Bret Easton Ellis

First time we heard of Bret Easton Ellis was when we looked for the novel the movie Less Than Zero was based on. Then Nick came back one day when he was living in Brixton with American Psycho, and blew us away.

Bret Easton Ellis Photo byFelix Seuffert

Although the A Spycho film featuring Christian Bale is a fun film in its own right, it really did not represent the book for me at all. But then how do you do a Hollywood version of the scene where he shoves a tube up that whore, spreads brie inside and lets a couple of rats loose?
But the film was more a parody of the novel which in no way makes the main character Patrick Bateman look stupid, but creepy and frighteningly detached.
How can you do the film without the tireless references to the brand names? Or full chapters about Genesis or U2?
In the same way Blair Witch Project was scary ONLY if you didn't know it was not real, I think we liked it so much because we had not heard anything about it before reading it.
Normally one would say "read the book before you watch the film" but I would say for Christ's sake do not. They are two different things alltogether.
With the help of a chainsaw and a coathanger, American Psycho marked the end of the New York yuppie era of the 80s. Gekko said Greed is Good, Bateman (Ellis) said "You're a fucking ugly bitch. I want to stab you to death, and then play around with your blood."

Snippets in Bret's own words:

“I have a completely different relationship with the novel than the reader does,” he sighs. “Which is why it’s very hard to sit here and answer questions about the book, because it’s such a disconnect.”

“I had the mind of a writer and that makes you a bit of voyeur… but I always did feel alienated from everything. That alienation made me sad and a lot of Less Than Zero was me working that out.”

“Unrequited love – that sucks. So then Boom! Rules of Attraction starts building itself.”

 

"you either paint it pink or you paint it black.” 

Less Than Zero

"In 1985, after having his own 530 page giant pared down to 230 pages, Less Than Zero was published (and purchased for $5,000) to great critical and commercial success. It sold 50,000 copies in it's first year of publication. 
The media labelled Ellis 'the voice of a generation', and it became a New York Times Best Seller. He was compared to Truman Capote. 
It's a book about the transformations (mostly for the worse) that take place in a group of high school friends after they've graduated from high school and reunite for winter break to their homes and their families in California. "
This was taken from a great article about Bret Easton Ellis at Acid Logic