(click to embiggen) If you ever get a chance to see James Franco's reworking of left-over footage from Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho, which James calls My Own Private River, take the chance. It's more interesting than I worried it was going to be beforehand. I haven't seen Van Sant's film in several years so I'll just admit it, shocking none of you - I was going just to see James in person. He showed it at Lincoln Center on Sunday night, and did a Q&A afterwards. I figured the footage he was showing would be self-indulgent arty rambling with a bunch of shots of wet leaves that were left out for good reason, but what it actually ended up being was a treasure trove of River Phoenix footage - it almost felt as if we had an entirely new River movie to watch. I mean there were some self-indulgent arty rambling shots of wet leaves too, but mostly it was this gift of footage of a performer at the too-soon-snuffed height of his powers, and he was mesmerizing. James was asked if it was ever going to be made available, like with the Criterion DVD of the original film, but he basically said no, probably not, so it might be hard to come by. Maybe he'll take his show on the road! Him and Keanu on a motorbike looping the countryside! We'd all pay a lot for that show, no doubt.
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