Video Release. Starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck this movie has almost no positive reviews. The story of two guys lost in the desert and how they handle it. Here is what one reviewer on IMDB.com had to say about it.
As Gus Van Sant has remade Psycho, so has he remade The Blair Witch Project without actually acknowledging it. Matt Damon and Casey Affleck (who is actually a terrific actor and probably better looking that his brother) get lost in the desert. While there is a great sense of dread and claustrophobia in this movie, there is very little else offered other than the photography. A wild, empty experiment.
This year brings the release of Elephant, the story of two gay Neo-Nazi’s committing a Columbine type massacre at an Oregon High School.
It was recently announced that Van Sant has signed on to do a Gay Cowboy Love story called Brokeback Mountain. I am sure that Gus will bring us the same off the wall story that he has in the past.
Written by: Rick Nonya on the GayMoviesandVideos website.
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Graduate of Rhode Island School of Design
Favorite director is Stanley Kubrick
Is a member of a band called Kill All Blondes.
Once worked as an assistant to Roger Corman
Director of Red Hot Chilli Peppers' "under the bridge" music video
Director of Hanson's music video "Weird" and recently asked Hanson to produce a song for his next movie.
He dedicated both his 1993 film 'Even Cowgirls Get The Blues' and his 1997 novel 'Pink' to the late actor River Phoenix.
Van Sant had planned to make a film about artist Andy Warhol with River Phoenix starring as the young Warhol, but plans were scrapped after Phoenix's death.
Has directed 3 of the 5 Phoenix siblings in his movies. River Phoenix in My Own Private Idaho (1991), Rain Phoenix in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) and Joaquin Phoenix in To Die For (1995).
Often casts Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea in small or cameo roles his films.
His 1997 film 'Good Will Hunting' is parodied in the 2001 Kevin Smith film 'Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back'.
In 1992 received the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU) of Oregon's Freedom of Expression Award, which recognizes courage or creative vision in upholding free expression, particularly in the arts, for his films that have, " let us see inside the lives of individuals we don't often get a glimpse at."
In addition to being a successful film director Gus Van Sant is also a published author (his first novel 'Pink' was published in 1997), a musician (2 solo albums 'Gus Van Sant' and '18 Songs About Golf' were released on the PopTones label in late 1997, plus his musical/spoken word collaboration with William S. Burroughs 'The Elvis Of Letters' was released in 1985 as the first album put out on the Tim Kerr record label), and a photographer (a large book of his photographs titled '108 Portraits' was published in 1992 and is now something of a collectors item.)
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| Year | Title | Character |
| 2003 | Larry Clark, Great American Rebel | Himself |
| 2003 | Elephant | Director, Writer, Editor |
| 2002 | The best of Bowie | Director |
| 2002 | Gerry | Director, Writer, Editor |
| 2001 | Rescued From the Closet | Himself |
| 2001 | Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back | Himself |
| 2000 | Finding Forrester | Director |
| 1999 | 'Psycho' Path | Himself, Executive Producer |
| 1999 | Speedway Junky | Executive Producer |
| 1998 | Psycho | Producer |
| 1998 | The 70th Annual Academy Awards | Himself |
| 1997 | Good Will Hunting | Director, Sound Re-recording Mixer |
| 1996 | Ballad of the Skeletons | Director, Writer |
| 1996 | Understanding | Director |
| 1996 | Four Boys in a Volvo | Director |
| 1995 | The Celluloid Closet | Special thanks |
| 1995 | Kids | Executive Producer |
| 1995 | To Die For | Director |
| 1993 | Bowie: The Video Collection | Director |
| 1993 | Even Cowgirls Get the Blues | Director, Writer, Executive Producer, Editor |
| 1991 | Red Hot Chili Peppers: Funky Monks | Himself |
| 1991 | Thanksgiving Prayer | Director, Writer, Producer |
| 1991 | My Own Private Idaho | Director, Writer |
| 1989 | Drugstore Cowboy | Director, Writer |
| 1987 | Ken Death Gets Out of Jail | Director |
| 1987 | My New Friend | Director |
| 1987 | Five Ways to Kill Yourself | Director |
| 1985 | Mala Noche | Director, Writer, Producer, Editor |
| 1978 | Property | Sound Recordist |
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