04/30/07
Text: Jennifer Nies
Photographers: Jason Lee
Love them or loathe them, David Gordon Green’s films are undeniably special and possess a meditative beauty. His debut, George Washington, was made with a crew of friends, not much film, even less money and a cast of non-actors he found around North Carolina where the film was shot. Instead of leveraging the attention that came from George Washington to step into Hollywood, he followed it up with the equally finespun All the Real Girls. And after that he gave the Gordon Green treatment to the thriller genre with Undertow. Set to be released later this year, his new film, Snow Angels ventures north from the southern environments that were so integral to his earlier work. Adapted from the Stewart O’Nan novel, it’s a blunt drama that stars Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale in a story of a broken marriage.
On all his films, Green surrounds himself with a collaborative crew made up of classmates from the North Carolina School of the Arts, including cinematographer Tim Orr. Working closely with a steady group of friends, he often keeps specific settings and dates vague in order to give the films a timeless quality. There is strength in the delicacy of both his characters and the dilapidating worlds that surround them. Whether it’s the opening scene of All the Real Girls capturing the beginning of a relationship, or the opening of George Washington marking the end of one, Green’s strongest asset is the ability to create certain moments that can stay with you forever.
But don’t even think about typecasting David Gordon Green. Anthem talked to the director a week into shooting his newest project Pineapple Express, a suburban drug-dealing action-comedy he describes as “unconventional, because none of it makes any sense. It’s just absurd. The whole movie’s just outrageous. I don’t even know what to compare it to.”
You were into film from a young age, and of course you went to film school. Outside of the movies, what would you say inspires your work?
Movies aren’t that inspirational. I feel that the movies are more of an influence and less of an inspiration. I think relationships are the inspiration, and traveling. I don’t know that [L.A.] is a great example, but I do a lot of sitting around in other places and watching people. I like taking the bus; that’s inspirational. New Orleans is a cool bus-town. Streetcars, buses, bikes…I enjoy that.
