Click here to view the embedded video.

James Franco was at the Hollywood Theatre yesterday, screening My Own Private River, his feature length, River Phoenix-centric, remix of My Own Private Idaho outtakes. Not eligible for theatrical release (due to copyright issues, I am guessing), James Franco and Gus Van Sant presented the film personally, as a fundraising event,  to a theater packed with grateful, eager film nuts.

My Own Private River tells the story of Mike Waters, the narcoleptic street hustler whose brother might be his father, whose his best friend won’t be his lover, and who seems to be, like the Johnny Depp character in Jim Jarmusch’s 1995 film, a walking dead man. More sentimental than My Own Private Idaho, My Own Private River jettisons the Prince Hal plotline, and Scott (Keanu Reeves) only appears around the edges, in scenes which serve as markers of Mike’s decline.

To get the most obvious question out of the way, My Own Private River does stand on its own as a feature length film. I cannot speak to what the experience would be like for someone who had not seen My Own Private Idaho (or who has seen it 20 times, as Franco has) but for me, this odd scramble of rejected footage felt like a real movie, mostly because of the power of Phoenix’ performance, which I imagine was exactly the point Franco was trying to make when he proposed the project to Van Sant.

Van Sant granted permission to Franco on the condition that if he (Van Sant) didn’t like the result, it would never be seen.

But he liked it. And now Franco’s exploration of River Phoenix’ performance permanently raises the bar for film scholars everywhere. The outtakes he drew from include scenes which made it into My Own Private Idaho as well as ones which never did, such as a outdoor love scene with a fellow street rat (female), a dinner table scene where Mike wordlessly editorializes on the bad manners of Scott and his new Italian girlfriend, and a hot dog vending scene where Mike discovers, after coming back from Italy, that his street rat friends (male) now have jobs.  Franco’s goal, to re-tell the story solely from Mike Waters’ point of view, ends up illuminating Van Sant’s directorial choices as much as it sheds additional light on the profound all out commitment of River Phoenix’ performance. Van Sant is lighter, drier, and more peculiar then Franco. Franco’s Mike Waters is histrionic (sometimes hilariously so, as when he suddenly begins fighting his own jacket, Buster Keaton style, in the middle of a bedroom seduction he has been hired to perform) and self pitying. In the world Franco creates, death is a foregone conclusion. It is Van Sant, less emotional and more worldly, who leaves room for redemption.

Which interpretation best reflects River Phoenix’ own understanding of the character? I am hoping all future scholars of  My Own Private Idaho will see My Own Private River and come to their own conclusions.

I hereby claim My Own Private River as an Oregon film, on the basis of the contribution of River Phoenix, a native Oregonian, and on the basis of the location shooting, and the setting.

Karl Lind documented the artists’ talk before the screening:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Only Van Sant could have pulled off this Portland-based love story on such a small, delicate scale, without manipulating madly. His touch is sure. Anne Thompson

Now that it has been well established that Gus Van Sant is secretly French, we can move onto other news, such as the positive reception Restless, his latest feature, received at Cannes.  If you have a subscription to Variety ( I don’t – wish I did), you can read a review there. Here’s what Deadline.com had to say about Restless opening the Un Certain Regard competition:

The second-most-important, and actually edgier, competition at Cannes got under way Thursday night with the premiere of Gus Van Sant’s Restless, which deals with a young kid (played by 20-year-old Henry Hopper, son of the late Dennis Hopper) who regularly likes to cruise cemeteries and attend funerals of strangers. There he meets a spirited young terminal cancer patient played by Mia Wasikowska and falls in love. By comparison with the downer material on display so far at the Palais, this was a fun time at the movies.

Actually, it’s a sweet dissertation on life and death beautifully acted by Hopper and Wasikowska. Originally it was going to premiere at Sundance and then be released by Columbia Pictures, but things changed as the major studio’s sister specialty division, Sony Pictures Classics, grabbed it from the mother ship, cancelled that Sundance screening and submitted it to Cannes, where fest director Thierry Fremaux decided to put it in as the opening-night slot of Un Certain Regard. It was a bit of a surprising decision since Van Sant, a former Palme d’Or winner for Elephant, is a favorite of the main division.

Click here to view the embedded video.

But the two competitions are becoming almost interchangeable in terms of quality pictures, and the engaging Restless was well received by the full house at tonight’s premiere screening. Van Sant, a man of few words, and his screenwriter Jason Lew and producer Bryce Dallas Howard (Dad Ron’s Imagine was the production company) were joined by Wasikowska and Hopper in the packed Claude Debussy auditorium.

At the elegant after-party dinner at Le Cote, Van Sant told me his horror story of how he almost didn’t even make it to the South of France. He was shooting his first-ever TV show (as exec producer) Boss in Chicago for the Starz cable channel and was going to fly to London and then here. One problem though: He forgot his passport back in hometown Portland, Ore. The oversight was just discovered yesterday and so a friend grabbed it, flew cross-country to give it to Van Sant and accompanied him to France. The frazzled publicists had to postpone all his interviews until Friday, but he DID make it barely in time for his premiere.

Get it while its hot! Here’s the trailer for Gus Vant Sant’s next film, Restless, which will be released in January 2011.

I should be the right audience for Even The Cowgirls Get The Blues, because I hitchhiked across the country myself when I was younger than Uma Thurman is here. Nevertheless I couldn’t make heads or tails of Cowgirls.  I apologize to Gus and  Uma – I am sure I will grow into it.

It is my job to point out that both Gus Van Sant and James Ivory have chosen to work with Uma Thurman. Ivory cast her as the scheming, goal oriented Charlotte Stant in The Golden Bowl in 2000. Quite a stretch from the tender hearted Sissy Hankshaw, the character she plays in Cowgirls! Here’s to Uma, at home with Henry James and Tom Robbins.

If you watched the trailer with your jaw on the ground, unable to keep up with the cast list, here’s some help: Lorraine Bracco, Angie Dickinson, Pat Morita, Keanu Reeves, John Hurt (fabulous, in a role first offered to Peter O’Toole), Rain Phoenix, Ed Begley, Jr., Carol Kane, Sean Young, Crispin Glover, Roseanne Barr, and Buck Henry.

I hereby claim Even Cowgirls Get The Blues as an Oregon film, based on Gus Van Sant’s contribution as director, on Ken Kesey’s and Chel White’s contributions as actors, on John Campbell’s and Eric Edwards‘ contributions as cinematographers, and because it was shot in Central Oregon.

“When Van Sant shows us speeded-up images of clouds rolling past wheat fields, the familiar device transcends cliche, because it’s tied to the way that Mike, in his benumbed isolation, experiences his own life-as a running piece of surrealism. The sheer, expressive beauty of those images haunted me for days.” Owen Gleiberman

Gus Van Sant knew it would be hard to find backing for a love story between two street hustlers, so he was prepared to make My Own Private Idaho with amateur actors, the approach he had used with Mala Noche, and would go on to use with Elephant and Paranoid Park. But Keanu Reeves surprised him by signing on as Scott, the slumming rich kid, and then persuading River Phoenix to take the role of Mike, the narcoleptic street hustler.

However Van Sant’s largest gamble wasn’t throwing two straight Hollywood A list actors in bed together. It  wasn’t  re-writing Falstaff as a chicken hawk and it wasn’t asking Keanu Reeves to do Shakespeare. It was shooting a screenplay he had written himself, and which was not based on source material, as both Mala Noche and Drugstore Cowboy had been. This was a first for him.

“Van Sant’s cleareyed, unsentimental approach to a plot that pivots on betrayal and death is reflected in magnetic performances from Reeves and Phoenix.” Peter Travers

Written and directed by an Oregonian, inspired by real Oregonians, shot by two Oregon DPs in Oregon (and Washington and Idaho), and starring an Oregon actor – River Phoenix was born in Metolius, during his parents’ hippie years – there has never been a film with more impeccable Oregon credentials.

Strange but true: the screenplay was cobbled together from  several screenplays-in-progress Van Sant was writing, none of which he found satisfactory on its own.

Strange but true: the wonderful hotel living room performance which Hans (Udo Kier) gives was not written by Van Sant.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Neither was the famous campfire scene where Mike declares his love for Scott. In both instances, Van Sant allowed the actors to take over the writing, and in the case of the campfire scene, allowed River Phoenix to not only write the scene, but direct the rehearsal of it as well.

Strange but true: in his recent interview with James Ivory, Gus Van Sant described directing actors, which he does so well, as the part of filmmaking he likes the least.

“The performances, especially by the two young stars, are as surprising as they are sure. Mr. Phoenix (Dogfight) and Mr. Reeves (of the two Bill and Ted comedies) are very fine in what may be the two best roles they’ll find in years. Roles of this density, for young actors, do not come by that often”. Vincent Canby

It is my very great honor to claim My Own Private Idaho as an Oregon film.

Gus Van Sant directs Matt Dillon in Drugstore Cowboy.

Shot in 1989, Drugstore Cowboy meticulously recreates the Portland of 1971.

Gus Van Sant’s warts and all portrait of the cloudy colonial outpost we call home is so detailed and accurate that people may forget that the film was carefully art directed.

Compare the city Van Sant created for Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James Le Gros and Heather Graham to inhabit to the one seen in the background of  Drugs: Killers or Dillers and The Case of the Kitchen Killer, both shot during the early 70’s, and judge for yourself the strength of his powers of recall.

Two sources of information about the locations used in Drugstore Cowboy: Here’s some Google Maps, and related research.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Like all truly great movies, Drugstore Cowboy is a joyous piece of work. I believe the subject of a film does not determine whether it makes us feel happy or sad. I am inutterably depressed after seeing stupid comedies that insult my intelligence, but I felt exhilarated after seeing “Drugstore Cowboy,” because every person connected with this project is working at top form. It’s a high-wire act of daring, in which this unlikely subject matter becomes the occasion for a film about sad people we come to care very deeply about. Roger Ebert

It is my great honor to claim Drugstore Cowboy as an Oregon film.

During a visit to Columbia University’s Film Division in 1987, Gus Van Sant, an unknown aspiring director with just one entirely self financed feature, Mala Noche, under his belt, made a big impression on me by describing himself as so frustrated by his actors that at one point he started throwing rocks at them.

Van Sant is an Oregon filmmaker many times over. His track record includes making films in Oregon, adapting Oregon authors, and working with Oregon cinematographers He graduated from a Portland high school, and he lives here. After traveling East to get his education and then going to Los Angeles to cut his filmmaking teeth, he returned home to make his first four films: Mala Noche, Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, and Even Cowgirls Get The Blues.

At which point Hollywood was ready to do business with him.

Van Sant continues to make Portland based films when the mood hits him. Elephant (2003), which was shot in my high school, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Paranoid Park (2007), with a Portland cast of unknowns, won Cannes’ 60th Anniversary Prize.

Stubbornly independent in his vision, and obdurate in his resistance to being pigeonholed, Van Sant has spent his career erasing the line between art cinema and mainstream filmmaking.

Best Picture, New York Film Critics Circle Award: Milk

Best Actor, New York Film Critics Circle Award: Sean Penn in Milk

Best Supporting Actor, New York Film Critics Circle Award: Josh Brolin in Milk

Best Actor, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award: Sean Penn in Milk