Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park on DVD and Blu-Ray

Director Gus Van Sant (Elephant, Last Days) returns with the highly anticipated film Paranoid Park. Paranoid Park is released on DVD and Blu-Ray by Tartan Video on 28th April 2008.

When a security guard is accidentally killed outside Portland’s notorious skate park, it’s clear that 16 year old skateboarder Alex knows more than he’s letting on. Fearing the consequences, he increasingly retreats into his own world of silence and isolation.

Winner of the 60th anniversary award at this year’s Cannes Festival, PARANOID PARK is a mesmerising film with a non-linear narrative, which creates a greater degree of suspense as it explores the inner workings of Alex’s behaviour. Based on the novel of the same name by Blake Nelson, it features a cast of non-professional actors recruited through MySpace, generating a natural debut for Gabe Nevins as the brooding teenager.

After Elephant and Last Days, it forms the third film of a loosely-knit trilogy which explores the world of disaffected, disconnected youth at the point where posturing childhood gives way to the awkwardness of adult responsibilities, addressed in such films as River’s Edge, Heathers, and Stand By Me.

The film also marks his second collaboration with acclaimed cinematographer, Chris Doyle. Best known for his work with Asian-based directors Wong Kar-Wai, Fruit Chan and Zhang Yimou, he gained his first Hollywood break on Van Sant’s Psycho remake before lensing for Philip Noyce, James Ivory and M Night Shyamalan. His evocative often raw work on PARANOID PARK , which also includes beautifully evocative skateboard action sequences shot on Super 8 film by Rain Kathy Li, makes it Gus Van Sant’s most lyrical and stylish film to date.

DVD extras include: Tartan UK exclusive coverage of Secret Cinema preview event (6 mins) ; ‘Making Of…’ documentary directed by Van Sant’s sound engineer, Felix Andrew; trailer (26 mins).