Gus Van Sant, Patron Sant of Portland

Believe it or not, it's the first such retrospective of the Oscar-nominated local's work.

"I was surprised this city hadn't done anything like this before," says Mario Falsetto, author of Conversations With Gus Van Sant and professor emeritus of film studies at Concordia University in Montreal. "Portland is more than a setting in his films. It's a character, too."

"Essential Gus Van Sant (& His Influences)" kicks off with the first film of Van Sant's "Portland trilogy," 1985's Mala Noche. Shot in black-and-white on grainy 16 mm, with angled shots literally set in Portland's gutters, it has a smoky, grungy, hangout vibe that set the tone for Van Sant's early independent period.

"He paid for it with his own money and really poured a lot of himself into it," says Falsetto, who is teaching a course at Northwest Film Center in conjunction with the series. "It was based on [poet Walt Curtis' autobiographical novel of the same name], but Van Sant wrote the screenplay."

Falsetto first met Van Sant in 2002 when he was researching another book. They talked for five hours. "He's such a collector," Falsetto says. "Maybe that's why people think he's quiet. He's taking everything in, even when you're in a conversation."

Van Sant exists outside the Hollywood machine, to paraphrase Falsetto. His early independent work, marked by abstract imagery and monologues from society's fringe players, is set regionally but famous nationally.

"He proved that you could make movies—the kind that he wanted to make—both outside of Hollywood and within it," Falsetto says. "After making Finding Forrester, his most conventional film, he decided he wanted to try something different." So he made Elephant, a dark film based in part on the Columbine school shooting.

"Van Sant's films tackle complicated and controversial subjects from a place of honesty and understanding,” Falsetto says. “A place of authenticity.” 

Mala Noche:

Why it’s Portlandy: It’s based on essential Portland poet Walt Curtis’s autobiography. In Oregon Is Rhapsody, the conflicted gay poet and store clerk wrote: “Matisse would go mad over the way cowshit and rainwater grow Oregon pasture like living emeralds, dipped in the dye of orgonic energy.”

Film professor Mario Falsetto’s notes: â€œIt is a prime example of low-budget, guerrilla filmmaking that contains  genuinely poetic, strikingly beautiful black-and-white cinematography.”

Best quote: â€œHe quickens my blood just to look at him. I want to die when I see him.”

SEE IT: Mala Noche is at NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Ave., 221-1156, on Thursday, April 23. 7 pm. $9. For full schedule, see nwfilm.org.

WWeek 2015