The Gus Van Sant Podcast 5A: Richard Drew on To Die For (1995)

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/11/08/the-gus-van-sant-podcast-5-richard-drew-on-to-die-for-1995/ I very much wanted to speak to the wonderful Richard Drew about TO DIE FOR (Gus Van Sant, 1995). Richard has a degree in Film and Literature so knows something about film, yet unusually for the guests on this podcast, he is not a Gus Van Sant fan. More importantly, Richard is a television producer, now based in Los Angeles, but who got his start on the ground floor of Reality TV in England and has worked on BIG BROTHER, SECOND SURVIVOR, FAME ACADEMY, and many more. He is now SVP of Development at Law and Crime Productions, specialising in True Crime Documentaries. His latest work, JAILBREAK: LOVE ON THE RUN is currently on Netlfix. All of this to say he is ideally suited to speak to the film's main themes. In the podcast we discuss how TO DIE FOR draws on the talk show culture of the era (Oprah, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Phil Donahue) as well as the rise of celebrity culture in print (PEOPLE, US) and Television (ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT). It’s a film that’s very much about not only a grasping for fame, but for television and televisual fame. We talk of the performances, the film’s form and structure, how it’s a story complexly told but in a manner that’s experienced as simple and direct. All this and much more can be heard in the podcast above: