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I think over the course of 14 films, I'm returning to a place that I know to tell a story... the same way Spielberg returned to fantasy, Lucas returned to the 'Star Wars' saga, or John Ford returned to the western.

Gus Van Sant

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Gus Van Sant
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: July 24
Actor
Director
Film Director
Film Editor
Film Producer
Musician
Photographer
Screenwriter
Louisville
Kentucky
Gus Greene Van Sant Junior
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More quotes by Gus Van Sant

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One of the things that is devastating is I realise I haven't been living a different life than when I was, like, 12. I'm shocked at how reclusive I've been since then. I was unaware of it until recently.
Gus Van Sant
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There is a common theme, though, in the stories I have told, which are usually associations of characters or families that are formed outside of a family circle.
Gus Van Sant
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You're following your track, the story, your only plan, your map for the audience, and all the other stuff is, like, the fun stuff: the costumes, the locations, the set-dressing and the actors. They can all be variable as you like if you stick - however roughly - to the path.
Gus Van Sant
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Sometimes, the people who are helping you can drop the ball.
Gus Van Sant
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Free time keeps me going. It's just something that's always been a part of my life. I was originally a painter, and I made films sort of as an extension of that, and then I started to try to make dramatic films because the early films were experimental films.
Gus Van Sant
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The rules of suspense are that you do know, and you just don't know when. In the Hitchcock rules of suspense, you are supposed to know that there is a bomb on the bus that might blow up, and then it becomes very tense - but if you don't know that there's a bomb and it just blows up, then it's just a surprise.
Gus Van Sant
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Upon entering my vein, the drug would start a warm edge that would surge along until the brain consumed it in a gentle explosion.It began in the back of the neck and rose rapidly until I felt such pleasure that the world sympathizing took on a soft, lofty appeal.
Gus Van Sant
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Well, I want to do everything in sort of a documentary style, ever since I started in the '80s.
Gus Van Sant
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And Later I Thought, I Can't Think How Anyone Can Become a Director Without Learning the Craft of Cinematography.
Gus Van Sant
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Modern-day cinema takes the form of a sermon. You don't get to think, you only get to receive information.
Gus Van Sant
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Yeah, Kubrick's a big influence. In something like 'A Clockwork Orange,' he is trying to use the practical light - I mean, at least he says that in his interviews, like they're not using traditionally Hollywood lights. In 'Elephant' we basically used no lights we never really adjusted.
Gus Van Sant
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I've told people who have just started to make a film that the one thing you might experience is this feeling that everybody is conspiring against you, because you're not necessarily able to tell what's real and what's not.
Gus Van Sant
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The things that inform student culture are created and controlled by the unseen culture, the sociological aspects of our climbing culture, our 'me' generation, our yuppie culture, our SUVs, or, you know, shopping culture, our war culture.
Gus Van Sant
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In rare cases, I've had music before I shot the movie. I think that for 'Good Will Hunting' I had an Elliot Smith record or a couple of them and I just somehow felt like the sound had something to it that reminded me of the story. So in that case there was music beforehand.
Gus Van Sant
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There is a way that a younger person can accept the inevitable problem that they're going to die, whereas somebody a little bit older might be overcome.
Gus Van Sant
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The biopic also wasn't a form that I necessarily believed in, because you can never really get it right, you know? It's also a form that's very popular - the straight-ahead biopic.
Gus Van Sant
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My department is to get actors to do stuff.
Gus Van Sant
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Usually when I read something, first of all I'm looking for the story and then when I reread it, I'm sort of checking every part of it to see if every scene is necessary.
Gus Van Sant
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If a movie isn't released, it's one thing, but if you know it will be, it's nice to have closure and see it come out.
Gus Van Sant
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I'm not being analytical. I just create everything intuitively. If you're too analytical, what you're doing probably ends up being too specific.
Gus Van Sant