Cinema
My Own Private Idaho
Gus Van Sant · 1991
Synopsis
Mike Waters, a young hustler in Portland, is narcoleptic: at the slightest stress, he falls asleep, assailed by memories of his mother, and wakes up somewhere else. His friend Scott Favor is the son of the city's mayor; he is due to come into his inheritance at twenty-one and then intends to leave the street. The two set off to look for Mike's mother in Idaho, where Mike's brother tells them she has gone to Italy; there they find the farm where she lived, and a young woman, Carmella, tells them she has gone back to the United States.
Context
The film brings together two projects the director had carried since the late seventies: the search for a mother, and a transposition of the two parts of Henry IV and of Henry V, from which he kept adapted lines. The production wanted to cut these passages for fear of mockery, and it was the foreign distributors who defended them. River Phoenix's agent had blocked the screenplay: Keanu Reeves, who had accepted first, took it to him himself in Florida, and Phoenix agreed on condition that Reeves also take part.
Who it is for
A film of an hour and forty minutes, in which passages in Shakespearean language break into a contemporary story.
Prizes and reception
Volpi Cup for best actor at Venice in 1991 for Phoenix, and three Independent Spirit Awards, including best male lead and best screenplay.
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