Gus Van Sant: The Art of Making Movies

Gus Van Sant is primarily known as a film director, but this wonderful book treats him more as a visual artist whose main medium is film. Drawing from a series of recent interviews with Van Sant, Tylevich (Success Oracles) has crafted the perfect primer on Van Sant’s work and artistic vision, describing his films and their creation and exploring how he embraces the creative instincts of the key players in his films. The text is accompanied by hundreds of photographs that either place readers directly into the film scene under discussion or offer a glimpse of Van Sant at work; in addition to photographs made by others, some of Van Sant’s own Polaroid portraits are included. Tylevich nimbly charts the director’s career, dedicating no more than a dozen pages to each of his films, which is just enough to gain an understanding of how Van Sant has moved back and forth between “mainstream-adjacent” films like My Own Private Idaho and Gerry, and Oscar winners like Good Will Hunting and Milk. The final two chapters focus on his lifelong work in painting and photography and will leave readers with an even deeper understanding of Van Sant’s vision.