My Private Idaho

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Movie
German title My Private Idaho - The End of Innocence
Original title My Own Private Idaho
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1991
length approx. 104 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Gus Van Sant
script Gus Van Sant
production Laurie Parker
music Bill Stafford
camera John J. Campbell ,
Eric Alan Edwards
cut Curtiss Clayton
occupation
synchronization

My Private Idaho is a road movie from 1991. Directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix . The film, among others, is considered to be the trigger for New Queer Cinema .

action

Mike and Scott make their living as hustlers on the streets of Seattle with their predominantly, but not exclusively, male customers. Scott comes from a respected family and rebelled against his father, the city's mayor. Mike, on the other hand, is a street kid and hasn't seen his family in years. His narcolepsy also causes difficulties . When stressed, he suddenly falls into a deep sleep. His dreams or visions lead him back to childhood. Mike is often saved from these helpless situations, especially in the presence of suitors, by Scott. The two young men have a deep and intimate friendship. Mike is secretly in love with Scott, but this love is not reciprocated because Scott is not gay .

When Mike suffers one of his sleep attacks again, Scott makes sure that they go to Portland with Hans - an eccentric suitor from Germany . The so-called "King of Lepers" named Bob acts as a father substitute for both of them. Scott is getting increasingly into a conflict with Bob, as he confesses to him that after his imminent 21st birthday - on which he will inherit his father's money - he will change and no longer want to work in prostitution. After an argument with Bob and a police raid, Mike and Scott decide to travel to Idaho in hopes of finding Mike's mother there. With a stolen motorcycle, they visit Mike's older brother Richard in his trailer, who tells them a tale of lies about Mike's alleged father - Mike replies that he already knows that Richard is also his father. Richard gives them the last known address of their mother, who is said to have last worked as a maid in an Idaho hotel.

In the hotel, however, they learn from the receptionist that Mike's mother is said to be living in Italy by now. The German Hans also happened to be checked into the hotel, they prostituted themselves there and sold him the motorcycle - this was how they finance the flight to Rome . At the address given in the Italian province, they learn from Carmella, the young farmer's wife, that Mike's mother has already returned to the United States. The two boys spend some time in Italy until Scott falls in love with Carmella. Scott, who has now turned 21, has inherited his fortune and turns away from Mike, who travels back to the USA disappointed.

Some time later, the homeless people in Portland see Scott again: in a fancy restaurant with Carmella and his family. Bob tries to speak to him, but is put in their place by Scott - that same night Bob dies of a broken heart. While Scott attends the all-black church funeral for his biological father, the mayor, he sees from afar how Mike and his other old friends conduct a rowdy, colorful funeral for his foster father, Bob.

In the final scene you see Mike standing abandoned on a street in Idaho, as he did at the beginning of the film. Because of his narcolepsy, he falls asleep on the street. Two men in a passing car steal the unconscious man's bag and shoes, but shortly afterwards another car stops, the driver of which pulls Mike into his car and takes him away.

production

Script and preproduction

Van Sant had already worked on a screenplay about male and homosexual prostitution in the 1970s, but then read John Rechy's novel City of Night - this novel deeply impressed Van Sant and later also influenced My Own Private Idaho . He let his idea rest for the time being, because he saw the subject in Rechy's novel better than in his script. Martin Bell's Oscar-winning documentary Streetwise (1984) about homeless and prostituting youth and an encounter with the Seattle street boy Michael Parker influenced Van Sant to continue working on the abandoned film project in the late 1980s. Parker was also the inspiration for the character of Mike Waters and received the supporting role of the prostitute Digger in the film .

In addition to the script about street boys, Van Sant also had the idea of making a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's historical dramas Henry IV, Part 1 , Henry IV, Part 2 and Henry V. Finally, while watching Orson Welles ' film Falstaff (1965), he got the idea to combine the two stories, as he found in the Shakespeare plays a lot that could be compared to the life of street boys. In the film, Scott Favor is strongly reminiscent of the young Henry V , called Prince Hal by Shakespeare : In his youth, he deals with criminals and the homeless, but leaves them disappointed with the assumption of his befitting responsibility. The figure of the obese, fun-loving homeless leader Bob is reminiscent of Falstaff , the friend who was first valued and later denied by Prince Hal. The stylistic influence of Welles' Falstaff on My Own Private Idaho is also clearly visible.

After Van Sant had his breakthrough in 1989 with the film Drugstore Cowboy , which showed drug addicts young people, several film studios showed interest in a collaboration and made him lucrative offers. However, when he auditioned with the idea of My Own Private Idaho , the subject seemed too risky to Hollywood studios. With the help of New Line Cinema's producer Cam Galano , he finally received a budget of $ 2.6 million.

occupation

The first and last scenes of the film were shot on Idaho State Highway 75

Rodney Harvey was originally slated for the role of Scott Favor, but investors and producers wanted to cast a better-known actor. Keanu Reeves was eventually cast. Reeves was the one who convinced Phoenix to make the film. He drove his motorcycle from Canada to Micanopy, Florida, where River Phoenix lived with his family, over the Christmas vacation to show his colleague the script.

For a supporting role, bassist Flea was cast by the band Red Hot Chili Peppers .

Filming

Production assistant Matt Ebert said that he, Gus van Sant, and most of the male leads lived in the same house in Oregon during the filming. There was no furniture in this house, sleeping in sleeping bags was supposed to get the main actors in the mood for their roles as homeless people. Some of the cast, such as Michael Parker, were amateur actors who actually lived in Portland as street children .

The motionless scenes during the sex scenes - they are not still images - were not originally intended to be shot like this, Van Sant had to reschedule during the filming because Reeves had big problems with these explicit moments. The scene at the campfire was rewritten by River Phoenix and expanded from three pages to eight pages.

synchronization

role actor Voice actor
Mike Waters River Phoenix Tobias Lelle
Scott Favor Keanu Reeves Pascal Breuer
Richard Waters James Russo Gudo Hoegel
Bob Pigeon William Richert Jochen Striebeck
Digger Michael Parker Martin Halm
Budd Flea Oliver Stritzel

Reviews

Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four in its October 18, 1991 review. Surprisingly, although the main characters are prostitutes, the film is "not really about sex, which neither Mike nor Scott really cares about." Mike wants love and someone who really cares for him and gives him protection, whether with a man or a woman . “The achievement of this film is that it tries to create a state of drifting distress, and it succeeds. There is no mechanical act that has to lead to a Hollywood ending, and no artificial tests for the heroes to pass; this is a film about two special young men and how they exist in their lives. "

Jonathan Rosenbaum found that the eclectic style of the film might take some getting used to, but almost everything works because it brings lyrical focus to his characters and proves poetry. "Phoenix has never been better, and Reeves makes the most of a role that is mainly Shakespeare's Hal filtered through Welles ."

The film service writes that My Private Idaho is a “sparse and concentratedly narrated film about desolation, loneliness and exploitation, which uses the Falstaff motif for its prostitute story and repeatedly finds opportunities for refractions and symbolic exaggerations; exhausting, but just as smart as honest and uncompromising. "

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Philipp Brunner: New Queer Cinema. In: Lexicon of film terms. Retrieved October 6, 2016 .
  2. ^ Gus Van Sant: Swimming Against the Current. Retrieved December 9, 2018 .
  3. ↑ EmanuelLevy: Van Sant Revisited: My Own Private Idaho – His Masterpiece? | Emanuel Levy. Retrieved December 9, 2018 (American English).
  4. ^ David Handelman, David Handelman: Gus Van Sant's Northwest Passage. In: Rolling Stone. October 31, 1991. Retrieved December 9, 2018 (American English).
  5. ↑ Jonathan Rosenbaum: My Own Private Idaho. Retrieved December 9, 2018 .
  6. ↑ EmanuelLevy: Van Sant Revisited: My Own Private Idaho – His Masterpiece? | Emanuel Levy. Retrieved December 9, 2018 (American English).
  7. ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | My Private Idaho - The End of Innocence. Retrieved June 29, 2018 .
  8. ^ Roger Ebert: My Own Private Idaho Movie Review (1991). Retrieved December 9, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Jonathan Rosenbaum: My Own Private Idaho. Retrieved December 9, 2018 .
  10. ^ My Private Idaho (film service). Retrieved December 9, 2018 .