98- To Die For - Director: Gus Van Sant - Cast: Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck,Alison Folland,and Illeana Douglas.
"All of the stories of my films have always had this dispossessed family and a searching for home and an embracing of a pseudofamily. Drugstore Cowboy, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, To Die For, Idaho--they all have that as a strong central theme. There aren't characters who are like me, but the stories are like me. They're my stories."
-Gus Van Sant-
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"We had the book by Joyce Maynard who knew the character of Susan Stone extremely well, and Buck Henry, who wrote the script, had written The Graduate. So he knew the territory of the older housewife that seduces the young kid in high school. And it's probably Buck's favorite genre because he imagines himself as the young guy.
And it was my first studio picture so I always assumed that they wanted a certain kind of movie. More like entertainment. Everyone can relate to this kind of situation. But the thing that really draws you in is that the wrong people got married. And the fact that she sleeps with someone else is also a standard, but it's also kind of cracked because it's with a young kid. It's not like she's sleeping with the dentist.
-I think it's Buck doing that. He's pretty much fascinated with media. He constructed this really intricate web of times, and points of view, with the documentary camera crew, the television show, the testimonials which ended up on tape. He gave you a sense of the reporters following the trial and getting at the story. And it also commented on the exploitational value of the actual case with the international press descending on the Pamela Smart trial.
-Gus Van Sant-
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"The cliche reaction to anything that has a dark side to it's leading characters is that it's just dark and ugly.But yeah,I don't think you can do a good film about people if you don't respond to something in them,if you don't like them in some way.
Obviously,the great writers have loved their villains.If Shakespeare hadn't loved lago,then he wouldn't have been such an interesting character and a great one.And in a lot of cases,the villains of course are infinitely more interesting than the nice folks.So yeah,I have to like the people. I have to interested in the people as I am writing them.I think all writers do. The darker they are and the more crooked they are and the more weird they are,the more I tend to like them.But that's a flaw in my character,not so much having to do with writing itself.
I did want to work with Gus.I loved 'Drug Store Cowboy' and thought it was a great film,and I thought it would be interesting to work with him.And I also read the book and liked a lot,Joyce Maynard being a particularly adept writer of social peculiarities and it's particularly having to do with crime and weirdness,or 'C&W', as we call it."
-Buck Henry-
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"TIME: WHEN DID YOU TWO FIRST MEET?
PENN: I sent you that note first cause' I thought you were so great in that movie Buck Henry wrote (To Die For).
KIDMAN: That's right. You sent me a telegram, actually. But we met at a party. Whose party was it?
PENN: It was Princess Leia's (Carrie Fisher's) party, wasn't it?
KIDMAN: After To Die For, he sent me a lovely telegram, and to get that kind of encouragement early on in your career gives you much more confidence to do things that are unusual or a little bold or offbeat. The thing about Sean is that he has an incredibly generous spirit in terms of other people's work, particularly actors.
PENN: I sent you that note first cause' I thought you were so great in that movie Buck Henry wrote (To Die For).
KIDMAN: That's right. You sent me a telegram, actually. But we met at a party. Whose party was it?
PENN: It was Princess Leia's (Carrie Fisher's) party, wasn't it?
KIDMAN: After To Die For, he sent me a lovely telegram, and to get that kind of encouragement early on in your career gives you much more confidence to do things that are unusual or a little bold or offbeat. The thing about Sean is that he has an incredibly generous spirit in terms of other people's work, particularly actors.
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"Yes.I go off (from mainstream Hollywood) and do a Lars von Trier picture (Dogville), followed by a big commercial film,then a movie about a woman who falls in love with a 10 year old boy(Birth).I don't necessarily think that way of working allows you a long career,which doesn't bother me because there are many other things I want to do.
-Nicole Kidman----who-when she jumps the fence-can be the most magnetic screen personality in the world
posted by Persona at 7:54 AM
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