Gary Dretzka
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Ray Pride

January 12, 2004

 

SUNDANCE INVOKES M-WORD* FOR TARNATION
After Seeing Rough-Cut, Van Sant and Mitchell On Board
*"Masterpiece" Made for $218.32 / First Feature on Apple's iMovie

In a rare departure from catalogue note reserve, Sundance fest programmer Shari Frilot invokes the m-word to praise Jonathan Caouette's distinctive first feature. "A dazzling display of energy and visual splendor, TARNATION is a raw and sensual masterpiece of self-destruction and rebirth that announces the arrival of a new filmmaking talent…and establishes Caouette as a cinematic visionary to reckon with."

After seeing a rough-cut, Cannes Best Director Gus Van Sant and Sundance Best Director John Cameron Mitchell came on board as Executive Producer and Editorial Consultant, respectively.

"I think Jonathan Caouette's TARNATION is the shit," notes Van Sant. "I think I have always been waiting to see someone make something as moving as Jonathan's film with as little as he has had to make it. I knew something like this would appear, and I am glad that it finally has." This week, Gus called Jonathan about using iMovie for a possible project of his own.

Mitchell's reaction was similar. "TARNATION is the most powerful and original new film that I've seen in years. Jonathan Caouette is now on the list of filmmakers that will always inspire me."

First feature made on Apple's iMovie, TARNATION's total production budget: $218.32.

Way more than a refreshing change, more like a cinema landmark, TARNATION is as fiercely personal a self-portrait of an artist as can be recalled. Nineteen years in the making, Jonathan Caouette has done something probably unseen in assembling a life on screen. Through extensive photos, Super-8 home movies, phone messages, DV diaries, snips from his short films and 80's pop culture, as well as dramatic reenactments, he paints us his life with startling imagery and incidents.

As a young girl, his mother Renee was beautiful, but a handful. Her parents thought shock treatments might be the answer. Son Jonathan was the offspring of an off-kilter life. Rape, incest, abandonment, promiscuity, drug addition, child abuse were some of the stops along the way. The film opens in 2005 as Jonathan learns his mother has overdosed on her lithium prescription and he must leave a finally happy life with his tender, handsome partner David in New York City and return to the grandparents' chaotic nest to help the schizophrenic Renee with her demons. The 31 year-old Caouette goes back to his childhood home in rural Texas and in so doing, relives both the nightmares and the brief idylls of his complicated youth.

TARNATION defies easy categorizing, but the filmmaker's naked revelations take us on an unforgettable journey, which is both highly disturbing and humanly sweet.

Gus Van Sant and John Cameron Mitchell will join filmmaker Jonathan Caouette and his producer Stephen Winter at Sundance in support of TARNATION.