Ten films of 2000-2008

• 2000-2002
  • In The Mood For Love
  • 8 Women
  • Mulholland Drive
• 2003-2005
  • Elephant
  • The New World
  • Dogville
  • A History Of Violence
• 2006-2008
  • The Secret of the Grain
  • No Country For Old Men
• Webography

 

French cinema magazines

• Cahiers du cinema
• les Inrocks
• Positif

Elephant

Gus van Sant was born in Louisville in Kentucky the 24 july 1952. He was rapidly passionated for paintings and photography. He is graduated at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1970. He started his career in cinema in the 70’s but his first full-leigth was shot in 1985.  His career his divided into four parts: the first one is experimental with a lot of litterature influences: Mala Noche(1985), Drugstore Cowboys(1989), My Own Private Idaho(1991), Even Cowgirls Get The Blues(1993). This part of his career is influenced by Portand Oregon and Seattle. The second one has a strong influence of Hollywood. Van Sant started to do commission films: To Die For(1995),  Good Will Hunting(1997), Psycho(1998), Finding Forrester(2000).In 2002 with Gerry Gus van Sant started again a experimental cinema, very contemplative and quite abstruse: Gerry, Elephant(2003), Last Days (2005), Paranoid Park(2007). These films are independents.With his new movie Harvey Milk van Sant begins a new cycle between experimental cinema and Hollywood films. It deals with the gay cause (one of the struggles of Gus van Sant) in a biopic of Milk a gay politician of San Francisco. He was murdered in 1978.
Nowdays Gus Van Sant works on a new project: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

 

Elephant
The film deals with a true story of a bloodshed in a highschool (USA) in 1999. This actual event  was already used in cinema by Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine) in 2002. This film denounced the use of guns in the USA.
On the contrary Elephant does not want to explain the attitude of the two teenagers who shot many pupils in their highschool. The scene takes place a short time before the shooting occurs. The movie is divided is a few scenes that are perceived by different characters. Gus Van Sant dissects his film in five parts. The movie camera fallow six different youngsters in their everyday life. Elephant is a most contemplative film about adolescence and incongruity of life. The films stars mostly non professionnal actors. It was shot in the suburbs of Portland Oregon, the home town of Gus Van Sant. The directors for this film is influenced by Stanley Kubrick.The corridor’s travelling remind me of the corridor’s scene in The Shining. We can believe that van Sant was influenced by the Larry Clark’s fim. Clark was the first that started shooting film about adolescence.

The film was generally acclaimed by the critics, and received the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Festival de Cannes in 2003.