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'''Gus Van Sant Jr.''' (born July_24, 1952 in Louisville, Kentucky) is an AmericanFilm_director, Photographer, Musician, and Author. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon.
His early career was devoted to directing Television_commercials in the Pacific Northwest. Van Sant is openly gay, and many of his movies include gay themes or characters.
His filmography as writer and director includes an adaptation of Tom_Robbins' novel ''Even_Cowgirls_Get_the_Blues'', which features a diverse cast (Keanu_Reeves, Roseanne_Barr, Uma_Thurman, and K.d._lang, with cameos by William_S._Burroughs and Heather_Graham, among others); and ''My_Own_Private_Idaho'', also starring Reeves as well as the late River_Phoenix (Van Sant also planned to direct a biographical film about Andy_Warhol with Phoenix in the lead role, but canceled the project after Phoenix's death). He is perhaps best known for directing ''Good_Will_Hunting''.
As an actor, Van Sant has appeared in a cameo on screen in Kevin_Smith's ''Jay_and_Silent_Bob_Strike_Back''.
He has written the screenplays for most of his early movies, and has written one novel, ''Pink'' (ISBN 0-385-49353-3). A book of his photography has also been published called ''108 Portraits'' (ISBN 0-944092-22-5).
As a musician, Van Sant has released two albums: ''Gus Van Sant'' and ''18 Songs About Golf''.
==Biography==
The son of a traveling salesman who rapidly worked his way up the corporate ladder into middle-class prosperity, Van Sant was born in Louisville,_Kentucky, on July 24, 1952. As a result of his father's job, the family moved continuously during Van Sant's childhood. One constant in the director's early years was his interest in painting and Super-8 filmmaking; while still in school he began making semi-autobiographical shorts costing between 30 and 50 dollars. Van Sant's artistic leanings took him to the Rhode_Island_School_of_Design in 1970, where his classmates included David_Byrne and other members of Talking_Heads. It was also at R.I.S.D. that Van Sant received an introduction to Avant-garde directors like Stan_Brakhage, Jonas_Mekas, and Andy_Warhol; this introduction quickly inspired him to change his major from painting to cinema.
After spending time in Europe, Van Sant went to Los_Angeles in 1976. He secured a job as a production assistant to writer/director Ken_Shapiro, with whom he developed a few ideas, none of which came to fruition. Van Sant channeled his frustrations into the 1981 ''Alice in Hollywood'', a film about a naïve young actress who goes to Hollywood and abandons her ideals. It was never released. During this period, Van Sant began to spend time observing the denizens of the more down-and-out sections of Hollywood_Boulevard. He became fascinated by the existence of this marginalized section of L.A.'s population, especially in context with the more ordinary, prosperous world that surrounded them. Van Sant would repeatedly focus his work on those existing on society's fringes, beginning with his 1985 ''Mala_Noche''.
''Mala Noche'' was made two years after Van Sant went to New York to work in an advertising agency; after saving 25,000 dollars during his tenure there, he was able to finance his tale of doomed love between a gay liquor store clerk and a Mexican immigrant. The film, which was taken from Portland street writer Walt_Curtis' semi-autobiographical novella, featured some of the director's hallmarks, notably an unfulfilled romanticism, a dry sense of the absurd, and the refusal to treat homosexuality as something deserving of judgment. Unlike many Gay_filmmakers, Van Sant—who had long been openly gay—declined to use same-sex relationships as fodder for overtly political statements, although such relationships would frequently appear in his films.
Shot in black-and-white, ''Mala Noche'' earned its director almost overnight acclaim on the festival circuit, with the ''Los Angeles Times'' naming it the year's Best Independent Film. The film's success attracted Hollywood interest, and Van Sant was briefly courted by Universal; the courtship ended after Van Sant pitched a series of project ideas (including what would later become ''Drugstore_Cowboy'' and ''My_Own_Private_Idaho'') that the studio declined to take interest in.
Van Sant reacted by moving to Portland, Oregon, where he set up house and began giving life to the ideas rejected by Universal. With the assistance of independent production company Avenue, the director made ''Drugstore Cowboy'', his 1989 film about four drug addicts who rob pharmacies to support their habit. ''Cowboy'' met with great critical success; in addition to furthering Van Sant's reputation as a gifted director, it helped to revive the career of Matt_Dillon, who was remarkable as the junkie leader who decides to come clean. The film's exploration of the lives of those living on society's outer fringes, as well as its Portland setting, were mirrored in Van Sant's next effort, the similarly acclaimed ''My Own Private Idaho'' (1991). Centering around the dealings of two male hustlers (played by River_Phoenix and Keanu_Reeves), the film was a compelling examination of unrequited love, alienation, and the concept of family (a concept Van Sant repeatedly explores in his films). The film won him an Independent_Spirit_Award for his screenplay (he had won the same award for his Drugstore Cowboy screenplay), as well as greater prestige. In addition, it helped Reeves—previously best-known for his work in the ''Bill_and_Ted'' movies—to get the critical respect that had hitherto eluded him.
Van Sant's next project, a 1994 adaptation of Tom_Robbins' ''Even_Cowgirls_Get_the_Blues'', was an excessive flop, both commercially and critically. Featuring an unusually large budget (for Van Sant, at least) of 8.5 million dollars and a large, eclectic cast including Uma_Thurman, John_Hurt, and Keanu Reeves, the film was worked and then reworked, but the finished product nonetheless resulted in something approaching a significant disaster.
Fortunately for Van Sant, his next project, 1995's ''To_Die_For'', helped to restore his luster. An adaptation of Joyce_Maynard's novel, the Black_comedy starred Nicole_Kidman as a murderously ambitious weather girl; it also featured Van Sant favorite Matt Dillon as her hapless husband and Joaquin_Phoenix, brother of the late River (who had died of an overdose two years earlier), as her equally hapless lover. It was Van Sant's first effort for a major studio (Columbia), and its success paved the way for further projects of the director's choosing. The same year, he served as executive producer for Larry_Clark's ''Kids''; it was a fitting assignment, due to both the film's subject matter and the fact that Clark's photographs of junkies had served as reference points for Van Sant's ''Drugstore Cowboy''.
In 1997 came true mainstream acceptance for the director, thanks to ''Good_Will_Hunting''. Starring and written by Matt_Damon and Ben_Affleck, the film—about a troubled, blue-collar genius—was a huge critical and commercial success. In addition to taking in more than 220 million dollars worldwide, it received a number of Academy Award nominations, including a Best Director nomination for Van Sant. It won a Best Screenplay Oscar for Damon and Affleck, and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Robin_Williams. The unprecedented success of ''Good Will Hunting'' allowed Van Sant to pursue whatever project his heart desired, which ended up being an unusually faithful remake of the Alfred_Hitchcock classic ''Psycho''. As opposed to reinterpreting the 1960 film, however, Van Sant opted to recreate the film shot-for-shot, in color, with a cast of young Hollywood A-listers. His decision was met with equal parts curiosity, skepticism, and derision from industry insiders and outsiders alike, and the finished result met with a similar reception. Starring Anne_Heche, Vince_Vaughn, and Julianne_Moore, ''Psycho'', if not exactly a failure, wasn't much of a triumph, either. However, its mixed reception didn't deter the director, who was soon busy again with a number of projects. In addition to directing, he also devoted considerable energy to releasing two albums and published a novel, ''Pink'', which was a thinly veiled exploration of his grief over River Phoenix's 1993 death.
Van Sant fared somewhat better with 2000's ''Finding_Forrester'', a drama about a high-school student from The_Bronx (Rob Brown) who becomes unlikely friends with a crusty, reclusive author (Sean_Connery). Critical response was mixed but generally positive, singling out Van Sant's skill at melding the performance styles of first-time actor Brown and Hollywood legend Connery; however, those same reviewers were less impressed with the script's schematic, ''Scent_of_a_Woman''-meets-''Good Will Hunting'' template.
In any event, Van Sant—longing to return to more-intimate production methods—decided to leave behind big-budget studio filmmaking for his next two features. Inspired by the works of Hungarian director Bela_Tarr and American maverick John_Cassavetes, Van Sant retreated to the deserts of Argentina, Utah, and Death_Valley for 2002's ''Gerry'', a loosely devised, largely improvised feature in which stars Matt Damon and Casey_Affleck—both playing characters named Gerry—wander through the desert, discussing ''Wheel_of_Fortune'', video games, and nothing in particular. Premiering at the Sundance_Film_Festival, the film earned as much derision as it did praise, polarizing audiences with its elliptical, purposefully uneventful storyline, punctuated by cinematographer Harris_Savides' stunning landscape photography.
It took ''Gerry'' over a year to make it to theaters, in which time Van Sant began production on his next film, the controversial ''Elephant''. Approached by HBO and producer Diane_Keaton to craft a fictional film based on the 1999 Columbine_High_School_massacre, the director chose to shoot in his hometown of Portland, employing dozens of untrained teen actors to chronicle an "ordinary" high-school day—albeit one underlined by an unexpected tragedy. Melding improvisational long takes like those in Gerry with Savides' fluid camerawork, the finished film provoked strong reactions from audiences at the 2003 Cannes_Film_Festival, who either embraced or rejected Van Sant's aesthetic decision not to offer a definitive rationale for his characters' homicidal tendencies. The consensus from the Cannes jury was unanimous, however: in a surprise decision, they awarded ''Elephant'' with their top prize, the Palme d'Or, and Van Sant with his first Best Director statue from the festival.
In 2005, Van Sant released ''Last Days'', the final component of what he refers to as his "Death_Trilogy", (the other parts being ''Gerry'' and ''Elephant''). It is a fictionalized account of what happened to Nirvana frontman Kurt_Cobain in the days leading up to his death.
==Awards and nominations==
*Academy Award nomination for Best Director in 1998 for ''Good_Will_Hunting''
*Cannes_Film_Festival in 2003 for ''Elephant''
**Best Director
**Palme_d'Or
==Selected directorial filmography==
*''Mala_Noche'' (1985)
*''Five_Ways_to_Kill_Yourself'' (1987)
*''My_New_Friend'' (1987)
*''Ken_Death_Gets_Out_of_Jail'' (1987)
*''Drugstore_Cowboy'' (1989)
*"Fame_'90" (1990) - music video for David_Bowie
*''Thanksgiving_Prayer'' (1991)
*''My_Own_Private_Idaho'' (1991)
*"Under_The_Bridge" (1992) - Music_video for the Red_Hot_Chili_Peppers
*"The_Last_Song" (1992) - music video for Elton_John
*''Even_Cowgirls_Get_the_Blues'' (1993)
*''To_Die_For'' (1995)
*''Kids'' (1995)
*''Four_Boys_in_a_Volvo'' (1996)
*''Good_Will_Hunting'' (1997)
*''Ballad_of_the_Skeletons'' (1997)
*''Psycho'' (1998) - a Remake
*''Weird'' (1998) - Music_video for Hanson
*''Finding_Forrester'' (2000)
*''Gerry'' (2002)
*''Elephant'' (2003)
*''Last Days'' (2005)
*''Paris,_je_t'aime'' (2006) - (segment "4e arrondissement")
*''Paranoid_Park'' (2007) - announced
{{Footer_Movies_Gus_Van_Sant}}
==External links==
*{{imdb name|id=0001814|name=Gus Van Sant}}
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