Paranoid Park

Any mention of a Gus Van Sant film is nearly always accompanied by comments of being about disaffected or alienated male youth. While this is invariably both true and unavoidable, such superficial descriptions don’t really do Paranoid Park justice. Van Sant’s latest film is a profoundly intimate, moving and insightful meditation on the inner world of a youth in crisis.

Alex (Gave Nevins) is sixteen and, aside from navigating the usual hurdles of adolescence, school, girls and life in general, his parents have recently undergone a messy separation. His escape is to hang out with his buddy Jared (Jake Miller), and together they discover Portland’s tough Eastside Skate Park. Known to the locals as Paranoid Park, it was built by the skaters themselves, and is a magnet for all kinds of dropouts.

Alex is a fairly normal kid but everything changes one evening when he goes to Paranoid Park alone and is involved in the death of a security guard. He keeps this toxic secret to himself, but gradually reveals all in his diary.

Of Van Sant’s films, Paranoid Park (winner of the 2007 Cannes 60^th Anniversary Prize and based on a short novel by Blake Nelson) is aesthetically most similar to Elephant. It defies a linear narrative, circling around the central facts which reflects Alex’s state of shock and inability to come to terms with what has happened.

Other stylistic devices convey Alex’s fractured state of mind, such as the use of a varied range of eclectic music. Similarly effective is the use of slow motion, creating a dreamy ambience that complements the music at times, or contrasts at others, the music.

The film opens to the sounds of an ambient French track that matches the imagery of skaters floating through space, defying gravity. In fact, Paranoid Park is a French production and while the story and participants are clearly American, the film really has qualities reminiscent of French cinema. It reminded me of L’année suivante (The Year After), which recently screened at the French Film Festival. Van Sant seems to be revered by the French, perhaps more than by his own country. His work has stark similarities to my favourite type of French cinema.

The depiction of grownups from a teenage perspective is fascinating. When in frame, they either have their backs to us, or cinematographer Chris Doyle’s use of long lenses to strictly control focus means we mostly see them as a blur. They are not absent, but don’t figure prominently in Alex’s world. This is also subtly accentuated in conversations. “It’s not like she cares”, moans Alex about his mother when questioned about his movements.

We do, however, clearly see Detective Richard Liu (real-life detective, Daniel Liu). His strong presence shakes Alex’s out of his dreamy inner world and gives us a more grounded reference point within the story. His quiet intensity as he faces off with Alex at a crucial moment is as emotionally powerful as anything I have ever experienced on screen. This is when the true impact of Alex’s ordeal, as well as Van Sant’s genuine empathy for his characters is fully revealed.

In Paranoid Park, youth are disconnected from adults, but also parents are unable to engage with their children. Alex is in his own world that seems impenetrable to his parents, and they seem to struggle with words he can relate to. When Alex’s father (Jay 'Smay' Williamson, reportedly one of the actual founders of Paranoid Park) talks about inevitable divorce, his words have little interest to Alex.

Cast with mostly non-professionals, much has been made of Van Sant’s casting call via MySpace, though apparently none of the main actors were found in this way. Van Sant has used improvisation with the actors, resulting in dialogue full of authenticity, light-years from the slick depictions of youth in contemporary cinema. His characters, both adults and youths, sometimes struggle with their words. The performances were terrific.

In fact, I find it hard to fault the film in any way. The cinematography is stunningly natural, the music is entrancing and the story is compelling. Technically, the most impressive aspect is careful construction of the story through editing (by Van Sant himself).

Starting with Gerry, this film caps off four consecutive films Van Sant has made in a minimalist style he is making his own. All four of them are concerned with youth and death. In Gerry, one Gerry kills the other; in Elephant, two youths kill a number of fellow students; and in Last Days, Blake, a pseudo Kurt Cobain, takes his own life. In Paranoid Park we have a death, though not of a youth. Life, death and what occurs between, these are all compacted within the framework of a Van Sant film. The films are not about death, but death is an event that provokes other dramatic elements. For me, Paranoid Park is the most touching of all his films, at least as good as Elephant and as good as anything I’ve seen in the last year.

I include below some useful links, including Jake Wilson’s review in The Age. Not only does Jake share my enthusiasm for Paranoid Park, but he has eloquently and clearly articulated what I intuitively perceived of the film.

Links:
Official website / Q&A with Gus Van Sant / Jake Wilson’s review / Gus Van Sant interview / The Evening Class question for GVS / TimeOut interview / EyeWeekly interview / Taylor Momsen interview / Making of Paranoid Park video / Various trailers and interviews

The Week in Review

FILM:

• Dance of the Vampires (Roman Polanski, USA, 1967)
• La graine et le mulet (The Secret of the Grain, Abdellatif Kechiche, France, 2007)
• Chacun son cinéma (To Each His Own Cinema, Various, France, 2007)
• Mala Noche (Gus Van Sant, USA, 1985)
• My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant, USA, 1991)
• Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant, USA, 1989)
• Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant, France, 2007)
  

DVD:

• Curb Your Enthusiasm - 6th Season (Various, USA, 2007)

This week seems to have made up for a couple of quiet weeks. As I've mentioned previously, we're coming into a busy season for films, and this is the start of it.

The media preview of the French Film Festival was excellent, featuring films of a higher calibre than last year's. I already had the DVD of Chacun son cinéma, which I purchased online from Amazon France last year. It was great to see it on the big screen and it always brings a tear or two to my eyes. Apparently Madman are distributing it on DVD only, so the French Film Festival will be the only opportunity to see this on the big screen. The Secret of the Grain was an thrilling experience, and it deserves a fuller write-up than I can afford right now. More later.

This week also featured four films from ACMI's Focus on Gus Van Sant, and I'll also have more to write on this in the coming days. I saw Paranoid Park for the second time and found my enjoyment increased. This is a brilliant film that is well-constructed with some fascinating devices such as music and sound, cinematography and frame speed, and fractured narrative. I've written a short review for The Big Issue that should get published shortly, but I intend giving it a more comprehensive treatment on Melbourne Film Blog.

Dance of the Vampires
From a historical perspective, it's fascinating to see the breadth of a director's work displayed in a retrospective or mini-season like the three week Polanski season at Melbourne Cinémathèque. Dance of the Vampires (aka The Fearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck) is not a major work by any stretch of the imagination, a fact that is divulged by the alternative title. Polanski not only wrote and directed the film, but also plays a leading role as a vampire hunter's assistant.

The film screened with Rosemary's Baby and the Polanski season continues this week with Macbeth (my first Polanski film, which I saw in the mid '70s as part of our English readings of Shakespeare) and his much-lauded first film, Knife in the Water. The season continues the following week with three shorts and Tess.

Curb Your Enthusiasm - 6th Season
I detected a distinct change from the start of this season, but it wasn't until I'd seen all ten episodes and watched the DVD extras that I learnt why this was so. Larry David wrote all the first five series, but in the sixth he brought on board some producers who worked with him on Seinfeld, and they have contributed to the writing. I found the first two episodes a bit flat compared to the earlier series. As the series progresses, the story arc travels in new directions with the introduction of some new characters and this works well. The series builds momentum and there's a few unexpected surprises, especially the hilarious finale. All-in-all, not my favourite series, but excellent nonetheless.

The Week in Review

FILM:

• Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant, France/USA, 2007)
• Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, USA, 1977)
  

DVD:

• Curb Your Enthusiasm - 1st Season (Various, USA, 2000)
• Curb Your Enthusiasm - 3rd Season (Various, USA, 2002)

Paranoid Park
The more I think about this film, the more I like it. I can't wait to see it again. It is visually and emotionally haunting with devices in common with both Elephant and Last Days. I have more to say about Gus Van Sant's latest film, and will post a separate review in the next week or so.

The Australian premiere of Paranoid Park takes place at ACMI at 7pm on Thursday 21 March as part of ACMI's Focus on Gus Van Sant. ACMI will host a second screening at 9.30pm on Saturday 23 March before opening at the Cinema Nova on 6 March.

Killer of Sheep
This newly restored film screened at ACMI and the print was excellent. The film's black and white cinematography is just beautiful, depicting the urban and social decay in a black ghetto in Los Angeles. It has an almost documentary look and feel about it and captures a culture that Samuel L. Jackson's character vaguely reprised in Pulp Fiction.

Curb Your Enthusiasm
I've now seen the first five seasons of this ground-breaking sitcom written by and starring Larry David. I'm pretty hooked, and now I'm feeling disappointed that I have no more series to watch. Fortunately the sixth series, which screened in the US late last year, has just been released on DVD. I've ordered it on Amazon and should receive that within a couple of weeks.

Focus on Gus Van Sant

I mentioned late last year that ACMI will be screening a Focus on Gus Van Sant. Today I received further details, posted below. While I saw (and liked immensely) and To Die For and Good Will Hunting, it was after seeing Elephant that I really took notice of this guy's work. I was in the US at the time, and had received no information about the film at all. I sat there in the cinema watching these kids being filmed from different perspectives, intrigued at what the story could be drawing towards. I had no idea that this was a story based on the Columbine school shootings, and as the plot began to become clear, my partner and I started to sink into our seats first with dread, and then horror. I found the film beautifully filmed, with terrific performances from mostly non-professionals. The impact was amazing. It was a graphic example of how much better a film's impact is when seen without any pre-empting. It was my favourite film of 2003 (though it was released in Australia in 2004).

I next saw Gerry, which from memory screened in Melbourne only at the Lumiere, whose demise has meant we rarely get to see films of this calibre. It has a raw austerity about its narrative that makes it difficult to watch for the conventional movie-goer. I missed Last Days on its theatrical release, which I think was quite brief, so I saw it on DVD. Again, this film challenges some audiences, but rewards the patient.

I'm hoping to catch as many of the other titles screening as I can, especially and Drugstore Cowboy, Mala Noche and My Own Private Idaho as well as the Australian premiere of Van Sant's latest film, Paranoid Park.

The Focus on Gus Van Sant screens at ACMI from Thu 21 - Fri 29 February, then tours nationally as follows:

• Sydney: 29 February - 4 March
• Brisbane: 6 - 9 March
• Canberra: 7 - 12 March

Paranoid Park is distributed by Madman Cinema and opens in cinemas on 6 March in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and 13 March in Canberra. Its Australian premiere is at ACMI on 21 February.

Following is program information of the retrospective as well as film synopses provided by ACMI (or check out the Calendar of Film Events in the sidebar):

Thu 21 Feb 7 pm (Australian premiere) Sat 23 Feb 9.30pm
Paranoid Park
Gus Van Sant, 91 mins, USA/France, 2007, 35mm.
Van Sant’s latest film, which garnered the Anniversary Prize at the 60^th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in 2007, is set in Portland, Van Sant’s adopted ‘hometown’ and frequent setting for his films. Alex (Gabe Nevins) is a slow-burn teen whose uneventful life takes a dramatic turn after a visit to a local skate park. Van Sant’s stylistic preoccupation with layered sound and visual design finds full expression in a film that is artfully constructed and whose emotional impact is precisely calibrated. “Despite its formal experimentation and its melancholy tone, this is also an emotionally direct, frequently very funny exploration of the effects of a single unimaginable disaster upon a single ordinary life” Edinburgh Film Festival

Thu 21 Feb 9 pm, Mon 25 Feb 9 pm
Psycho
Gus Van Sant, 105 mins, USA, 1998, 35mm.
When Van Sant announced he was set to remake Alfred Hitchcock’s venerable Psycho (1960), the kindest response anyone could elicit was that his intention was “heroic and suicidal”. Aided by his mercurial director of photography, Christopher Doyle – most closely associated, up to that point, with the brilliant colour spectrums he devised and shot for Wong Kar-Wai – Van Sant’s Warhol-worthy shot-for-shot appropriation incorporated formal experiments with lighting and rear projection, re-workings of Bernard Hermann’s score and Saul Bass’ titles, with a trademark subliminal insert here and there for Van Sant purists. Anne Heche and Vince Vaughn play it straight to great effect. “Norman Bates is alive and well, and just a tad kinkier than you remember” San Francisco Chronicle

Fri 22 Feb 7 pm, Sun 24 Feb 3.30 pm
Mala Noche
Gus Van Sant, 87 mins, USA, 1985, 35mm (new print)
Based on a story by Portland-based writer Walt Curtis, Van Sant’s debut feature is direct, unsentimental and lingers hauntingly for its lack of guile. The director imbues the narrative with themes – longing, the burden of unrequited love (Walt philosophizes on “the impossibilities of love” with a straight Mexican ‘alien’ who has no interest in him) and both the metaphorical and more literal ‘homelessness’ of characters on the fringes of society – that will reverberate through later films, most poetically in My Own Private Idaho. Originally shot (in black and white) on 16mm, Mala Noche will be presented in a new 35mm print with digitally restored sound.

Fri 22 Feb 9 pm, Tue 26 Feb 9 pm
My Own Private Idaho
Gus Van Sant, 102 mins, USA, 1991, 35mm
“If I had a normal family and a good upbringing then I would have been a well adjusted person” Mike (River Phoenix) plaintively tells Scott (Keanu Reeves) in a rare exchange of awkwardly articulated truths between the two street hustlers. Scott is the son of Portland’s mayor and his Midnight Cowboy ‘phase’ no more than a calculated rebellion before he takes up the mantle of social prestige he assumes as his birthright. Mike’s path is less clear; a sensitive narcoleptic nursing a deep sense of maternal abandonment, Mike’s ‘fortunes’ rely far more precariously on the kindness – or otherwise – of all too random strangers. “An essential testament to the beauty and [acting] chops of the late River Phoenix” Rolling Stone

Sat 23 Feb 5 pm, Mon 25 Feb 7 pm
To Die For
Gus Van Sant, 106 mins, USA, 1995, 35mm
Nicole Kidman actively courted Van Sant for the role of Suzanne Stone, the cravenly ambitious and celebrity-obsessed wannabe TV ‘personality’ whose devious machinations propel the storyline in this jagged black comedy. (Kidman was rewarded with a Golden Globe for her bravura turn.) Matt Dillon, Dan Hedaya and Illeana Douglas contribute spikily nuanced supporting roles, with Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck and Alison Folland note perfect as the disaffected teens cynically recruited by Suzanne for her Teens Speak Out video project. David Cronenberg appears in an intriguing cameo. “Sparked by a volcanically sexy and richly comic performance by Kidman...prime social satire and outrageous fun” Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Sat 23 Feb 7.30 pm, Tue 26 Feb 7 pm
Drugstore Cowboy
Gus Van Sant, 100 mins, USA, 1989, 35mm
Set in Portland and the Pacific Northwest in 1971, Matt Dillon, (in a career-defining role) plays Bob, a “shameless, full-time dope fiend” who’d rather hit a drugstore than cosy up to his (dissatisfied) wife (Kelly Lynch). When he and his on-the-lam ‘crew’ (James LeGros and Heather Graham) check into a motel hosting a sheriffs’ convention, Bob reads the signs and decides it might be time to turn over a new ‘leaf’. Key Van Sant motifs – dryly self-aware yet spiritually exiled first person narrators, time lapse photography, trippy point of view shots, Super 8 ‘inserts’ – are all on show in this, the director’s break-out indie hit. A brilliantly caustic William Burroughs appears as a philosophising priest with patently unsanctioned views on the role of narcotics in society.

Sun 24 Feb 5.30pm, Thur 28 Feb 7 pm
Gerry
Gus Van Sant, 98 mins, USA, 2002, 35mm
Van Sant’s existential ‘buddy’ movie begins with a bravura opening sequence that is audaciously Beckett-like in its deliberate lack of narrative exposition. It sets the tone for the film to come. The two Gerrys (Matt Damon and Casey Affleck) make cryptic references to “the thing” they are striving towards on a wilderness trail, then change their minds and lose their way in an increasingly sparse and foreboding landscape. Van Sant ‘regulars’ Harris Savidis (cinematography) and Leslie Shatz (sound design) add immeasurably to the texture of the film, particularly as the characters’ perceptions begin to give way to hallucinatory abstractions. “Could well be Van Sant’s masterpiece” San Francisco Examiner

Sun 24 Feb 7.30pm, Fri 29 Feb 7pm
Elephant
Gus Van Sant, 81 mins, USA, 2003, 35mm
Van Sant drew inspiration for key protagonists in Elephant from the real-life Columbine tragedy, but his highly stylised, consummately crafted evocation of a day in the life of a ‘normal’ American high school conveys a surface ordinariness that in its very universality, disturbingly taps into a pervasive undercurrent of unease beyond the specifics of that notorious event. Long, rhythmic takes and tracking shots of students going about their day in the corridors, cafeteria and sports ground of a generic high school almost subliminally map a topography of the school in the viewer’s mind that is later chillingly revisited by the student killers. “Gripping and superbly made. An outstanding film” The Guardian

Thu 28 Feb 9 pm
Last Days
Gus Van Sant, 97 mins, USA, 2005, 35mm
Michael Pitt (The Dreamers, Delirious) cuts a hauntingly familiar figure in Van Sant’s meditation on the final days in the life of a famed musician retreating from the clamour of the world and its myriad, insistent demands. (The film is dedicated to Kurt Cobain.) “Success is subjective” a kindly Yellow Pages rep tells Blake, before inviting him to consider how a directory listing may best serve his “business needs”. Blake prefers to wander the woods on his sprawling estate, build himself a campfire and ironically sing Home on the Range to no one in particular. “An opaque masterpiece” Dennis Lim, The Village Voice