Gus Van Sant Premieres Latest at Cannes, "Paranoid Park"
Impressively distinctive is the collaboration between director and actor in Gus Van Sant's latest, "Paranoid Park." Adapted from Blake Nelson's
young adult novel of the same name, the film is the story of a kid who
hangs out at a popular Portland, OR, skate park where he accidentally
kills a local security guard and tries to keep the death a secret. Gabe Nevins stars as Alex, the teen with the secret.
A film with rich sounds and imagery, Van Sant's "Paranoid Park" is presented in a nearly square 1:37 aspect ratio, merging in one film many of the stylistic elements employed in his recent trio of films, "Elephant," "Gerry," and "Last Days." (Find out more about Elephant) Notable in this case, however, is an even stronger narrative structure that offers a window into the lives of a group of young people.
"I've been attracted to characters that are young," Van Sant said, when asked in Cannes about his consistent creation of movies about younger people. "Its my calling, I guess." A number of roles were cast using MySpace. Later, Van Sant added, "I really like working with non professionals because...I think in doing that I am trying to bring out a few of the things that are natural to them and sort of filming that side of them rather than creating from scratch... or having the actor build it."
As for the sound and look, Van Sant has woven a number of natural audio and soundscape work into the soundtrack, utilizing some musique concrete that is built upon real world sounds. Much of it is work by musician and sound artist Ethan Rose. For the images, Van Sant worked with frequent Won Kar Wai collaborator Christopher Doyle and Rain Kathy Li as his D.P. The duo utilized some Super 8 footage, shot by a local who regularly shoots in the park, for scenes of the kids skating. And they slowed it down for its usage in the film. "Because neither of us are skaters, (using slow motion was) the only way to approximate what we (wanted)...to try to give it a form that we know, celebrating this incredible energy. The physicality of skating," said Doyle.
[Photo: From left to right: Lauren McKinney, Gus Van Sant, Gabe Nevins, and Taylor Momsen at the Cannes Film Festival. Photo by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE]
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