Thursday, May 29, 2008
Not quite in a Paranoid Park
It is not often that the unspoken super cedes the spoken, the unknown overpowers the known, the lost reverberates deeper than the found. Or is it? One has no choice but to ask these questions when one is confronted by overbearing examples of them. Overbearing, unflinching, and quietly devastating, like Gandhi's satya-graha, or Frost's empty roads. Some may say that comparing meagre cinema to life changing revolution is a bit much, but then, life isn't always led on the battlefield, is it? In the words of Mary Schmich, now a part of pop culture, "the biggest problems will be those that blindside you, on an idle Tuesday afternoon." Sometimes, these confrontations can be in cinema. Especially by an auteur like Gus Van Sant.
Now most of you know Gus Van Sant as the Academy Award director of Good Will Hunting. Few have seen the brilliance of the man, unhindered by Hollywood constraints, in some of his greatest works. Now don't get me wrong, I loved Good Will Hunting. However, it isn't what I, and I expect any Gus Van Sant fan associates with the genius. The cinema of Gus van Sant is about quiet, long pauses, wide shots between crowded corridors, suddenly made mute. The audacity of his cinema explores the depths of human perversion, whilst reaching for heights of restrained exultation. Such movies as Gerry, To Die For, My Own Private Idaho, Elephant, Drugstore Cowboy, and the most recent Paranoid Park are films that bear the remarkable stamp of a man who allows self conflict to implode in the most provocative manner on screen.
Specifically, perhaps his most refined exploration of the human psyche is his his most recent. Paranoid Park, about a young skater boy who is accidentally responsible for the death of a police officer, is brilliant in the fact that it is barely about that. To take a premise, not allow it lose importance, and concentrate however on the little details that encompass the life of the subject, that is the true style of Van Sant. His stories are often simple with one line synopsyses, but that is how they allow you to transcend the two dimensions of the film screen, and travel with him, through the depths of his motivations and his deep understanding of the subtleties that make life beauteous.
Van Sant is a master of the insignificant person, the average Joe, the little guy. At the same time, he's a champion of the somebody. He can create effective portrayals of characters like Hunting, Forrester and now, in his next film, Milk. All these are representative of a visionary. And in his tiny independent clique, now fast expanding, Van Sant stands tall with his accomplishments. And we stand by, waiting to add a name to list. Waiting to add a brick to the unfinished wall. But wait, isn't that what he's all about, the unfinished, the incomplete, the abrupt?
Now most of you know Gus Van Sant as the Academy Award director of Good Will Hunting. Few have seen the brilliance of the man, unhindered by Hollywood constraints, in some of his greatest works. Now don't get me wrong, I loved Good Will Hunting. However, it isn't what I, and I expect any Gus Van Sant fan associates with the genius. The cinema of Gus van Sant is about quiet, long pauses, wide shots between crowded corridors, suddenly made mute. The audacity of his cinema explores the depths of human perversion, whilst reaching for heights of restrained exultation. Such movies as Gerry, To Die For, My Own Private Idaho, Elephant, Drugstore Cowboy, and the most recent Paranoid Park are films that bear the remarkable stamp of a man who allows self conflict to implode in the most provocative manner on screen.
Specifically, perhaps his most refined exploration of the human psyche is his his most recent. Paranoid Park, about a young skater boy who is accidentally responsible for the death of a police officer, is brilliant in the fact that it is barely about that. To take a premise, not allow it lose importance, and concentrate however on the little details that encompass the life of the subject, that is the true style of Van Sant. His stories are often simple with one line synopsyses, but that is how they allow you to transcend the two dimensions of the film screen, and travel with him, through the depths of his motivations and his deep understanding of the subtleties that make life beauteous.
Van Sant is a master of the insignificant person, the average Joe, the little guy. At the same time, he's a champion of the somebody. He can create effective portrayals of characters like Hunting, Forrester and now, in his next film, Milk. All these are representative of a visionary. And in his tiny independent clique, now fast expanding, Van Sant stands tall with his accomplishments. And we stand by, waiting to add a name to list. Waiting to add a brick to the unfinished wall. But wait, isn't that what he's all about, the unfinished, the incomplete, the abrupt?
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1 comments:
You should become a film critic man. You write so well about movies. I wish I could :( Sigh!
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