09 · 13 · 13

Studying at Film Factory. Part 2: Under the Tutelage of Gus Van Sant

Sergio Thor Flores (@ThorSFT)

In this second article about Studying at Film Factory, I would like to begin to tell you about my experiences next to some of the directors with whom I’ve had the privilege of taking classes. As I said last time, Film Factory is the doctoral program that Béla Tarr founded in Sarajevo and is composed of theoretical lectures and directing workshops. Béla personally chose each one of the teachers, and this semester alone I have been able to study under the tutelage of figures such as Carlos Reygadas, Fred Kelemen, Tilda Swinton and Gus Van Sant. I think I’m very lucky to have this opportunity and I’m going to write an article about each one of them so that you can know a little more about how these monsters of the cinema are like in daily life.

Having said that, I’ve decided to start with Gus Van Sant for one simple reason: From the first day that he was with us, I could understand the magnitude of what I am experiencing. With this, I am referring to the fact that Gus entered the room and immediately asked us what we want to achieve with our films and how we are going to achieve that goal. This might seem like a somewhat routine question, but what Gus was doing at that time, was to recreate something that he experienced in his youth. Everyone gave their answer and then Gus told us that Michelangelo Antonioni had asked him exactly the same question 30 years ago. When Gus was a student, he had the good fortune to take a trip to Italy with his group, and he met Pasolini and Antonioni in their respective homes, and he also went to a shoot of the great Federico Fellini. He even told me that when he was introduced to Fellini he was so nervous he could not even open his mouth.

In terms of classes, the first thing I’d like to mention is the commitment and willingness that Gus showed at all times. During the three weeks that he was with us, we lived with him at least 12 hours a day, Monday through Sunday. He proposed meetings all the time and if you would give him a script or a short, he would arrive the next day with comments. Coupled with this, he took time to propose multiple exercises. Sometimes he told us in detail how he worked on certain projects, we discussed his films, we did exercise with actors, we rehearsed scenes from our short films and planned choreographies to carry out sequence shots with many extras. Among all those, I would like to stress that we saw several of his films twice in a row. The first time we saw them straight through and the second he would stop the projection in every sequence to explain how he had made each shot.

On the other hand, after living closely with Gus, I can tell you that he is a very modest person and sometimes even seems shy. Perhaps his filmography can be uneven, but there is an aspect of his personality that I think we should all appreciate very much. In this world of cinema, egos tend to be very big and Gus never hesitated in recognizing the work of those who had helped or influenced him. For example, Gus idolizes Béla and he himself recognizes that the meetings in Elephant that are repeated several times from different points of view are identical to those by Béla in Satantango a few years before. Similarly, Harris Savides was his photographer in most of his films and Gus considers him to be a key person. He said he valued his opinion and proposals so much that in reality they both were co-directing the films.

In future articles, I will tell you a little more about the other directors and how the semester that I’m beginning to take is going. However, all my life I’ve revered Fellini and today the curious story of Gus Van Sant has made me think that perhaps in the future one of the directors that I’ve been able to know, may be as revered as those great Italian masters. You never know, but I’m thrilled to be part of all this.