'Art Tends to Get Quite Good When the Regime is Oppressive'

Apparently, the proper use of the English language suffers, however. Surely, you ask, this fellow must be talking about all those noteworthy films lensed under the oppressive Castro regime, or in Venezuela, China, Iran or North Korea, right?

Of course not. The oppressive regime is modern-day America under the evil George W. Bush.

Barack Obama's victory could turn Gus Van Sant into a boring filmmaker. The "Milk" director tells The Times of London that a Democratic administration has traditionally coincided with a less adventurous artistic tenor. "Art tends to get quite good when the regime is oppressive. The films I've made under friendlier leaders, like Clinton, have become less challenging. With Bush in the White House, my films got darker and more extreme," Van Sant says. "[Obama's election] suggests I'll get more conventional."

Van Sant and the rest of his ilk will be tripping over themselves to film Obama-friendly films that will tank at theaters just like all the anti-war films have bombed so horrifically the past several years.