movie "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986) American version poster
Gus Van Roy graduated from San San in the mid-1970s Tokushima Design School.
After graduation, he spent several years of depression in Hollywood, but he never cut off his relationship with the Portland art creation group.
Gus Van Sant met the local poet Walt Curtis who played the role in this film during his work as a sound engineer for Penny Allen's independent film "Property" in Portland.
film "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986) location, director Gus Van Sant (left) and photographer John J. Gray John J. Gray
He then read Walter Curtis’s semi-autobiographical novel "Deep Night, Love Hard to Sing/Evil Night Mala Noche" (1986), and kept the book under his pillow for many years until he had a chance Make it into a movie.
The film "Deep Night, Hard to Sing Love" is to a large extent the product of its time. American independent films in the 1980s are making an unprecedented counter-cultural voice. Among them, the most representative voices include Jim Jarmusch, John Sayles, John Sayles, John Waters_ span11span John Waters, Spike Lee,With Gus Van Sant himself.
American independent film at this time has not been assimilated by the utilitarian Sundance Film Festival that emerged in the 1990s; it was then called "American Cinema". The predecessor of the Sundance Film Festival also rejected the request for participation in "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing", which seems to be no accident in the eyes of today's people.
However, looking back now, we] also find that this movie is far beyond its era, because it completely ignores the tangled gender politics and true reproduction problems of traditional gay movies.
Tim Street in the movie "Deep Night, Hard to Sing" (1986)
"It is regarded by the world as the pioneer of the "new queer movies" that emerged in the early 1990s.
But Gus Van Sant and "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" have always refused to be included in any dogmatic classification standard. They are neither like Todd Haynes and his works. It's too intellectual, and it's not as characteristic of big-character style as Gregg Araki's works.
Doug Kuyet in the movie "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986)
In other words, "Love Is Hard to Sing" Because it does not cover up its gay color, people feel that it "coincidentally" is a gay movie, Gus Van Sant's area of concern,It's also much broader than the issue of the protagonist's sexual orientation.
This film is an accurate analysis of human desire. Under its melancholy and sad appearance, it hides the rough and hard emotional characteristics.
Ray Monger in the movie "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986)
Most of the monologues and dialogues in the film are derived from Walter Kirty Gus van Sant’s original work, but Gus Van Sant’s adaptation of the original work is extremely capable. He extracted the short sentences that most resonated people’s emotions from the William Burroughs-like stream of consciousness in the original work, and gave them a form. And rhythm.
The mood of the film corresponds to the mood swings of people who are crazy about falling in love: panic when the loved one is absent, and when the loved one appears, it is like being on the top of the cloud.
movie "Deep Night, Hard to Sing" (1986) stills, Tim Street (right) and Doug Kuyet
Van Sant's magnanimous recognition of his sexual orientation, the movie "Deep Night, Hard to Sing for Love" also makes no secret of his sexual interests.
It is so frank and straightforward about its gay identity that the theme of the whole movie-blind, unpretentious homosexuality-is established in the first few seconds of the film.
movie "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986) stills, left is Tim StrittAlthough his footing is not stable and he can't recognize the situation of the environment, but at this time, the stubborn, blurred-eyed protagonist Walter (played by Tim Streeter) of the film has begun to confess to the audience under the screen. Thoughts: "I want this Mexican boy named Johnny Alonso (played by Doug Cooeyate),"
Doug Kuyet in the movie " The night is deep, love is hard to sing (1986). Walter standing behind the counter-staring at the boy who has just entered the liquor store while talking to himself.
Their faces are deep in the shadows, only a chandelier hanging from the ceiling outlines the silhouettes of the two men playing hunting-escape games.
Walter, this 30-year-old man with a kind temperament and good looks does not want to waste time: "Hey, I want to be friends with you. Are we friends now?"
Tim Street in the movie "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986)
Johnny is an illegal Mexican immigrant who went up the railroad from Los Angeles to Ogan. He came here He is looking for a job, and he is not too anxious about emotional matters.
However, Walter who doesn't stop showing his bad Spanish to Johnny is not the kind of love-seeker who is easy to give up.
movie "Deep at night, love hard to sing" (1986) stills
After telling his heart to a friend,Walter found Johnny in a game hall. He brought Johnny and Johnny's friends to his home to enjoy his signature home-cooked food. Then he confessed to Johnny in the middle of the night and offered to exchange it in US dollars.
However, Johnny did not accept Walter's offer. So Walter had to step back and slept with Johnny’s buddy Roberto (played by Ray Monge); Roberto seemed to be gay, or he could accept it as long as it was not a small treat. Make friends with men.
The image of Ray Monger in the movie "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986)
The whole love scene was performed by Sangte. Vague and obscure. This scene also shows Gus Van Sant’s extraordinary intuition about montage: hands on bare skin, a smile in the dark, close-ups deliberately blurred, and the bumps of the train passing by outside the window The sound and the roar of the siren, these individual elements, after being juxtaposed with each other, create an indescribable atmosphere for the entire love scene that can only be felt.
movie "Deep Night, Hard to Sing in Love" (1986) stills, Tim Stritt
Monologue, tell us that Roberto is just a substitute for Johnny.
"Having sex with this guy may be the thing that brought me the most close to Johnny." He also noticed that the ten dollars in his pocket were missing.
Although the strong contrast of black and white light and shadow in "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" bursts with the romantic and hopeless Beat lyricism,However, when dealing with the relationship between the central characters of the film, Van Sant is never sentimental.
movie "Deep Night, Love Difficult to Sing" (1986) location, Tim Street (left) and Doug Kuyet span span
Walter, Johnny, and Roberto formed a triangular relationship. This relationship is dominated by frustrated and displaced erotic desires, and by the mutual needs and use of the three. balance.
Every interaction between them is a transaction, but Gus Van Sant has already seen through all this: when Walter and Johnny first met in the liquor store, the dazzling dollar bills and cash register close-up It indicates the essence of the relationship between the three.
movie "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986) location, Doug Kuyet (right) and Ray Monger
has an exotic pairing ofThe boy has a soft spot, and director Gus Van Sant admits that such a character is not a moral model among same-sex characters.
For Walter, Johnny is not just the "other" in terms of eroticism; Johnny is the opposite of Walter in terms of age, ethnicity, language, economic, social status, and legal status.
Tim Street in the movie "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986)
Gus Van Sante The love for Johnny is completely separated from the subconscious contempt.But he also did not make unnecessary moral judgments on this fanatical desire.
He turned this fanatical unrequited love into a slightly dry tragicomedy , just like him in the future "My Own Private Idaho" (1991) Did the same.
Doug Kuyet in the movie "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986)
But Gus is also calmly Ask the question: What happens when tireless desires collide with the unchanging status quo of race and class?
Since an emotional relationship is always based on multiple unequal power relationships, isn't it natural for everyone to fully obtain what they need from this relationship?
If you think of it this way, then in every emotional relationship, there will be no moral distinction between the exploiter and the exploited.
Tim Street (right) and Ray Monger in the movie "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986).
in p0 The liquor store is on duty for a living. He is not wealthy, but he has a gracious nature, and he is also tirelessly pointing out that it is his generosity that allows him to provide these poor Mexican workers with free dinner, drive experience and evenings. sleeping bag.Although Johnny is extremely indifferent to Walter, he also knows how to repay Walter's generosity appropriately, and respond to Walter's needs with small emotional favors.
Doug Kuyet in the movie "Deep Night,The video in "Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986)
The dynamic relationship between the two is clearly shown in a scene in the film: Johnny takes the driver’s seat of Walter’s car, and each When Walt chased the car, Johnny would speed up and throw him away.
However, although Walt was ridiculed by Johnny (Johnny often referred to Walter half-jokingly as "gay"), he also assumed the role of Johnny's prospective father invisibly. He taught Johnny to drive. Advised Johnny in life, and visited the hospital bed when Johnny was sick.
Tim Street in the movie "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986)
Gus Van Sant's breakthrough work in the true sense.
In this movie that sets the background in Gus Van Sant’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, Gus Van Sant has systematically established a series that will be repeated in his subsequent works The iconic elements that appear: youth, homosexuality, love that ends without disease, the loneliness of young people on the margins of society, and death.
movie "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986) stills, Doug Kuyet (left) and Ray Monger
The artistic achievements of Van Sant’s debut feature film are far superior to those of other major directors, such as Stanley Kubrick's Fear and Desire (1928-1999). (1953), Francis Ford Coppola's "Dementia 13" (1963), Brian De Palma's "Murder à la Mod" (1968) ),And Martin Scorsese's "Who's That Knocking at My Door" (1967).
movie "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986) stills, Tim Stritt
Gus Van He's Achievements in Sant "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing", while avoiding the shortcomings of student homework films, it still retains the rough vigor of amateur films.
In the creation of this film, Gus Van Sant realized most of his ideas on the screen, which is a great thing for any director who works at almost no cost. What's more, the director had no experience in shooting feature films before.
Doug Kuyet's image in the movie "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986)
For the full of Gus Van Sante In terms of the film sequence, is the sympathy for the elders obsessed with teenagers in "Deep Night, Hard to Sing", is it ironic, or is it completely taken for granted?
Gus Van Sant once referred to Walter Curtis’s original work as "The ghetto version "Morte a Venezia" (1971), but it is not the same as the poor old man in the Thomas Mann novel. Ashenbach is completely different. Walter is generally decent, cute, confident, good at adapting to the environment, and respectable in the neighborhood.
Tim Stritt in the movie "Deep night,The image in "Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986)
His unrequited love does not make him feel humiliated, but on the contrary it keeps him full of vitality and makes him noble in a strange way: In Walter's fantasy passage, he rushed into the room where the Mexican boys lived and knelt at Johnny's feet like a fallen saint, trying to seek salvation through suffering.
We must know that Walter Curtis in life is a poet who looks extremely unreasonable to the audience, and he is not just living alone in unrequited love, on the contrary, he is a very active person, and in real life Johnny is a handsome guy.
Once there was a follower of the poet Walter Curtis who filmed a documentary specifically for him. This is a shot in the documentary. The top right is Walter Curtis _strong12sstrong _span
In his debut work, Gus Van Sant showed more of a story in his mind, a story that “replaced” and made himself “noble”. He did not hide his own kind of desire.
What's more, the order of love from growing up to young still continues in the world of the opposite sex, and Walter in the movie never gets Johnny.
movie "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing" (1986) American CC Blu-ray version of the jacket
- "My own love" The love and sorrow of fallen angels
- "Break in Venice" My sorrow, you better not understand the saddest homosexual love in movie history
- Homosexuality in the triangle relationship of the British movie "Morris' Lover" Love is like a spring dream without trace
- Revan Phoenix, 21-year-old Venetian actor Leonardo DiCaprio wants to talk to him
- Surprise of "Guling Street Juvenile Murder"— -Friendship and wishful thinking among men
