One of the most talented and imaginative artists of independent cinema, Gus Van Sant established himself with a number of important movies of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Beginning with Mala Noche, the 1986 gay classic of personal film expression, followed by two key works of the American indie movement, Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho, Van Sant films often feature characters on the borders of mainstream society. Subsequent films included hits, misses, and a notorious remake of Psycho. Regardless of the critical or commercial response to his work, Van Sant has maintained a vision that is unique among contemporary filmmakers. Conversations with Gus Van Sant is the first critical study to include both extensive original interviews with the director as well as discussions of his entire body of work. The exchanges between film scholar Mario Falsetto and the indie filmmaker cover fifteen films directed by Van Sant over a period of thirty years. Throughout these discussions, Van Sant talks candidly about each film's production history, visual style, editing patterns, and creative soundwork. The director also expounds on his work with actors, the relationship of independent filmmakers to the wider film industry, and many other subjects related to his filmmaking process. The conversations examine the rich thematic explorations of Van Sant's films, which often revolve around the search for love and community on the margins of society and feature a fascination with death. From experimental films such as Gerry, Last Days, Elephant, and Paranoid Park-where Van Sant rebooted his understanding of cinema and his relationship to the Hollywood film industry-to Milk and Promised Land, this book explores the rich network of meanings in the director's work. By melding the author's critical perspective with the filmmaker's own ideas, Conversations with Gus Van Sant creates a wider perspective on one of the most iconoclastic and imaginative directors of the last thirty years.

The massive investments made in Hollywood today mandate tight studio controls on mainstream cinema. As a result, one must often look to alternative outlets in order to see a movie intended primarily as art-or even as a sincere effort at entertainment-instead of as a simple source of revenue. Foreign and independent movies thus often play the role of bellwether for the Hollywood studios that are unable to experiment themselves: behind the look of the studio smash Sin City, for instance, was the rigorous pulp style of Road to Perdition; before the sadism and cynicism of many current thrillers and horror movies there was the work of Neil Labute; and where would Hollywood's plots be without the harsh, fragmented narratives of Guillermo Arriaga and Alejandro Inarritu? By looking at these films, and at the people who created them,we can obtain a clearer sense of what movies really are at heart, and what they may still want to become. Elaborate measures are thus taken everywhere and at all points to maintain a grip on the public's imagination, but the more adept Hollywood becomes at giving the public what it wants, the less any given studio is able to say anything new or truly innovative. Inside of the United States, this means looking to independent films; outside of the United States, it means filtering through an enormous mass of movies and moviemakers. In Volume 1 of this revealing set, Mario Falsetto presents extended interviews with nine of the most prominent independent film directors working in America today; while in Volume 2, Liza Bear gives prominent international filmmakers the opportunity to address essential issues surrounding creativity and production in a number of different geographical setting and contexts.

The second edition of Mario Falsetto's extensive analysis of Kubrick's films carefully examines the filmmaker's oeuvre in its entirety--from smaller, early films ("The Killing") through mid-career masterpieces ("Dr. Strangelove; 2001: A Space Odyssey; A Clockwork Orange"), later films such as "Full Metal Jacket," and his final work, 1999's "Eyes Wide Shut." The author, offering close readings supported by precise shot descriptions, shows us how Kubrick's body of work represents a stylistically and thematically consistent cinematic vision, one that merges formal experimentation with great philosophical complexity.

Falsetto explores many of Kubrick's often-used devices, including the long-take aesthetic, voice-overs, and moving camera, and discusses the thematic uses to which these techniques are applied. Finally, he presents the very first formal analysis of "Eyes Wide Shut," the director's final, very much underrated masterwork.

The second edition of Mario Falsetto's extensive analysis of Kubrick's films carefully examines the filmmaker's oeuvre in its entirety--from smaller, early films (The Killing) through mid-career masterpieces (Dr. Strangelove; 2001: A Space Odyssey; A Clockwork Orange), later films such as Full Metal Jacket, and his final work, 1999's Eyes Wide Shut. The author, offering close readings supported by precise shot descriptions, shows us how Kubrick's body of work represents a stylistically and thematically consistent cinematic vision, one that merges formal experimentation with great philosophical complexity. Falsetto explores many of Kubrick's often-used devices, including the long-take aesthetic, voice-overs, and moving camera, and discusses the thematic uses to which these techniques are applied. Finally, he presents the very first formal analysis of Eyes Wide Shut, the director's final, very much underrated masterwork.