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May 12, 2005
A lot of unexpected charisma: Gus van Sant & Kurt Cobain
As his Last Days debuts in Cannes, van Sant writes in Liberation about his last encounter with Kurt Cobain: "Kurt sat a couple of places away from me and just stared down the table, in a very odd way. I [guessed] that maybe he had just gotten out of a rehab, because of his short haircut, and his wide-eyed stare, which was particularly open and fresh and innocent, which can happen when people just get out. I remember him sitting there not saying anything, but the presence in the room was tilted all of a sudden, like the big rock star had entered and was sitting at the end of the table not saying anything. The others were perhaps used to it, I wasn't… I pretty much just listened and started to realize that I was really fascinated by Kurt. And at the same time, realizing some of this fascination was probably what drew everyone to him. He had a lot of unexpected charisma. While the piece at that link is in English, Philippe Garnier’s vivid making-of is only in French. Van Sant and cinematographer Harris Savides experimented with video formats, but wound up shooting in 35mm. “You always return there!” Van Sant joked to Garnier. Caravaggio is cited as a visual influence, but also Chantal Akerman’s 1976 Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. Of that lengthy study of the everyday, Savides noted that only one or two camera positions were used, which led to Last Days having no reverse angles: “Only the result will be seen,” is how he describes the choice. Garnier notes van Sant’s “temporal loops, these Mobius strips he’s used since Elephant, refusing to use the syntax of the simultaneity of action which has dominated the cinema since Griffith.”
Posted by at May 12, 2005 07:04 AM
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