This biography of director Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho; Good Will Hunting) is so crammed with details that it's a veritable encyclopedia of everything you ever wanted to know about the artist's life and career. Van Sant grew up in an upper-middle-class family in Connecticut and Portland, Ore., and attended Rhode Island School of Design. After working in smalltime filmmaking, songwriting, advertising and the garment business, he hit it big on the indie film circuit with Male Noche, a film about Portland's demimode of male hustling. Unlike most independent filmmakers, Van Sant landed gigs in Hollywood, first with Drugstore Cowboy
and then with studio films like To Die For
and Finding Forester, making him one of today's more successful directors. Drawing on published interviews with Van Sant, film reviews and interviews with his subject's family and friends, Parish charts Van Sant's life in particulars ranging from the mundane (his home address while growing up) to the spicy (rumors that he was sexually interested in River Phoenix while shooting My Own Private Idaho). While there is very little new material or in-depth analysis, Parish does document fascinating tidbits such as Van Sant's views on how gay directors have an artistic edge in filming heterosexual love scenes and the Village Voice's comment that Van Sant's loving camera angles of Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting
nearly amounted to "boy porn." Certainly not the last critical word on Van Sant, this biography is a good introduction and will be the basis for future work. Agent, Stuart Bernstein. (Feb.)
