"Paranoid Park"

Dostoevsky without an ax

Dostoevsky without an axe. Paranoid Park directed by Gus Van Sant is on the screens of the country. Unlike the Russian classics, the American director does not teach the public anything

At the Cannes screening of "Paranoid Park" the Russian part of the audience exhaled: "Dostoevsky." From "Crime and Punishment" in the new film by Gus Van Sant - a cult American whose catalog of achievements includes three awards at Cannes (two for "The Elephant" and one for his contribution to cinema), a Berlin special prize for the film "Find Forrester" and Oscar nomination for "Good Will Hunting" - there is very little left. Perhaps only the essence.

Fyodor Mikhailovich with his Rodion Romanovich loves cinema for a long time, passionately, but somehow one-sidedly. Whoever takes on the film adaptation of Crime and Punishment, it all comes out the same - a detective. The hero kills, and then tries with all his might to cover his tracks. Georgy Taratorkin did it so convincingly that, they say, after the film by Lev Kulidzhanov, the number of old women killed in the country increased 11 times. The picture had to be withdrawn from the rental.

I don’t know if young people will take up axes after watching Dmitry Svetozarov’s series starting next week, but the fresh Crime and Punishment looks like a 100% thriller. In the first frame, the camera moves for a long time along the gloomy stairs in order to rest against the door of the Motherland room. And already in the first episode, the pawnbroker and her sister are wallowing in a pool of blood. All the torment of the hero, all his doubts and throwing sideways. The main thing is that the viewer, who strives to switch to an adjacent channel, freezes in front of the screen. And when the bait is swallowed, you can, for the sake of clearing your conscience - after all, the title of the film is borrowed from Dostoevsky - remember about the trembling creature.

And, of course, not a single even the most meticulous film adaptation of the novel reached the scene of public repentance. The religious pathos of Dostoevsky only hinders a good detective. And long internal monologues are completely contraindicated for cinema.

So in the film by Gus Van Sant, the hero does not talk about the meaning of life and does not remember the Almighty. At the same time, you can’t call Paranoid Park a detective either. Although there is a corpse: a body of a guard cut in two was found at a railway crossing. At first they thought it was an accident, and then they discovered that the man was hit by a train, having received something heavy on the head. Perhaps he was hit with a skateboard, especially since there is a park popular among skateboarders and other informals not far from the crime scene. The police are questioning the students. During interrogations, the main character Alex keeps a cheerful, but every day it becomes more and more difficult to pretend. Even the knowledge that he became a murderer unwittingly does not save. The only way to relieve the soul is to tell someone about everything that happened. At least in a letter.

The American director left only the core of the Russian novel: pangs of conscience. There is no evidence, the investigation will certainly reach a dead end, but this does not make the boy any easier. When, sticking your head under the shower, you hear the disturbing cries of birds, it costs nothing to start your mind.

Perhaps, for the sake of this feeling, Gus Van Sant started everything. He is generally a master at making meditation films. To have more music and long shots, less words and sudden movements. And, most importantly, no morality. Unlike the Russian classics, the American director categorically refuses to teach people how to live.

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"I'm more and more afraid of dying." Before the release of Paranoid Park on Russian screens, director Gus Van Sant gave an exclusive interview to The New Times correspondent
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Did you have Crime and Punishment in mind while filming Paranoid Park? Yes. And, of course, he was kept in mind by the author of the story that formed the basis of my film. In my opinion, "Paranoid Park" is a simplified, slightly free teenage retelling and partly an interpretation of Dostoevsky's novel. I re-read Crime and Punishment before starting Paranoid Park, but we didn't manage to stick very close to the text.

Why do all your recent paintings deal with the theme of death in one way or another? As I get older, thoughts of death come to me more and more often. They visited me before, but now I am more and more afraid of dying. Perhaps that is why in my last films, someone is sure to die.

Not just anyone, but teenagers. Death looks worse when young people face it. At the same time, I have absolutely no intention of examining the current generation, comparing it with my generation, approving or condemning it. The youth in my films are more like the American middle class, they are ordinary Americans who find themselves in extreme situations. True, sometimes they themselves create problems for themselves and others.

Is it because guns are readily available in America? There are really a lot of weapons in America. It is normal for us to store a gun in a closet or closet. For example, the gun that the hero of The Last Days shot himself with is in my closet. Sometimes I even go hunting with him.

You became famous as an independent director, and then you made Find Forrester and Good Will Hunting, and fans accused you of betrayal - they say that you sold out to Hollywood. What do you think of it? Perhaps, yes, "Forrester" was really a commercial project. But "Will Hunting" was filmed as an independent film. And in general, do you know how the mainstream differs from arthouse? Success. Filmed for $10 million, Will Hunting might have been a "for the elite" movie, but it won two Oscars and earned $200 million at the box office. Naturally, I was accused of betraying the ideals of the arthouse.