Xixax Film Forum

The Director's Chair => The Director's Chair => Topic started by: Rudie Obias on February 02, 2003, 08:54:10 PM

Title: Harmony Korine
Post by: Rudie Obias on February 02, 2003, 08:54:10 PM
thoughts?  opinions?
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Ghostboy on February 02, 2003, 10:01:12 PM
It's taken me two viewings to really appreciate each of his films, but once I get them, I love them. I think they both play better on the small screen, which is probably why I didn't get into them until I saw them on DVD. Julien Donkey Boy in particular benefits from the tighter resolution of a TV screen.

I wasn't a huge fan of Kids, though. It was okay, but I'm really glad it gave Korine the boost he needed to make his own films.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Duck Sauce on February 02, 2003, 10:43:32 PM
I liked Kids but I was very close to hating both Gummo and Julien-Donkey Boy although the scene at the ice-skating rink was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to watch. I have a problem keeping with movies that lack any sort of a plot, and although I give him kudos for style and originality, I think he relies too much on it. Maybe somebody could tell me whats so great.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Xixax on February 04, 2003, 11:35:41 AM
Harmony's movies are like watching a car crash, IMO. There's no "art", there's no good guys or bad guys, it's more like it's all stream of consciousness stuff that sucks you in like a bad episode of Cops.

First time I saw Gummo, I kept wondering if these people could be any more worthless than they already had become, and then we're met with the retarded prostitute.

Harmony's stuff is lower than the bottom of the barrel. It's so toxic that it would eat through the foulest of shitholes and leave the turds begging for mercy.

Yet, all that being said, I still find myself glued to the screen when I encounter a DVD or an IFC viewing of one of Harmony's movies.

I think his films are absolutely horrible, and I love them all.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: KingBlackDeath on February 26, 2003, 03:13:45 AM
JDB is great aside from the cigarette in the nose guy, the armless man, the nun doing whatever the hell she is doing, the bag boy barking, and half of the stuff with Herzog. These are things that make his films seem stupid because it's like "Look at this guy! Isn't that FUCKED UP!?!" and I've seen that cigarette guy do that before on other things. If he took at that stuff and just left the julien and the julian/sister/brother stuff it would be better.

i liked Gummo more before I saw it when I would hear Harmony describe his theories on filmmaking and hear desriptions of it. After seeing it, I'm neutral on it.

But anyone who can write a book that makes a reference to Jordy in it is fine by me.
Title: korine.
Post by: b/a on February 26, 2003, 10:38:28 PM
I love him. Gummo and JDB are two of my favorite movies. I wish he would hurry up and do something else though. All of my favorite directors seems to work at a glacial pace while the ones I hate churn out movies every other month.
Title: Re: korine.
Post by: Pwaybloe on February 27, 2003, 12:05:57 PM
Quote from: b/aI love him. Gummo and JDB are two of my favorite movies. I wish he would hurry up and do something else though. All of my favorite directors seems to work at a glacial pace while the ones I hate churn out movies every other month.

Well, one of Harmony's earliest scripts has been made into Larry Clark's "Ken Park."  I don't know what's going on with distribution, but I doubt the Brits will see it anytime soon since Clark punched his British distributor over a political argument.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: TenseAndSober on February 27, 2003, 10:48:42 PM
I just saw Julien Donkey Boy the other day and loved it.  Gummo was good too...Harmony Korine is definetly one of my favorite filmmakers.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: snaporaz on March 04, 2003, 12:51:36 AM
i thought julien donkey-boy was crap. gummo was cool since it wasn't trying to be serious [i think. please don't say i'm wrong], so it worked. donkey-boy, on the other hand, was a desperate attempt at making an emotional, dramatic dogme piece - which, in my opinion, was a cop out since it was done on digi. and it didn't work at all. nothing more to add to that, really.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Xixax on March 09, 2003, 05:56:07 PM
Quote from: snaporazi thought julien donkey-boy was crap. gummo was cool since it wasn't trying to be serious [i think. please don't say i'm wrong], so it worked. donkey-boy, on the other hand, was a desperate attempt at making an emotional, dramatic dogme piece - which, in my opinion, was a cop out since it was done on digi. and it didn't work at all. nothing more to add to that, really.
Yes, I was surprised that it was considered (or attempted to be) a Dogme95 movie because it was all shot digital.

I netflixed this again this weekend and finally gave it a sit-down all the way through viewing and absolutely loved it. The guy who played Julian was really phenomenal.

Harmony, for all of his weirdness, is becoming one of my offbeat favorites, for sure. I can't wait to see Ken Park. Larry Clark is another filmmaker on my list of "get-to-know-better".
Title: harmony korine
Post by: manhattanize on March 10, 2003, 04:25:44 PM
i think harmony korine is a great filmmaker, not because of depth, but because of the surface that then makes the audience feel his depth especially with gummo and JDB...i'm not making much sense, so really what i'm trying to say is that most of his emotional appearance is just strictly surface and is weak in that sense, visually he is messy but it is quite called for with the stories or lack of story he is trying to tell...
it's funny, because if i attempt to talk about him, i get as random and as confusing as his work...
Title: harmony korine
Post by: SubstanceD on March 11, 2003, 04:35:29 PM
Most of the Dogme movies are shot digital
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Xixax on March 11, 2003, 04:51:51 PM
Quote from: SubstanceDMost of the Dogme movies are shot digital
Don't forget the part about how most of them suck, too.
8)
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Spike on May 03, 2003, 06:41:25 AM
Did anyone of you notice his cameo-appereance in "Kids". He's the boy with the glasses who goes with Jenny through this disco and gives her an ecstasy-pill. For me he looks with the glasses like a swot.  :)
Title: harmony korine
Post by: phil marlowe on May 03, 2003, 07:31:14 AM
Quote from: XixaxDon't forget the part about how most of them suck, too.
8)
they do not. most of them are really good actcually. how many have you even seen? expand.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: snaporaz on May 06, 2003, 06:22:43 PM
Quote from: SubstanceDMost of the Dogme movies are shot digital

dogme's been around longer than digital. eat me.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Ghostboy on May 06, 2003, 07:46:11 PM
Quote from: snaporaz
Quote from: SubstanceDMost of the Dogme movies are shot digital

dogme's been around longer than digital. eat me.

Actually, it hasn't. They both hit the mainstream, so to speak, at roughly the same time.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Pedro on May 06, 2003, 07:48:31 PM
Quote from: Ghostboy
Quote from: snaporaz
Quote from: SubstanceDMost of the Dogme movies are shot digital

dogme's been around longer than digital. eat me.

Actually, it hasn't. They both hit the mainstream, so to speak, at roughly the same time.
The original Dogme rules state that the film format must be Academy 35 mm.  maybe that's what he's trying to say?
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Cecil on May 06, 2003, 09:26:01 PM
the end format must be on 35. it can be shot on whatever you want just as long as its transfered to 35 afterwards
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Pedro on May 06, 2003, 09:45:18 PM
Quote from: cecil b. dementedthe end format must be on 35. it can be shot on whatever you want just as long as its transfered to 35 afterwards
oh
Title: harmony korine
Post by: bonanzataz on May 06, 2003, 10:35:11 PM
breaking the waves was done on film.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Ghostboy on May 06, 2003, 10:42:48 PM
Breaking The Waves was pre-Dogme.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: meatwad on May 09, 2003, 08:47:54 PM
didn't korine direct a video for sonic youth? Has anybody seen that?




//www.thestate22.com
Title: harmony korine
Post by: godardian on May 12, 2003, 02:34:46 PM
I dunno... Todd Haynes definitely did, though. Off of Goo.

I like Korine's stuff. More than I like him. I think he's literally deranged. I really like Gummo, though, and I was the only person I knew of (until now) who loved Julien Donkey-Boy.

His films are such tactile experiences, they're really overwhelming. The image that really stands out to me from either film: The backyard scene from Gummo wherein the children take turns kissing in a swimming pool... in the rain. There is something so innocent and tender about that image; it's really beautiful. From Julien Donkey-Boy, it's Sevigny's character wandering through the wheat (corn?) field, singing a hymn. He has a lovely visual sense.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: meatwad on May 12, 2003, 06:53:07 PM
has todd haynes done any other music videos?








//www.thestate22.com
Title: harmony korine
Post by: godardian on May 12, 2003, 10:00:26 PM
I don't think so. Not that I know of.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Thecowgoooesmooo on November 23, 2003, 03:36:33 PM
Korine is a visual genious in my opinion. But hes a real asshole in real life, (i know some people who grew up with him). Great sense visually, in Gummo, (big fan) he makes the ugliest things look so beautiful. His movies don't have traditional stories or plots, which I think allot of people can't handle that for some reason, but I think its a great change. Also, Kids is absolutely amazing, because its extremely realistic, its like a commentary on so many of the kids growing up in New York during the early to mid 90's. Its not the same scene there now.


chris
Title: harmony korine
Post by: AK on November 23, 2003, 09:56:12 PM
Quote from: Meatwadhas todd haynes done any other music videos?








//www.thestate22.com

I believe he directed two...that one where Chloë Sevigny appears naked and other with Kulkin (don't remember the names)
Title: harmony korine
Post by: godardian on November 23, 2003, 10:58:16 PM
Quote from: AK
Quote from: Meatwadhas todd haynes done any other music videos?








//www.thestate22.com

I believe he directed two...that one where Chloë Sevigny appears naked and other with Kulkin (don't remember the names)

Any details? Bands, songs, etc?
Title: harmony korine
Post by: AK on November 23, 2003, 11:02:04 PM
ok, i completely messed up the things...i meant korine directed for sonic youth  two videos, sorry .
Title: harmony korine
Post by: oakmanc234 on November 24, 2003, 03:09:26 AM
The more I watch 'Kids' the more brilliant I find it to be. Korine was pretty young when he wrote this, right? Wowza of a script really. No plot devices, cliche's, just straight up realness. Unflinching and honest (I think I've read that on every advertisement for it but its true). I thought he wrote 'Bully' too but was wrong but I start to wonder if it would've turned out any different! Its pretty 'Kids'-like. Really wanna see 'Ken Park'.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Ghostboy on December 09, 2003, 07:32:27 PM
News at last!

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/screen/story/0,6903,1101532,00.html

The nun thing sounds great.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: socketlevel on December 13, 2003, 05:19:56 PM
i saw ken park at the toronto festival two years ago.  this film is far out and the actors all took one hell of a risk.  i guess they really didn't have a career before this film but it might just stop dead in their tracks.  kinda like logan's role in Nowhere by greg araki.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: ono on January 28, 2004, 12:53:18 PM
The only real thread for Julien Donkey-Boy was locked, for good reason I imagine, so I may as well post this here.  Just saw Julien Donkey-Boy.  Just loved Julien Donkey-Boy.  Greater than Gummo, though they're both great films.  My comments for this are pretty much the same as Gummo.  Korine simply improves on a previously-established formula, and churns out a great, moving film.  What godardian has said about his visual style is what I admire most.  Anthony Dod Mantle has such great skill as a cinematographer.  It is really encouraging that this was all done on DV, and I actually like the grainy look of the film, although the handheld parts at the beginning were a bit disorienting, and the editing in some places was fuzzy and choppy (probably purposefully).  The score of the film was so beautiful, but I'm a bit confused (and I hope someone can clear this up for me), because I thought that no non-diagetic music was allowed in a Dogme 95 film, and I could've sworn there were a few times where the score was coming from a source not on screen.  Either way, these are the kinds of films I want to make.

The ending was beautiful, and I like that in this movie there seem to have been some actual themes recurring here, unlike Gummo which was simply random scenes from a town (though that could be considered a theme as well).  Here we have the ice skating motif and the pervasiveness of religion, all building up to create this underlying intangible emotion that one can't put into words.  That's what film is capable of, and when it works, it's really powerful.  To me, that's what we have here, and I think if Korine channels this, he could make something really special one day.  I doubt it'll be Ken Park, though, but that's because Clark had his dirty paws on it.

Best line from the film (after Chris's father instructs him to balance on a glass, pick up a cigarette in his mouth and smoke it with grace to learn balance as a wrestler):

CHRIS: But I don't smoke.
FATHER: Eh, you'll learn that.

See this film if you haven't yet, and if you care at all about independent, unconventional cinema.  Don't be afraid about what you may have heard about any shock value, lack of plot, or Korine's "hucksterism," relationship to Larry Clarke, or anything like that.  They two are totally different voices; Korine has talent while Clark does not.  ***½ (8/10)

EDIT: As I was walking home, it just dawned on me what sets these films apart, and really bothers me about most films.  It's the inclusion of the (traditional) dramatic scene, or at least a film that is structured to somewhat closely follow that pattern.  Even at the most unconventional, most films follow this structure where scenes pay off in a dramatic fashion.  There's some line, some look, some shot, some cut that indicates the scene is over, and the story arc continues.  In Korine's film, this isn't so, and that's what sets them apart.  There is no punchline.  His films simply exist, and this is what makes them so real, so unlike anything else.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: modage on January 28, 2004, 09:07:59 PM
Quote from: ebeamanI'll elaborate later - but let me just say that I take back anything negative I have said about Harmony Korine and that he is one of the three best young filmmaker's working today along with PTA and DGG, hands down. I will elaborate later, I promise.
ebeaman you are so full of grandoise statements like that when you the mood catches you right, arent you?  why dont you just say he's one of your favorite, and not one of the best?  or atleast elaborate on what you think is so great about him, and why you feel you can justify that statement.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: SoNowThen on January 29, 2004, 03:08:36 PM
Quote from: themodernage02
Quote from: ebeamanI'll elaborate later - but let me just say that I take back anything negative I have said about Harmony Korine and that he is one of the three best young filmmaker's working today along with PTA and DGG, hands down. I will elaborate later, I promise.
ebeaman you are so full of grandoise statements like that when you the mood catches you right, arent you?  why dont you just say he's one of your favorite, and not one of the best?  or atleast elaborate on what you think is so great about him, and why you feel you can justify that statement.

Yikes! What's wrong with a young guy being enthusiastic about film? This is what I'm sick of about talking about movies --  Justify is a word that they use in stuffy ass college courses. If I see someone genuinely excited about something, "just because" is the best (and most truthful) answer there is to give.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: SoNowThen on January 29, 2004, 03:21:04 PM
Quote from: ebeamanWell, I hope there's at least a couple people in college like you man

Hehehe, I never went. Sometimes I visit friends, and enjoy the eye candy of lovely university gals, and use their wonderful stocked library to get film books.

I sat in on a film class there once. It was a disgrace. But that's probably because Edmonton Alberta isn't exactly known for the film scholars it pumps out...



oops, sorry, back to Harmony Korine   :oops: [/code]
Title: harmony korine
Post by: godardian on January 29, 2004, 03:35:21 PM
Quote from: SoNowThen
Quote from: themodernage02
Quote from: ebeamanI'll elaborate later - but let me just say that I take back anything negative I have said about Harmony Korine and that he is one of the three best young filmmaker's working today along with PTA and DGG, hands down. I will elaborate later, I promise.
ebeaman you are so full of grandoise statements like that when you the mood catches you right, arent you?  why dont you just say he's one of your favorite, and not one of the best?  or atleast elaborate on what you think is so great about him, and why you feel you can justify that statement.

Yikes! What's wrong with a young guy being enthusiastic about film? This is what I'm sick of about talking about movies --  Justify is a word that they use in stuffy ass college courses. If I see someone genuinely excited about something, "just because" is the best (and most truthful) answer there is to give.

You'll never develop or further your ability to articulate and make your case, though, if you don't try to have insight into why you like/dislike something. I mean, if "just because" is the best answer, why are any of us here at all, talking about films? It may be the most "truthful" answer if by "truthful" you mean "spontaneous," (they're hardly synonymous), but it's by far the least satisfactory to anyone, including- I'd imagine- the person who's saying it.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: modage on January 29, 2004, 03:37:45 PM
Quote from: ebeamanI'd prefer that SOOOO incredibly much to the "currrazy quirkiness" of someone like Alexander Payne....that shit can get on my nerves. Especially "About Schmidt", I hate that fucking movie now. It is so FLAT and boring and lord have mercy is it NERDY!!! It's the nerdiest fucking movie I've ever seen. The new guy that replaces Warren especially! Oh my god, I wanted to slap that guy. I mean, I'm a nerd myself but even I'm no that bad. And oh my god, that winnebago campout scene....oh my god, that is enough to make me wanna vomit....with that freakin guy saying "Ahoy" like he's on some sort of ship or some shit.....oh my god, I hate that movie.
uhh, i think they're supposed to be nerdy.  it's a comedy, or atleast a dramedy.  the characters are supposed to be funny.

Quote from: ebeamanSee see, they actually have CINEMATIC quality to them while Alexander Payne and Whit Stillman just fucking set the camera up and cut-cut-cut-cut-cut-cut-cut......AHHHHHH!!! Somebody shoot me! I mean, I understand what a minimalist style is but give me a fucking break! Go write a play if you want to do that shit! This is a different medium! Use it!!!
word of advice: DONT RENT TOKYO STORY!  you wont like it.

Quote from: ebeamanPTA, DGG, Harmony, and a few others are refusing to let people like Whit and Alex and David Fincher and Larry Clark and Christopher Nolan kill cinema. If that isn't enough of a reason for me to call Harmony one of the best, then fine, he is just one of my personal favorites....problem solved. I don't know what grandiose means but I'm definitely full of more statements like the one you quoted, yes. I hope that doesn't bother you because nothing you do bothers me at all man, I don't intend to start any trouble.
well, i dont understand how david fincher and christopher nolan are 'killing cinema', so maybe you can help elaborate on that too.  i'm not jumping on you for your tastes.  you can like whatever you want, but when you make bold statements proclaiming something to be THE WAY IT IS, sounding like pauline kael, i want to know why you feel that way.  there is no trouble.  i appreciate your enthusiasm for movies, but i need to know how you justify (sorry, it fits), saying something is THE BEST.  if you had said your favorite, i wouldnt have thought twice.  but if you're putting down something and boosting up something else like its a fact, i want to know why so i can respond if i need to.

also: grandiose
-Characterized by greatness of scope or intent; grand. See Synonyms at grand.
-Characterized by feigned or affected grandeur; pompous.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: godardian on January 29, 2004, 04:11:10 PM
I absolutely adore About Schmidt. How could something so incisive come across as "flat" to anyone? Honestly, how else do people in campers behave? Those scenes rang true, were insightful, and also had the bonus of being humorous.

I also think Whit Stillman is pretty swell; he's definitely focusing on a specific milieu, but I think he has a healthy dose of self-deprecation and humor. I find his films and the people in them very appealing- in their own way, they're struggling the same as anyone else.

And I will say that when it comes to using words like "nerdy," you're only going to show your opponents in debate that you have an impoverished critical vocabulary and are too inexperienced or inarticulate to have a valid argument. This is why, regardless of your specific opinion, you simply have got to learn to articulate yourself. Use words like "nerdy," or say "just because," and you'll be written off as intellectually inferior (or merely cowardly) by the very people you need to be contradicting on equal terms. If you ever want your opinion to be taken seriously, that is.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: modage on January 29, 2004, 04:22:51 PM
Quote from: godardianI absolutely adore About Schmidt.
me too.  and it's not ebeaman, that i NEED you to like About Schmidt, because we all have our own tastes/opinions.  but for you to make the presumptuous statement that alexander payne is 'killing cinema'.  c'mon, you may not dig his movies, but is he really putting out a product so heinous that he's making things worse for all the moviemakers out there?  i dont think so, and thats why i dont care for grand statements like that one which is going to cause challenging responses like mine for you to make a damn good argument as to why you feel that way.  personally i dont think Korine is doing anything different than things that have already been done a thousand times by other filmmakers.  he may be doing something different from what plays at the multiplex today, but so are tons of other filmmakers, and i dont think doing something a little different from whats out there warrants being one of the best filmmakers.  its going to take a little more than that to convince me.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Henry Hill on January 29, 2004, 07:12:06 PM
not to get off subject, but did anyone see BULLY? that movie was pretty trippy.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Alethia on January 29, 2004, 08:03:53 PM
ebeaman, i agree with you about korine.  i dont agree about payne but who gives a fuck.  but i could have sworn you used to talk about alexander payne in a very positive light....just because you've discovered korine and how great he is, dont let that make you look at other films any differently.  just because gummo is the way it is and you love it, don't let that sour your taste against ABOUT SCHMIDT or anything, cuz like you said, you hate that movie NOW......don't let one great movie close you off to maybe five other that may be just a notch beneath it....but you're right...gummo is pretty brilliant isnt it?   :)

ahh i just worry...
Title: harmony korine
Post by: godardian on January 29, 2004, 08:36:36 PM
Quote from: filmboy70not to get off subject, but did anyone see BULLY? that movie was pretty trippy.

I thought it was a bad movie, and Clark's worst movie by far. I find Another Day in Paradise got underrated and unfairly ignored, probably because it wasn't sensationalistic enough. That's all Bully was, wasn't it? Cheap sensationalism with terrible acting and shockingly haphazard, bland visuals for Clark, who has been known to display a great sense of framing and composition when he feels like it.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: godardian on January 29, 2004, 10:00:49 PM
Quote from: ebeaman
Quote from: godardianAnd I will say that when it comes to using words like "nerdy," you're only going to show your opponents in debate that you have an impoverished critical vocabulary and are too inexperienced or inarticulate to have a valid argument. This is why, regardless of your specific opinion, you simply have got to learn to articulate yourself. Use words like "nerdy," or say "just because," and you'll be written off as intellectually inferior (or merely cowardly) by the very people you need to be contradicting on equal terms. If you ever want your opinion to be taken seriously, that is.

Well, I don't think it's any secret that I'm not the sharpest guy on the site as far as eloquence or even maturity as a whole goes but when I'm provoked, I do try and explain myself. I don't ever debate unless I'm provoked. It's just not something I like to do and frankly, it's not something I really care about being labeled as bad at doing. It means nothing to me. I guess I'd rather gush over a movie with a friend then argue with them about one. I come here for that shit man. I know it's easy but I'm an unconfrontational person both physically and verbally, even on the terms of simple debates. I feel the same about analyzing movies, I just don't get anything out of it. It depresses me to do it....just like debating about them does. I don't know, that's just me. It's cool for the people that like to do it and are good at it, I like reading what they have to say more than giving my own input. I was always in the middle row in the ol' health class debates....always always neutral....ONLY unless I'm provoked as I was here. I will always give anybody the respect to reply to a plea of elaboration on my part. Other than that, I like to just hang out pretty much. I have the personality of the guy at work that just saw "Torque" and loved it except I'm into everybody from Godard to Spielberg man....that's what I am. Adults that I meet are always shocked that I have knowledge or any awareness at all of pre 1990's film....I'm that same cliche, hormone driven teenager that serves you your Big Macs, trust me, I just somehow fell into this obsession with cinema....don't ask me to explain why or how. I'm nothing more than that. I don't pretend to be any kind of expert. When I say something is "the best", it's just my way of saying I love it really, I'm not trying to be Pauline Kael. Remember, when your reading my posts, you are reading the interpretations of a 17 year old, there is going to be words like "nerdy" in there and I hope you don't see it as lazy or rustic cause it's really me trying my hardest, no joke.

That's one of the things I've always liked about this site, that you CAN just hang out, you don't have to be an expert like on TalkBack.....literally the only requirement is that you have to love film.....you barely even have to like PTA anymore. And as far as I know, you darn sure don't have to be an ace at articulating what you feel or at least you don't have to debate if you don't want to around here....it's ok to just fuck around, right? I mean, I don't think I HAVE to learn to articulate myself...at least I hope not. People know how I am too well here after all. So anyway, I hope it's ok if I stick around for a little while.

You don't have to, but I wouldn't call a wholesale dismissal of a film non-confrontational, particularly when you do it here. Passive-aggressive, maybe?

I guess my whole point was: If you're going to assert something in no uncertain terms, as you did on About Schmidt, it's pretty important to be able to back it up. Otherwise, of course, you should be able to just hang out. No-one should come after you unless you come after them (and apparently someone did come after you first, I dunno- I only saw your post and then the responses).

But, you know, you shouldn't expect to be able to say, "About Schmidt was terrible, the NERDIEST film!" and then for people to think you're not up for discussing/debating it, or at least explaining why you respond to the film that way. If you don't set forth a strong (not to say harsh) opinion like that, no-one will expect you to "justify" it. BUT... I don't think it's at all unreasonable to ask someone to explain their opinion when they volunteer it, particularly when it's such a strong and negative one.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Pubrick on January 29, 2004, 11:29:48 PM
haha, did filmboy just say "trippy"? haha, oh lordy...

ebeaman, no one is asking u to leave.. and i think ur initial defense of Gummo was pretty good.. until u started on the hilariously irrelevant rant against alexander payne. that didn't help ur argument at all. i love what u said about embracing the artifice of film, i think that's really positive and a great thing to do. and i can totally see that u've grown in maturity and film appreciation since u first appeared on the xaxscene.

u would hav a great defense if u didn't go into that random rant. and i like how u minimised ur use of swearing to express urself. also u never said "trippy", that's a big big big big big plus.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: godardian on January 29, 2004, 11:39:54 PM
I should point out that I completely agree with ebeaman about Harmony Korine being a very valuable filmmaker. I just don't think that cancels out anything Payne has done; in my mind, Alexander Payne and Harmony Korine have very little to do with one another, and I would go see anything either of them released.

I should remember being a 17-year-old, too, though... how each new revelation or discovery for yourself feels like the beginning and end of everything all at once, and it almost demands a target for comparison, "THIS means everything, this is the right way, while this OTHER is nothing!", etc. It's just a reckless, schizophrenic time, before you get your big frame of reference. But I do appreciate that you're in there developing that frame of reference, ebeaman. I had certainly never seen anything by Harmony Korine when I was 17. Actually, when I was 17, Harmony Korine was still completely unknown... The most "edgy" thing I saw when I was 17 was A Clockwork Orange.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Pedro on January 30, 2004, 12:59:58 AM
how much are the royalties for the use of "xaxscene"?
Title: harmony korine
Post by: SoNowThen on January 30, 2004, 09:04:32 AM
Quote from: godardianI find Another Day in Paradise got underrated and unfairly ignored, probably because it wasn't sensationalistic enough.

What?! The gratuitous sex, extreme bloody violence, and haphazard heroine use weren't enough? Not that I mind seeing Natasha Gregson Wagner naked (I certainly don't), but this movie was one big excuse to ride the "trying to hip by pushing the R rating" wave of mid-90's movies.

If this is any indication of Clark's talent, then he has none.


I've yet to see any Korine.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: modage on January 30, 2004, 12:49:11 PM
Quote from: ebeamanI was talking about how I prefer the portrayal of people as how they are rather than the portrayal of people as overly quirky or eccentric and Payne happened to be the first person that came to my mind in an example of the latter style done wrong in my opinion. That makes at least a little bit relevant, right? I wanted to give an example of the quirkiness done wrong to clarify what I was saying. Just like I gave an example of quirkiness done right (the coen bros, wes anderson).
if you like people portrayed how they are, and all you're interested in is movies that capture some sort of truth, why are coen bros. and wes anderson the exception?  did you ever consider that no matter how much you love people, that maybe paynes and jonzes films are revealing truths about them (whether you want to hear it or not?)  is there a problem with making something entertaining to show people something about themselves (especially if it's something they'd rather not hear)?  personally i thought gummo was a crap film when i saw it five years ago or so to see what the fuss was about, and i wasnt too impressed with DGG either.  i thought his films were ambitious but amateur, naive and not all that interesting.  if he's a major talent, he has a long way to go to prove it.  how are david fincher and christopher nolan ruining movies?  what makes tim burton an artist and michael bay a hack?
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Henry Hill on January 31, 2004, 11:28:17 AM
Quote from: godardian
Quote from: filmboy70not to get off subject, but did anyone see BULLY? that movie was pretty trippy.

I thought it was a bad movie, and Clark's worst movie by far. I find Another Day in Paradise got underrated and unfairly ignored, probably because it wasn't sensationalistic enough. That's all Bully was, wasn't it? Cheap sensationalism with terrible acting and shockingly haphazard, bland visuals for Clark, who has been known to display a great sense of framing and composition when he feels like it.



I didn't say it was good.

Quote from: Phaha, did filmboy just say "trippy"? haha, oh lordy...


did you just say oh lordy?
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Pubrick on January 31, 2004, 11:31:45 AM
yes.

but i didn't use it to describe a movie. or in any serious manner whatsoever.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Stefen on March 20, 2004, 02:18:03 AM
Julien Donkey Boy is the perfect movie to put on mute while your polishing off a few and listening to the college radio station all the while editing something.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Stefen on April 08, 2004, 07:55:36 PM
I go to that site all the time just for the sheer weirdness. It's a great site.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Pubrick on April 08, 2004, 10:56:43 PM
where's the news section?
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Alethia on March 13, 2005, 09:48:16 PM
finally some news.  this is excellent.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Pubrick on March 16, 2005, 07:18:17 AM
hah, the interview seems to hav derailed after that kenneth cappello made his passerby cameo. i'm imagining this dude just popping his head in frame in an otherwise two-person interview.

i don't know why, if it's just cos (ancient member) dee_nicki had korine as his avatar, i get the impression not many ppl like him around here. or maybe cos his films can't be talked about without falling asleep. but i always felt gummo at least was a profound visceral experience which marked the presence of a freakishly unique voice. see i'm yawning already.

that david blaine story is hilarious.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Alethia on March 16, 2005, 01:18:33 PM
there does seem to be a general disregard for his movies around here, which saddens me to no end.  i adore his films, personally.  i'd see any old fuckin thing he puts out.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: mogwai on March 16, 2005, 01:33:49 PM
harmony who?
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Stefen on March 16, 2005, 03:26:30 PM
Has anyone seen that fight video he did? sounds so crazy it could work.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: squints on March 16, 2005, 06:28:26 PM
is this true or not: Harmony Korine's Julien Donkey-boy was the first American Dogme 95 film?
Title: harmony korine
Post by: MacGuffin on March 16, 2005, 06:31:04 PM
Quote from: squintsis this true or not: Harmony Korine's Julien Donkey-boy was the first American Dogme 95 film?

According to IMDB:

QuoteThis is the first American film to be certified by Dogme '95.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: pete on March 16, 2005, 06:35:06 PM
yeah it was the first american dogme film, but there were disputes because julien donkey boy had quite a few instances of "extradiagetic music".  korine insisted that those music came from a boombox next to the mic on the sets or something and that was how he got away with it.  Dod Mantle shot it, he'd shot like three of the first six dogme films or something.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Alethia on March 16, 2005, 10:32:56 PM
another slight deviation from the guidelines of dogme 95 is the fact that chloe sevigny wasn't actually pregnant.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Pubrick on March 16, 2005, 10:35:16 PM
he confessed all of that.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: squints on March 16, 2005, 10:36:19 PM
Speaking of her...has anyone seen Vincent Gallo's movie "The Brown Bunny"?
Title: harmony korine
Post by: I Don't Believe in Beatles on March 16, 2005, 11:24:40 PM
I think this (http://www.harmony-korine.com/video/letterman.mov)  is hilarious.
Title: harmony korine
Post by: Alethia on March 17, 2005, 08:40:58 AM
Quote from: flagpolespecial
no one has mentioned 'above the below'


above the below is awesome and not as hard to come by as many believe, like you pointed out.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Alethia on November 06, 2005, 07:48:26 PM
http://www.harmony-korine.com/paper/main/news.html


it's about fucking time.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: NEON MERCURY on November 06, 2005, 08:17:22 PM
 :splat: i hate this hack...ugh,
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Alethia on November 07, 2005, 10:06:07 AM
hold your tongue!!
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Pubrick on November 07, 2005, 11:02:04 AM
Quote from: eward on November 06, 2005, 07:48:26 PM
http://www.harmony-korine.com/paper/main/news.html


it's about fucking time.
the article, for the lazy:

Colourful details have emerged of Mister Lonely, the latest feature from Tennessee and London-based maverick Harmony Korine (Gummo, julien donkey-boy). 60s icon Anita Pallenberg is to play the Queen Of England, Denis Lavant will portray Charlie Chaplin, Samantha Morton is Marilyn Monroe and Diego Luna will play a Michael Jackson impersonator

"I am trying to do things I haven't done before. It's my most ambitious film. I really want to push myself visually," Korine told Screen International. The $9.5 million production, his first feature since 1999, is due to shoot in the north of Scotland, France and French Guyana. Celluloid Dreams is handling international sales and has already closed a deal with Gaga for Japan.

The plotline is outlandish, even by Korine's standards. This is a yarn about a young American lost in Paris, eking out a living as a Michael Jackson lookalike. By co-incidence, he meets Marilyn Monroe. He follows her to a commune in Scotland, joining her husband Charlie Chaplin and her daughter Shirley Temple. Fellow residents include The Pope, The Queen of England, Madonna and James Dean. The drama is also partly set In a Brazilian forest where a community of missionary nuns bring aid to the locals.

Korine co-scripted with Avi Korine. Executive produced by Nadja Romain for Love Streams, the film is co-produced by Korine's new production outfit, O'Salvation, Agnes b's Love Streams Productions and ARTE (France). The cinematographer is Marcel Zyskind.

The director describes O'Salvation, launched earlier this year, as "an outlet to make films away from the system or the machine." The company has already produced Blackberry Winter by Brent Stewart and Aluminium Fowl by James Clauer.

- Geoffrey Macnab, Screen Daily (November 02, 2005)
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: SHAFTR on November 16, 2005, 02:16:22 AM
I just had my first Korine experience watching Kids.  I'm not sure where I stand.  The film had an effect on me, but I still can't shake the feeling it was exploitation.  Perhaps thats why it worked.  I'm glad I saw it at age 22, and not when I was in High School.  I'm just so torn over my feelings on this.  I'm not sure if Fitzpatrick's performance was really good or not.  I couldn't stand his look, his face, his voice, anything about him.  I'm sure that is part of the point, but I also didn't believe him.  The kid is just a dork, he should be home playing Magic: The Gathering.  The rest of the characters, I can see behaving like that, but not Telly.  I'm not sure if there is a message in that or if it is just bad casting. 

I guess I need to think about it more and figure out where my feelings are with this film.  As it stands now, I'd recommend Kids, but I'm not sure if I'd watch it again.

I want to see more Korine, but I'm afraid.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: ono on November 16, 2005, 02:23:25 AM
KIDS is not a Korine film.  It's a Larry Clark film, exploitation, a waste of time, really.  I was afraid to see more Korine, too, after KIDS, but I took a deep breath and Netflixed Gummo.  And my outlook on cinema probably first started to change with that film.  Though boring in some places, it's so visually striking you can't help but be moved.  There's no room for indifference.

Korine is much better than this.  He has a sensibility where he is able to capture reality.  It's shocking in a sad way, but still reality.  If you've ever been fond of any sort of poetic sensibility in film, say that found in The Brown Bunny, Morvern Callar, Gerry, Songs from the Second Floor, check out Gummo and then julien donkey-boy.  Both are worthwhile for the open-minded.  Though the films I've listed don't have too much in common with Korine's work, in spirit they are quite similar.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: SHAFTR on November 16, 2005, 02:45:24 AM
Quote from: onomabracadabra on November 16, 2005, 02:23:25 AM

Korine is much better than this.  He has a sensibility where he is able to capture reality.  It's shocking in a sad way, but still reality.  If you've ever been fond of any sort of poetic sensibility in film, say that found in The Brown Bunny, Morvern Callar, Gerry, Songs from the Second Floor, check out Gummo and then julien donkey-boy.  Both are worthwhile for the open-minded.  Though the films I've listed don't have too much in common with Korine's work, in spirit they are quite similar.

I hated Gerry.  I netflixed Gummo, so I'll eventually get to it.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: The Red Vine on November 16, 2005, 11:39:49 AM
Really disappointed with Gummo. A totally self-indulgent piece of shit. Kids was better but not by much.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Alethia on November 16, 2005, 01:00:47 PM
hmmm well gummo is and probably always will be one of my favorite films.  i can't even begin to describe the impact that film (and julien-donkey boy too) had on me.  it was because of korine that i discovered herzog, alan clarke, cassavetes, fassbinder, buster keaton, bresson, and on and on and on...
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: ono on November 16, 2005, 01:33:23 PM
Quote from: RedVines on November 16, 2005, 11:39:49 AM
Really disappointed with Gummo. A totally self-indulgent piece of shit. Kids was better but not by much.
I love it when people make statements like this and then don't back then up.  Gummo self-indulgent?  How.

And for that matter, what art isn't self-indulgent?

Can opened.  Worms everywhere.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: SiliasRuby on November 16, 2005, 03:42:36 PM
Ut Oh I smell a online riot bursting
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: The Red Vine on November 16, 2005, 06:03:31 PM
Quote from: onomabracadabra on November 16, 2005, 01:33:23 PM
Quote from: RedVines on November 16, 2005, 11:39:49 AM
Really disappointed with Gummo. A totally self-indulgent piece of shit. Kids was better but not by much.
Gummo self-indulgent?  How.

In every way you can fathom. He thinks he's showing the reality of these rural people and their lives. But instead he's made a tedious collection of things that don't have any connection to reality while still convincing himself that everything on screen is either beautiful or true. And it's neither.

And I'm talking about the following scenes in particular...

- The long shot of Sevigny with her hand going through her hair
- Two girls in the pool kissing the boy bunny
- The boy killing cats (and eventually running up to the camera to show it's dead body)
- The older man in the car with the two girls

And there's more. Adding a bunch of scenes like that together does not make a successful movie. I admit it's an interesting and very unusual film but ultimately a failure. I'm not discussing it anymore.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: hedwig on November 16, 2005, 06:14:08 PM
Quote from: RedVines on November 16, 2005, 06:03:31 PM
Quote from: onomabracadabra on November 16, 2005, 01:33:23 PM
Quote from: RedVines on November 16, 2005, 11:39:49 AM
Really disappointed with Gummo. A totally self-indulgent piece of shit. Kids was better but not by much.
Gummo self-indulgent?  How.

In every way you can fathom. He thinks he's showing the reality of these rural people and their lives. But instead he's made a tedious collection of things that don't have any connection to reality while still convincing himself that everything on screen is either beautiful or true. And it's neither.

And I'm talking about the following scenes in particular...

- The long shot of Sevigny with her hand going through her hair
- Two girls in the pool kissing the boy bunny
- The boy killing cats (and eventually running up to the camera to show it's dead body)
- The older man in the car with the two girls

And there's more. Adding a bunch of scenes like that together does not make a successful movie. I admit it's an interesting and very unusual film but ultimately a failure. I'm not discussing it anymore.

thanks, anyone who ends his rebuttal with "I'm not discussing it anymore" is clearly unqualified to discuss and defend his points anyway so

take a hike, sister
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: The Red Vine on November 16, 2005, 10:20:50 PM
Quote from: Hedwig on November 16, 2005, 06:14:08 PM
thanks, anyone who ends his rebuttal with "I'm not discussing it anymore" is clearly unqualified to discuss and defend his points anyway so

actually I'm not discussing it anymore cuz I've said all I wanted to say about it. nice job, asshole :bravo:
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Weak2ndAct on November 16, 2005, 11:07:50 PM
Take your ball and go home, douche.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Alethia on November 17, 2005, 12:12:55 AM
yeah seriously, redvines, you're bringin tears to my eyes
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Pubrick on November 17, 2005, 02:19:13 AM
RedVines you are Small Town Loner/Finn/Quoyle/filmcritic. i'm not discussing it anymore.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: The Red Vine on November 17, 2005, 09:13:57 AM
fuck you
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: hedwig on November 17, 2005, 10:14:49 AM
Quote from: RedVines on November 16, 2005, 10:20:50 PM
actually I'm not discussing it anymore cuz I've said all I wanted to say about it.

obviously you're not willing to discuss it because you're incapable of defending your points. this isn't the first time you've displayed this insecure, immature attitude toward fair discussion. remember this:

Quote from: Finn on April 24, 2005, 05:14:25 PM
I'm not gonna explain it

oh yeah, and

Quote from: RedVines on November 16, 2005, 10:20:50 PM
nice job, asshole
Quote from: RedVines on November 17, 2005, 09:13:57 AM
fuck you

calm down, you little baby. go take a valium or something.

or maybe just never post here again.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: private witt on November 17, 2005, 02:56:24 PM
I'd be cranky too if I was up til 6am.  I think a nap would help.  I'm about to test this hypothesis on myself.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: NEON MERCURY on November 17, 2005, 10:41:49 PM
Quote from: RedVines on November 16, 2005, 06:03:31 PM
Quote from: onomabracadabra on November 16, 2005, 01:33:23 PM
Quote from: RedVines on November 16, 2005, 11:39:49 AM
Really disappointed with Gummo. A totally self-indulgent piece of shit. Kids was better but not by much.
Gummo self-indulgent?  How.

In every way you can fathom. He thinks he's showing the reality of these rural people and their lives. But instead he's made a tedious collection of things that don't have any connection to reality while still convincing himself that everything on screen is either beautiful or true. And it's neither.

And I'm talking about the following scenes in particular...

- The long shot of Sevigny with her hand going through her hair
- Two girls in the pool kissing the boy bunny
- The boy killing cats (and eventually running up to the camera to show it's dead body)
- The older man in the car with the two girls

And there's more. Adding a bunch of scenes like that together does not make a successful movie. I admit it's an interesting and very unusual film but ultimately a failure. I'm not discussing it anymore.

i hope i dont loose any firends for this....but

i agree w/vines.  anything affiliated w/ korine and clark.  is shit filmmaking..  ono, you have good taste man..you are too smart to be down w/ gummo :shock:....exspecially seeing how well you write in the idle chatter thread..if i was younger and more naive then i would might like it..why?  why? why? would someone actually own gummo/kids and watch it and think it is decent/good?  the actors all suck telly is so fucking annoying... i hate the way telly talks ..he sound like he's got a fucking dick in his mouth  [maybe clarks?]..i hate telly's teeth.. they are nasty and fucked up.  i hate his emaciated body and his stupid hair.   i hate that white trash kid who goes around drinking forties and sk8boarding....i hate the cheesy interracial shit in the pool-  so fake just like thirteen.  i hate the girls and i hate their skank yankee accents.  i hate the cinematography.  ..i hate the white trash punk music in the film.  i hate the dialogue....how hard is it to write something like this:

telly:  yous guys, i wanna fuck my moms then stick a crayon in her pussy then have my dad  finger me in the ass and i want him to pull out my prostate gland through my ass

kid #2:  i wanna fuck your mom while my mom gives me aids

kid #3:  i wanna shit on my sisters mouth then fuck her cousin then cut one of her breast off and eat the nipple

kid #4:  i wanna spread my grandmother's douche on a philly cheese steak.

kids #5  i wanna rape my guidance counselor then suck all the milk out of her tits then spit it back in her face.



thats basically the writing of korine w/ clark masturbating behind the scenes.....you guys [xixax] are suppose to be smarter than this...if  you wanna watch something that takes talent to helm and is full of risque business, then check out irreversible.  owning kids/gummo is like owning a coldplay cd in that you think its cool and hip but its fake and makes you look like a poser when you pimp it....
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Pubrick on November 17, 2005, 10:52:07 PM
there's nothing wrong with hating Gummo. that wasn't the problem.

Quote from: Pubrick on November 17, 2005, 02:19:13 AM
RedVines you are Small Town Loner/Finn/Quoyle/filmcritic
i forgot Sydney/Insomniac. you know there's something wrong when NEON can discuss a movie with more maturity than you.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: NEON MERCURY on November 17, 2005, 11:03:51 PM
Quote from: Pubrick on November 17, 2005, 10:52:07 PM
there's nothing wrong with hating Gummo. that wasn't the problem.


true...my post was 'bout kids

Quote from: Pubrick on November 17, 2005, 02:19:13 AM
RedVines you are Small Town Loner/Finn/Quoyle/filmcritic
i forgot Sydney/Insomniac. you know there's something wrong when NEON can discuss a movie with more maturity than you.
Quote

:oops:

Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Alethia on November 18, 2005, 12:24:04 AM
Quote from: mercury on November 17, 2005, 10:41:49 PM
owning kids/gummo is like owning a coldplay cd in that you think its cool and hip but its fake and makes you look like a poser when you pimp it....

it hurts, it physically hurts me....
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: brockly on November 18, 2005, 07:56:54 AM
Quote from: eward on November 18, 2005, 12:24:04 AM
Quote from: mercury on November 17, 2005, 10:41:49 PM
owning kids/gummo is like owning a coldplay cd in that you think its cool and hip but its fake and makes you look like a poser when you pimp it....

it hurts, it physically hurts me....

that comment is too hilarious to offend
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Pozer on November 18, 2005, 02:54:07 PM
Quote from: mercury on November 17, 2005, 10:41:49 PMowning kids/gummo is like owning a coldplay cd in that you think its cool and hip but its fake and makes you look like a poser when you pimp it....
Hey that's not true! I own a Coldplay cd and... wait, no that's about right.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Alethia on November 19, 2005, 12:00:02 AM
i can tell you right now, i did not put gummo (or kids) in my collection thinking anything along the lines of cool/hip
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: w/o horse on November 19, 2005, 01:09:07 AM
I am pretty sure that cool kids don't want to be seen with Gummo.  I mean I think Coldplay I think frat boys and people with bumper stickers.  I think Gummo and I think the drug crowd and John Q. Artist.

Also, Gummo is a pretty shallow movie.  Fascinating and beautiful, compelling and divisive, but shallow and detached.  However popular it is right now, I'd expect it to be about the same or less popular fifteen years you know.  What is there to discover about it, what is there to sink in, what is going to explode.  There's not a hidden element to Gummo, nothing is missing from a viewing experience.

This comes from a fan of Korine.  Some thread somewhere I was talking about how much I enjoy the vignette style narrative and I cited Gummo as an expemplorary piece, I think it's great.  But it doesn't take care of itself.  Korine himself talks, I think on the JD-B DVD, a movie which I enjoy more, about how when he watches a movie it is single scenes that stick out for him.  So, what's he do, he creates movies that are nothing but those scenes again and again.  Good times, good movie, next please.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: ono on November 20, 2005, 05:57:49 AM
neon, I'm replying just for you.   :kiss:

First, KIDS is shit, that isn't the issue.  Gummo is a good film because it's real.  Now, it may not be the reality you're accustomed to, but that doesn't make it any less valid.

Earlier, I talked about filmmaking being a way to convey the perception of reality the filmmaker has, and how well the film is accepted is an indicator of how valid the film is.  The only problem with Gummo is it doesn't care about the audience.  It's one of those unique films that exists, audience or not (Ebert made this comparison with another film -- I forget which one he said did this), and that's not really a bad thing at all.  It employs a fly-on-the-wall, cinema verite style, stripping away any artifice, so it really does shock, and is really more "slice-of-life" than anything else in recent memory.

What sealed my appreciation for Gummo was when my friend brought up his experience watching it.  When he was 19, he lived in a trailer park, and this kind of thing, for him, was reality.  The cat killings for money, the bugs on the wall, the dirty bathtubs.  Except in his case, it wasn't these specifics.  He took me to visit his old trailer park once, and we were out there at his old place, about 2 AM, and saw two girls stumbling down the street, arguing with each other, probably about some guy.  If it's not one thing, it's another.  This is trailer park life, like it or not.  Yes, people do live like this, and we're rendered so complacent by media and luxury that it's hard for us to conceive anything different.

All art is self-indulgent.  Check that... all good art has to be.  Buffalo '66 shines for a few reasons, and they are all moments that weren't essential to the story.  Amelie is all about the how.  Magnolia is memorable for the voice of Ricky Jay in the opening to set things up, and the closing to knock 'em down.  For the audacity PTA had to have everyone sing all at once, even Big Earl, who was slipping into his final coma at the time.  To say a film is self-indulgent is to stamp it with the very reason why it works as art.  It has heart, it tries to put itself out there, and it takes a moment to say something and pull away from plot just for one moment.  I'd rather take bunny boy kissing those girls in the swimming pool in the rain, or Sevigny in julien donkey-boy strolling through that field of grain, singing, than most anything Hollywood would have to offer through manipulation.  Those moments are more subtly moving without even trying to be anything more than what they are: slices of beauty in a life that is overall, from a distance, so incredibly ugly and unappealing.  Korine, with that said, doesn't mock his characters -- he loves them.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: w/o horse on November 20, 2005, 06:44:06 AM
I could just repost my last post, which you dismissed for whatever reason.  But let's dig, no?  I'll just say right now that this isn't a hostile post, as I've learned that I come off as so in disagreements.

I find your post biased and unreasonable:

1.  I am from Bellbrook Ohio.  Which is next to Xenia.  Which is where the film is based, although not where the film was filmed.  And Korine never went to Xenia last I heard. Still, I know how well he did capture the spirit of a dilapidated town, which was quite well.  You are right to say so.  But you seem to be praising the film for capturing the reality of the situation when it doesn't say anything at all about its characters.  We know as much about them as you know about two girls stumbling down the street, which, you know, you couldn't write one sentence on without making an assumption as to their mindset.  Then, and I don't understand this at all, you state the indulgence of art, but you give manipulation over only to Hollywood.  Are you fucking kidding me that all films aren't manipulative?  If Korine isn't trying to be anything more, why the bunny suit in the first place?  Why the scene in which the bunny gets shot.  Why the scene with the man in the car.  Why the prostitution scene.  Why these scenes ono?  I agree he loves his characters, and indeed that the film is slice-of-life, but completely disagree that all artifice has been stripped away and that the film the not manipulative, which would be to say that it is without objective.  There's a fuck of a lot more to these people than the silly 'shocking' things they do.

2.  "First, KIDS is shit, that isn't the issue.  Gummo is a good film because it's real."  Why dismiss one and then praise the other for the same reason the former connects with so many people.  Your friend who lived in a trailer home and saw a lot of his life in Gummo, I could let you talk to twenty kids who saw a lot of their life in Kids.  Hell, it's not even a giant leap forward from the drug addled lives of kids in Ohio I can assure you.  Kids has the benefit of a big city setting.  What was the script concept?  Clark asked Korine to write a script about his daily life.  Anyway I don't want to make this a big argument, I don't like Kids either, but these sentences next to each other were confusing for me.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Alethia on November 20, 2005, 10:50:29 AM
so am i the only one who really likes KIDS as well?
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: private witt on November 23, 2005, 04:32:56 AM
Quote from: eward on November 20, 2005, 10:50:29 AM
so am i the only one who really likes KIDS as well?

Nope.  It's a great film.  I don't think Harmony could have done it better.  Sometimes I wonder if people are turned off from Korine because it's too realistic and they can't place it in any context they're previously acustomed to.  Classicly, DEEPER TRUTHS are attained from the character's inner thoughts that are shown to the viewer in several different ways in films like Bladerunner, In the Bedroom, Boogie Nights, The Thin Red Line, Apocalypse Now, The Vigin Suicides.  But in Korine's films, the characters do not ever think for one minute that their lives or the world that surrounds them is as fucked up as the viewer is made to feel it is.  To say that Korine is shallow because his characters appear shallow is shallow.  As far as social realism, I had thought that term was coined to refer to social labor, but maybe just showing the plight of the everyday suburbanite is just as valid as showing the plight of the everyday working man.  The term works for me.  Anyway, nothing's cooler than applying names of turn-of-the-century painter movements to turn-of-the-century film movements.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: JG on November 27, 2005, 10:47:14 AM
Quote from: onomabracadabra on November 20, 2005, 05:57:49 AM
To say a film is self-indulgent is to stamp it with the very reason why it works as art.  It has heart, it tries to put itself out there, and it takes a moment to say something and pull away from plot just for one moment. 

I really like what you said here.  Not enough films do this. 
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: mutinyco on November 27, 2005, 12:28:43 PM
Quote from: eward on November 20, 2005, 10:50:29 AM
so am i the only one who really likes KIDS as well?

No... I'm sure Gary Glitter and Michael Jackson do too. I just wouldn't go announcing it...
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: ono on November 27, 2005, 02:46:19 PM
"Theraflu is a hell of a drug."  No codeine, but it gets the job done.

Quote from: JimmyGator on November 27, 2005, 10:47:14 AM
Quote from: onomabracadabra on November 20, 2005, 05:57:49 AM
To say a film is self-indulgent is to stamp it with the very reason why it works as art.  It has heart, it tries to put itself out there, and it takes a moment to say something and pull away from plot just for one moment.

I really like what you said here. Not enough films do this.

thx u :kiss:

Quote from: Losing the Horse: on November 20, 2005, 06:44:06 AM
I could just repost my last post, which you dismissed for whatever reason.

I didn't reply to that first post because I didn't find much to reply to.  No harm, no foul.

QuoteBut let's dig, no? I'll just say right now that this isn't a hostile post, as I've learned that I come off as so in disagreements.

I find your post biased and unreasonable:

Haha.  Sorry.  That made me laugh.  First, what opinion isn't biased?  Second, I don't see how I'm being unreasonable in basing my opinions on subjectivity.  It's amusing to read that you say you aren't being hostile, because I would've perceived that as hostile if it wasn't the case.

Quote1. I am from Bellbrook Ohio. Which is next to Xenia. Which is where the film is based, although not where the film was filmed. And Korine never went to Xenia last I heard. Still, I know how well he did capture the spirit of a dilapidated town, which was quite well. You are right to say so. But you seem to be praising the film for capturing the reality of the situation when it doesn't say anything at all about its characters. We know as much about them as you know about two girls stumbling down the street, which, you know, you couldn't write one sentence on without making an assumption as to their mindset.

In this case, Korine's vast brushstrokes are not dedicated to just one or two characters, though we are given an entrance to the world through the eyes of Bunny Boy, Solomon, and Tummler.  The point is not deep characterization.  The point is the feeling of nihilism conveyed through these people who are more archetypal than characteristic of anything too specific.  The film finds ideas that fit "here," "here," and "here" because it doesn't get too specific.  Its detached, bird's eye view works because that is its goal.

QuoteThen, and I don't understand this at all, you state the indulgence of art, but you give manipulation over only to Hollywood. Are you fucking kidding me that all films aren't manipulative? If Korine isn't trying to be anything more, why the bunny suit in the first place? Why the scene in which the bunny gets shot. Why the scene with the man in the car. Why the prostitution scene. Why these scenes ono?

Why any scene?

Seriously.

You're now questioning that bird's eye view that works so well now just to question it.  One of Korine's goals is to get to a point where he can make a film where he captures reality nonstop.  Cinema verite at its purest for, without any subjectivity.  Just what happened, and that's it.  He's talked in the past about wanting to make a film with all hidden cameras.  Just film experiences and string them together into some sort of narrative, if at all possible.  So why any scene indeed.  Simple: because, to quote the painting in Claudia's apartment, "it did happen."

QuoteI agree he loves his characters, and indeed that the film is slice-of-life, but completely disagree that all artifice has been stripped away and that the film the not manipulative, which would be to say that it is without objective. There's a fuck of a lot more to these people than the silly 'shocking' things they do.

The objective is simply to show you this life.  These things.  That they do happen.  And it does so without commentary, so as to let the viewer draw his/her own conclusions.

Quote2. "First, KIDS is shit, that isn't the issue. Gummo is a good film because it's real." Why dismiss one and then praise the other for the same reason the former connects with so many people. Your friend who lived in a trailer home and saw a lot of his life in Gummo, I could let you talk to twenty kids who saw a lot of their life in Kids. Hell, it's not even a giant leap forward from the drug addled lives of kids in Ohio I can assure you. Kids has the benefit of a big city setting. What was the script concept? Clark asked Korine to write a script about his daily life. Anyway I don't want to make this a big argument, I don't like Kids either, but these sentences next to each other were confusing for me.
Simple.  The eye.  My favorite film critic is Ted Goranson, a prolific writer on IMDb.  He also has his own website, http://www.filmsfolded.com/  He goes into a lot of theory in his criticisms about two things: folding in films (that is, shifting in time, in perspective, and in the roles the actors play), and also the point of view of a film.  That is, the eye.  The camera is the eye.  Editing is blinking, as put forth in theory by Walter Murch.  The eye is the way in which we view the world.  The camera is the way in which we view the filmmaker's world.  So everything is in the placement of the camera and how it moves, how it is used.  PTA, some would say Scorsese, Gondry ... all masters of the camera.  Korine is an up-and-coming master, as he has created visuals never seen before.  And it's not just the novelty of seeing these people.  It's the extra layer of beauty he has uncovered in observing unobtrusively.  It's Sevigny in Gummo, jumping on the bed, her nipples taped.  It's her again in julien donkey-boy, walking through the field of grain.  Or it's Bunny Boy swimming in the rain with those girls, kissing them.  It's all about tone.  Clark, on the other hand, takes a leering approach to his work.  You feel dirty watching it, wondering if it's okay.  You're aware of the reality of it, but you're also aware that something is amiss here.  It just doesn't feel right.  The point he has is a valid one, and needs to be made, but in the hands of a more skilled filmmaker, one who knows how to use the camera better than he does.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Alethia on November 27, 2005, 03:38:51 PM
i agree about clark, KIDS aside, the guys a fuckin hack....all that is great about KIDS to me is undoubtedly Korine's.....i wonder what the film would have been like had Korine directed it as well
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: NEON MERCURY on November 27, 2005, 09:08:02 PM
haha, new title suggestion:


IS EWARD THE ONLY ONE WHO THINKS HARMONY KORINE IS A GENIUS?







-ONO, YOUR EBUTTLE WA AGREAT READ THOUGH
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: pete on November 27, 2005, 10:55:17 PM
a rare instance when I agree with Neon.  Kids was a phony movie with the self-importance of an after school special, but made with more "realistic touches" with the blood and the cussing and the underaged nudity.  it viewed the city the way a high school counselor would and the "street" aesthetics just added to that investigative jouranlistic phoniness.
Gummo, that was kinda weird that Ono kept on calling Gummo "real", since I liked it precisely because it was so dreamlike, like southern gothic on speed or something.  I thought Gummo was okay until I saw Julien DonkeyBoy and all of a sudden "got it" and realized what korine was going for.  I really loved Julien DonkeyBoy.  I liked Gummo for its images and circumstances, but it didn't really move me much, it was just a tad too underwhelming for me.  When I watched Gummo I was not sure how empathetic he wanted the audience to be towards his characters and the environment, but in Julien Donkey Boy I was right there with them.
Korine has the imagination and the sensitivity of a great filmmaker alright, but he lacks the soulfulness still.  I find that very troubling amongst contemporary American filmmakers, maybe with the exception of David Gordon Green, most of the new guys have the talent but lack the soul--the capacity for great emotions like ecstacy and deep sorrow.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: w/o horse on November 28, 2005, 05:04:43 AM
Quote from: onomabracadabra on November 27, 2005, 02:46:19 PM
Quote from: Losing the Horse: on November 20, 2005, 06:44:06 AM

QuoteBut let's dig, no? I'll just say right now that this isn't a hostile post, as I've learned that I come off as so in disagreements.

I find your post biased and unreasonable:
Haha.  Sorry.  That made me laugh.  First, what opinion isn't biased?  Second, I don't see how I'm being unreasonable in basing my opinions on subjectivity.  It's amusing to read that you say you aren't being hostile, because I would've perceived that as hostile if it wasn't the case.

Right.  Well.  This never works on the Internet, I don't know.  If you saw me I'd hope you'd see me smiling and realize I found the whole situation delightful.  But yeah.  Opinions are all biased and any opinion is subjective.  Agreed and all, except I think your post was excessive in both regards.  Then again, I am disagreeing.

Quote
Quote1. I am from Bellbrook Ohio. Which is next to Xenia. Which is where the film is based, although not where the film was filmed. And Korine never went to Xenia last I heard. Still, I know how well he did capture the spirit of a dilapidated town, which was quite well. You are right to say so. But you seem to be praising the film for capturing the reality of the situation when it doesn't say anything at all about its characters. We know as much about them as you know about two girls stumbling down the street, which, you know, you couldn't write one sentence on without making an assumption as to their mindset.

In this case, Korine's vast brushstrokes are not dedicated to just one or two characters, though we are given an entrance to the world through the eyes of Bunny Boy, Solomon, and Tummler.  The point is not deep characterization.  The point is the feeling of nihilism conveyed through these people who are more archetypal than characteristic of anything too specific.  The film finds ideas that fit "here," "here," and "here" because it doesn't get too specific.  Its detached, bird's eye view works because that is its goal.

But my whole is that its goal is shallow.  Which your paragraph here agrees with.  Anytime you look at a community of people you're going to find beauty and direction and organization.  That's the surface of any human endeavour, right, as many critics seemed pissed about when Downfall came out.  I don't think that takes as much talent as saying something specific, and the slew of ensemble films coming out right now seem to be arguing for me.



QuoteThen, and I don't understand this at all, you state the indulgence of art, but you give manipulation over only to Hollywood. Are you fucking kidding me that all films aren't manipulative? If Korine isn't trying to be anything more, why the bunny suit in the first place? Why the scene in which the bunny gets shot. Why the scene with the man in the car. Why the prostitution scene. Why these scenes ono?

QuoteWhy any scene?

Seriously.

You're now questioning that bird's eye view that works so well now just to question it.  One of Korine's goals is to get to a point where he can make a film where he captures reality nonstop.  Cinema verite at its purest for, without any subjectivity.  Just what happened, and that's it.  He's talked in the past about wanting to make a film with all hidden cameras.  Just film experiences and string them together into some sort of narrative, if at all possible.  So why any scene indeed.  Simple: because, to quote the painting in Claudia's apartment, "it did happen."

A lack of subjectivity would mean unfiltered perception, it would mean that the most bombastic scenes wouldn't be favored.  There wasn't a single quiet moment in the whole movie.  It was all "Look how fucked up they are."  And, again, coming from there, and as your friend will tell you, there are many quiet moments in such communities.  Actually, I just lied, and in the interest of full disclosure, the wrestling scene with the table was probably the realest moment.  If it was 'reality nonstop' then there would be boring moments.  I mean clearly.

QuoteI agree he loves his characters, and indeed that the film is slice-of-life, but completely disagree that all artifice has been stripped away and that the film the not manipulative, which would be to say that it is without objective. There's a fuck of a lot more to these people than the silly 'shocking' things they do.

QuoteThe objective is simply to show you this life.  These things.  That they do happen.  And it does so without commentary, so as to let the viewer draw his/her own conclusions.

I get that they happen, okay.  But there's a lot more to these people is my argument.  I think Korine is shaping the reality of these people, and while the Mangolia crowd might argue that all filmmakers do, I would argue that some filmmakers try harder to be subjective.  Korine, while I love the writing style, I do not feel was subjective in Gummo for the majority of the movie.  Meaning he was not subjective in the movie overall.

Quote2. "First, KIDS is shit, that isn't the issue. Gummo is a good film because it's real." Why dismiss one and then praise the other for the same reason the former connects with so many people. Your friend who lived in a trailer home and saw a lot of his life in Gummo, I could let you talk to twenty kids who saw a lot of their life in Kids. Hell, it's not even a giant leap forward from the drug addled lives of kids in Ohio I can assure you. Kids has the benefit of a big city setting. What was the script concept? Clark asked Korine to write a script about his daily life. Anyway I don't want to make this a big argument, I don't like Kids either, but these sentences next to each other were confusing for me.
QuoteSimple.  The eye.  My favorite film critic is Ted Goranson, a prolific writer on IMDb.  He also has his own website, http://www.filmsfolded.com/  He goes into a lot of theory in his criticisms about two things: folding in films (that is, shifting in time, in perspective, and in the roles the actors play), and also the point of view of a film.  That is, the eye.  The camera is the eye.  Editing is blinking, as put forth in theory by Walter Murch.  The eye is the way in which we view the world.  The camera is the way in which we view the filmmaker's world.  So everything is in the placement of the camera and how it moves, how it is used.  PTA, some would say Scorsese, Gondry ... all masters of the camera.  Korine is an up-and-coming master, as he has created visuals never seen before.  And it's not just the novelty of seeing these people.  It's the extra layer of beauty he has uncovered in observing unobtrusively.  It's Sevigny in Gummo, jumping on the bed, her nipples taped.  It's her again in julien donkey-boy, walking through the field of grain.  Or it's Bunny Boy swimming in the rain with those girls, kissing them.  It's all about tone.  Clark, on the other hand, takes a leering approach to his work.  You feel dirty watching it, wondering if it's okay.  You're aware of the reality of it, but you're also aware that something is amiss here.  It just doesn't feel right.  The point he has is a valid one, and needs to be made, but in the hands of a more skilled filmmaker, one who knows how to use the camera better than he does.

You've never fucked a girl while she was passed out at a party, have you?  Of course you feel dirty.  Me, I never have, but I've been at the party.  I know those people.  I'm not sorry, I don't feel dirty.

I think this covnersation is a matter of different perspectives and experiences, rather than critques on the movie.  Which says a lot about the movie.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: MacGuffin on October 25, 2010, 10:59:40 AM
WTF: Marlon Wayons To Star In Harmony Korine's 'Twinkle Twinkle'?
Source: The Playlist

Pajiba's The Hollywood Cog has been a pretty solid source of info but this has got to be the strangest yet most potentially awesome news to come from their insider ever. Apparently, Marlon Wayans will star in Harmony Korine's next film "Twinkle Twinkle" which is about a former hitman who dresses up as a dollar bill. Yep, consider our tickets bought. This is definitely the first we're hearing about the project and we're sure the logline is a vague indicator of what the film has in store. While Marlon Wayans potential involvement is interesting, we suppose it isn't that surprising. While he has made his fair share of dumb movies with his brothers, he's also branched into into more intriguing fare such as Darren Aronofsky's "Requiem For A Dream," the Coen brothers' "The Ladykillers" and Bill Condon's gestating Richard Pryor biopic, "Is It Something I Said." So we can seem him eyeing a crazy script by a dude named Harmony crossing his desk and going, "Sure, what the hell." There's no word yet if this is related to the feature that Korine is crowdsourcing in association with the Rotterdam Film Festival or something else entirely, but either way, we're definitely intrigued. In the meantime, track down "Trash Humpers" at your local independent video store because Netflix still refuses to stock it. And in case you missed it, Korine recently completed the short "Act Da Fool" which you can view online now.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: OrHowILearnedTo on October 25, 2010, 03:12:53 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin on October 25, 2010, 10:59:40 AM
And in case you missed it, Korine recently completed the short "Act Da Fool" which you can view online now.

here btw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUsB3S0CfKE
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: squints on March 19, 2011, 05:03:28 PM
Die Antwoord in a short film by Harmony Korine

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/umshini-wam--2/umshini-wam (http://www.vbs.tv/watch/umshini-wam--2/umshini-wam)
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: MacGuffin on November 02, 2011, 01:56:06 PM
James Franco Will Rap In Harmony Korine's 'Spring Breakers'
Emma Roberts Co-Stars; Also, WTF
Source: Playlist

Update: Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez are also in talks to star. The trio will play the gang of girls in the film with Roberts as danger loving Southern brunette, and Gomez as the stuck-up, religious type.

James Franco—whose ass recently graced the cover of Flaunt—has certainly been very forward about this arty inclinations whether it be a mediation on "My Own Private Idaho" or a deconstruction of "Three's Company." His more cerebral endeavors found him hooking up with indie enfant terrible Harmony Korine for some kind of street gang project earlier this year. While we'll have to wait to see the fruits of that endeavor, the duo are pairing up for a feature film project. And it sounds like the most normal movie Korine has ever done in his life.

Set to be written and directed by Korine, co-starring Emma Roberts and planned to shoot next spring break, the movie will center on four college-aged girls who decide to rob a fast food restaurant in order pay for the annual getaway, and who get thrown in the slammer once they get there. Sound dull? Wait, it gets better. Franco will play a rapping drug and arms dealer who bails out the girls, and coaxes them to kill his nemesis named Arch. James Franco + rapping = we're there.

But this is weirdly the most mainstream thing Korine has ever done, though the casting is delightfully odd. This is another project in an already busy year for both Korine and Franco. The director premiered his short film collaboration with Die Antwoord "Umshini Wam," created an ad for Indian megacorp Mahindra, is working on a short film with Val Kilmer that will form part of a Dogme-esque omnibus project, and shot a fashion campaign video for Proenza Schouler.

As for Franco, he starred in "Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes," and has spent the year busily filming Sam Raimi's "Oz The Great And Powerful," and the indie flicks "Maladies," "The Stare" and "Cherry." And oh yeah, he went to Venice and premiered his Sal Mineo biopic "Sal," and released an EP of questionable music, in addition to a zillion other things he has going. Yet, Franco-ites will recall, "Spring Breakers" won't be the first time he's played a drug dealer, a role he seems to specialize in.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: MacGuffin on June 01, 2012, 06:06:54 PM
Black Keys - Gold On The Ceiling


Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: O. on June 01, 2012, 09:02:27 PM
I wonder if it was at the request of The Black Keys to emulate Trash Humpers, or if Harmony is actually OK with rehashing his filmography like this.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: goatcheeser on July 06, 2012, 04:39:03 PM
From what I have read Harmony directed the music video; however, Warner Bros refused to release it to the public. This is why there are two music videos for the song.It's Kind of ironic that Harmony drew inspiration from trash humpers to make a music video considering the movie itself didn't contain a soundtrack. 
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Reel on July 06, 2012, 08:55:04 PM
haha, that was really odd. It will stay with me. The 'twins' of the black keys kind of reminded me of the robot versions of Bill & Ted, in that creepy way.

what does he shoot on, old school VHS?
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: goatcheeser on July 07, 2012, 02:34:58 AM
I believe so. I know that is what he used to shoot trash humpers, which aesthetically looks almost identical. There is something to be said about someone who takes the time to edit vhs when they have access to digital. Then again, he might be converting the vhs to digital and then doing the edit. 
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: socketlevel on September 08, 2012, 03:01:44 PM
I tried desperately to get tickets to the 70mm presentation of the master yesterday at TIFF. sadly i didn't get to go, instead I saw Spring Breakers during the day, and i got to say even though scientology is a religion that has always fascinated me and it's directed by the best film maker alive (not to mention i read the first draft of the script), I'm so glad i got to see Spring Breakers.

It's simply amazing. i haven't been that entertained since seeing bad lieutenant in the festival 2 years ago.

walking in the theatre was strange, 70% of the crowd looked like a bieber concert and the rest harmony korine fans. And in many ways that's what he has achieved with this film, bridging those two very different aesthetics. After the film was over, when the cast came out for the usual Q&A, James Franco said "Harmonie said he wanted a movie that looked like if gasper Noe directed a Britney spears video, and i think he got it", Korine then followed up by saying "I just watched Michael Mann's Miami vice all during making this film." This movie is all those things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO0RPZcHDe4&feature=relmfu

go see this film, as soon as you can. it's not coming out until 2013 so if it's in a festival near you and you are stuck between a few choices, let me assure, you won't be let down. If you live near toronto and are going to the festival, i know there are two more screenings, the last next friday. I am definitely going to try and rush it to see it for a second time. In many ways I'm still processing it.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: wilder on October 18, 2012, 10:50:02 AM
The Fourth Dimension

Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: wilder on November 05, 2012, 04:26:54 AM
Thought this was a cool interview


(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FDgsSq.jpg&hash=4ee445bc8901b41f4b1b9103ab48f91c6d118ae6)

Harmony Korine Talks 'Spring Breakers,' Casting Selena Gomez, and How Her Mom Is a Fan of His Work
9/10/12
via IndieWire

Harmony Korine's "Spring Breakers" marks a significant shift in exposure for the 39-year-old filmmaker, but nobody can accuse him of selling out. The movie, which premiered in Venice and made its North American premiere in Toronto last week, stars Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson as a trio of young woman who rob a diner to fund their trip down south. After a series of depraved party experiences, they eventually encounter the absurdly self-involved gangster Alien (James Franco), who manages to seduce most of the girls with his materialistic obsessions.

If there's anything tame or familiar about the spring breakers' initial exploits, Korine tears it apart with a gloriously surreal deconstruction of pop imagery. Having secured distribution with Annapurna Pictures (but still attracting interest from larger studios in the wake of its positive reception), "Spring Breakers" has already brought Korine onto a level of popularity that the director never could have achieved in the day of "Gummo" and "Julien Donkey-Boy." Even the filmmaker had a hard time believing it when he dropped by Indiewire HQ on Sunday to discuss the movie.

You've said this was the hardest production of your career. How did the experience differ from your other movies?

It was the most difficult shoot in the sense that I had very little time. The look of the film was very central to it, so there were certain things I needed, like various equipment and cameras, so I could make the visuals the way I wanted them. I had to compensate for that, which affected the schedule, which affected the pace. And then you had these girls shooting on location, mostly in real places with people around them who weren't actors. We put them in an environment they weren't used to being in. Obviously, very quickly people found out about that. Sometimes there were more paparazzi than crew members. It can get weird very quickly. It was a whole set of problems I had never dealt with.

Nevertheless, it's not like you sold out and made a conventional narrative feature. Where did the concept for "Spring Breakers" come from?

Early on, I had wanted to make a film in this style, and had been trying to develop in other ways -- through short films and advertisements -- this idea of microscenes. The movie to me is closer to electronic music. My idea for the film is more music-based than cinema-based. Music now is mostly loop and sample-based. A lot of stuff I like is more tracey and physical. I was hoping to develop a film style with this movie that could mimic that in some way. That's where the liquid narrative comes from, this boozy-jazzy thing.

It's an incredible soundtrack that combines compositions by Cliff Martinez and Skrillex, but sometimes you can't tell which is which.

That was the idea. I love them both and wanted to take a certain element of what each does best and have them merge. I wanted the music to have a physical presence.

There are also a number of big pop songs. How on earth did you get the rights to Britney Spears music?

The movie was always meant to work like a violent, beautiful pop ballad, something very polished that disappears into the night. Everyone was really cool about it. I've gotten to a point in my life that's pretty cool where musicians are accepting and wanting to be part of what I do.

Even more impressive is the cast. What did it take to cast these young women, who are best known in teen-oriented fare, in a movie so subversive?

When I was thinking about the cast, I was thinking about who could play these parts, and was wondering who the girls are in this generation that best represent a certain ideology. There was something intriguing about the idea of using girls primarily known from a Disney-type reality. Immediately, instinctively, I said it would be great if Selena Gomez would do this. It's pretty crazy that they were all pretty receptive to it.

Why do you think they were receptive?

A lot of them knew my films, which always surprises me. I got an email that Selena was going to hop on a plane and come to my living room in Nashville to audition, and that her mom was coming with her, and that she would be there the next morning. It was pretty crazy. Her mom is younger than I am and she had grown up watching my films and said she had been a fan of them.

So you now have an audience that grew up with your work.

Yeah, it's pretty weird. I still feel like a kid, but really I've been making movies now for almost 20 years. It's nice also knowing that you're accepted by the culture in some way. When you're out in the wilderness making movies, sometimes you don't know where you live. It can be difficult to gauge who knows what, who sees what, and I try not to think about it too much.

And yet every time you make a new movie, the media focuses on how it reflects your public persona.

That's the other thing. I'm not sure I like that. Sometimes, when I read things, I feel like my narrative or whatever the fuck it is, becomes too prominent. Every film is not a stealth move. It's not a game of chess. I make films because I have ideas about certain characters or images. It feels like it's part of the moment. This movie felt like something intangible, difficult to articulate, but I had to pluck it out of the air.

Do you think you would work on this scale again?

Monetarily, it wasn't that big of a film. But I only want to go harder and bigger. I only want to push myself and make things more spectacular. It's exciting for me to try to do things I never thought I would do and go places I never thought I would go. I want to experiment. At the same time, making movies is so hard that it can feel like warfare. A lot of the energy of the battles are fought about things that have nothing to do with the creative element.

Do you think this is your angriest film?

I don't know if it's angry, but it's certainly the most aggressive. I wanted to make a film that feels like there's no air in the room. I never wanted the audience to be comfortable or complacent. I never even wanted it to seem like they were watching a movie in the traditional sense. I wanted it to be something different. So there's not that much dialogue. Words get in the way. I wanted the film to have a very physical presence.

What's your overall take on the idea of spring break?

Spring break is a rite of passage, an American pastime. In the film, it's more metaphorical, the idea of losing yourself. I don't feel like the soul is gone in this country but that it has morphed into something else. Everything is experienced thorough screens and through views and technology. Sometimes the act of watching is like nothing. I just wanted to show how it's all the same.

In the opening montage, a spring break beach party starts out like some kind of reality show before it turns increasingly depraved and tribal.

And I also wanted it to involve a kind of gangster mysticism. Everything has become so corporatized and boring so real outlaw culture or criminal culture feels like the last vestige of American rebellion. These girls have grown up on world star hip-hop and Gucci Man.

How did you decide on the structure? The story itself is pretty thin.

I wanted to run all through the idea of clips, like YouTube stuff, through a filmic filter. I wanted it to seem like the images were just flying or falling from outer space. I wanted to develop a new vernacular, at least for myself. It was an appropriation of images and ideas that were familiar and iconic to people, but I ran it through this fucked-up filter that spit them out in a new way. The movie is about energy more than anything, a feeling, what happens when you get lost. It's not about spring break; it's about when you drive a couple of miles away from spring break and you're out on the boardwalk by the beach in this weird, fucked up, drunk place. It's like beach noir. I really wanted the film to be about surfaces. I told [cinematographer] Benoit [Debie] at the beginning that I wanted it to look like candy -- like he had lit the movie with Skittles. It was about this dance of surfaces. The meaning is the residue that drips down below the surface.

and this



Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Just Withnail on November 25, 2012, 01:58:22 PM
I just caught Spring Breakers at Oslo International Film Fest.

It was fantastic! An emotionally realistic and cinematically impressionistic portrait of decadent teenage mindsets. I saw an eerie amount of my younger self in these girls.

I was really surprised at how much I felt with Selena Gomez's character Faith. The first thirty-or-so minutes of decadence juxtaposed with her struggling with faith, and her increasing flirts with temptation, in what feels like one big, long sequence, is really effective. Her three temptress friends are also excellent at being twisted Sirens, and their half-whispered, repetitive, melodic talk blends into the dreamy soundtrack in almost a Malickian way.

Socketlevel's Noe-by-way-of-Britney Spears description is pretty on point, I think. It's an experience that (surprisingly) needs to be seen on the big screen. EDIT: Which isn't strange I guess since Benoît Debie shot both this and Noe's last two.

SPOILERS And that incredible one-take robbery sequence shot from the car, with only partial glimpses of what goes on inside, with Rhianna pumping on the stereo. It's a great shot and concept in itself, but it has the added effect of making it extremely effective when we gradually get revealed more and more how the robbery felt like on the inside. SPOILERS

And it's pretty damn funny at times.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: socketlevel on November 26, 2012, 01:07:08 PM
SPOILERS

I'm so glad I have someone to talk about this with...

Quote from: Just Withnail on November 25, 2012, 01:58:22 PM


SPOILERS And that incredible one-take robbery sequence shot from the car, with only partial glimpses of what goes on inside, with Rhianna pumping on the stereo. It's a great shot and concept in itself, but it has the added effect of making it extremely effective when we gradually get revealed more and more how the robbery felt like on the inside. SPOILERS





So true, at first I thought it was done that way because of budgetary reasons, or the fact that he thought the actresses wouldn't be able to pull it off to some level of believable. Then later when they flash back, I was like oh damn this shit is raw. I love it when scenes like this are shown one way and then another with an entirely different aesthetic.

For myself, the laugh out loud awesome bits were when they would just cut to the beach, in super slo-mo shots of beer being poured on silicone breasts (being mock ejaculated by bros holding beer bottles to their groins), with dub step pumping fierce on the soundtrack, and voice over of Selena Gomez calling her grandmother talking about how her experience at spring break is the most spiritual she's ever had; including that how some day she wants to take her there so she can experience what she's experiencing. It's such a crazy concept. because we know that part of it is the excitement of a kid who wants to share it with someone close to her, yet has to use the terms and phraseology that her grandmother will identify with. Yet, at the same time she's not lying, it is this spiritual awakening. We know she'd never take her grandmother on spring break, but the guilt side (more than likely coming from her church) is being rationalized by her party side. It could easily be seen as denial, and it might partially be, but if it is, it's so deep down in her subconscious. She is really feeling connected, and strangely, how can we blame her?

And really this leads to the entire point of the film, who are we to judge people connecting with anything, even if it's a packaged hedonistic superfluous side of western culture. The movie perfectly dances between laughing at naivety towards the danger of things that have pop aesthetic and embracing the individual's very pure connection to said experience. James Franco embodies the reality that lives behind the image of extreme hip hop culture, yet at the end of the movie, he becomes a tragic romantic hero worthy of vindication. And it's all done with the most extreme laughs I've had at the cinema in a long time.

There are so many scenes I would love to go into, and maybe I'll save it for future posts when more have seen it. This movie is so fucking gorgeous, and saying so much(?), and rejecting a classic liberal (not just conservative) progressive sense of ethics, and just having a balls out great time at the movies.

It makes you wonder how this film was made, but then you just look to who's financing it:

http://annapurnapics.com/main/index.html

She's doing all the best shit.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: wilder on January 18, 2013, 08:04:55 PM
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: The Ultimate Badass on January 19, 2013, 03:08:51 AM
Harmony Korine is such a passive aggressive shit in interviews and (quasi) documentaries like the one above. You just can't get a straight honest fucking answer or a moment of realness out of him. He's a pathological liar. There's like 10 seconds of sincerity when Gasper shows up--which I loved-- but then it's all bullshit.

By the way, that performance by Val Kilmer in the Fourth Dimension video above is probably some of the best shit I've ever seen him do. Thanks for posting it wilderesque.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: wilder on February 01, 2013, 06:15:51 PM
Harmony Korine's Novel 'A Crack Up At The Race Riots' Back In Print This Year
via The Playlist

Fans of the filmmaker already know that his 1998 novel, "A Crack Up At The Race Riots" is something many followers of his work have been eager to get their hands on. The book was briefly available upon publication before swiftly going out of print and then off the map for years, though it's been traded around in some circles. However, the fine folks at Drag City -- the mostly music label that also handled "Trash Humpers" when no one else woud -- will be reprinting Korine's work. Not so much a book as a collection of stories, scraps, jokes and more, we'll let this quote from Korine himself circa 1997 describe what he put together.

"It's about a race war and it happens in Florida. And the Jewish people sit in trees. And the black people are run by M.C. Hammer. And the whites are run by Vanilla Ice. I wanted to write the Great American Choose Your Own Adventure novel," he said.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: MacGuffin on March 18, 2013, 08:09:35 PM
'Spring Breakers' Helmer Harmony Korine Sets Next Pic With John Lesher And DCM Productions
By MIKE FLEMING JR | Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Spring Breakers helmer Harmony Korine, on the verge of having his first breakout hit after a most eclectic career, has made a deal for his next film to be produced by John Lesher's Le Grisbi Productions and DCM Productions. Spring Breakers will open wide this week through A24 after garnering a huge per-screen average in limited release, starring James Franco, Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson and the director's wife, Rachel Korine.

The title and log line of the new film are under wraps, but I've heard it involves a multi-generational family of criminals in the South. Spring Breakers producer Charles-Marie Anthonioz will also produce the film. This is likely to be Korine's next directorial effort, but he is also developing projects with Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures; she bought Spring Breakers at Toronto last fall. Korine's new jail-bait sex kittenesque heist film seems to finally have delivered on the commercial promise he showed with his early breakout film, Kids. Some of his follow-ups, including Trash Humpers, you could imagine David Lynch watching and going, "What the hell? This is really out there." Lesher has long been a Korine supporter; he was his agent for many years at UTA and then Endeavor, before he took the top job at Paramount and then became a producer.

Lesher most recently produced End Of Watch, and he also produced Blood Ties, the English-language debut of Guillaume Canet that stars Clive Owen, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Mila Kunis and James Caan. Lesher's about to begin production in New York on the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu-directed dark comedy Birdman with Michael Keaton, Ed Norton, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, and Naomi Watts, and Black Mass, the Barry Levinson-directed crime thriller that will star Johnny Deep as Boston crime kingpin Whitey Bulger.

Berlin-based production/distribution company DCM's production division is run by Marc Schmidheiny and Christoph Daniel. They co-financed and produced the Dustin Hoffman-directed Quartet and the Oscar-nominated Norwegian film Kon-Tiki. CAA reps Korine.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: wilder on May 07, 2013, 10:36:29 PM
The Two Hollywoods: The Screenwriters; Shane Black; Harmony Korine
via The New York Times
By Lynn Hirschberg
Published: November 16, 1997

Shane Black, at 35, already holds the record for the biggest script sale in movie history: $4 million for ''The Long Kiss Goodnight.'' Maybe he shouldn't have been the one to arrive first, but here he was, in the empty dining room of the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, waiting for Harmony Korine, the 23-year-old writer and director of ''Gummo,'' whose indie career took off two years ago with ''Kids,'' for which he wrote the script. Korine is running about 45 minutes late, which is what you'd expect: he enjoys his reputation for trying people's patience.

Black, who also wrote the scripts for ''Lethal Weapon'' and ''The Last Boy Scout,'' likes to be thought of as a rebel, but he's making millions in the studio mainstream. When Korine does finally arrive, looking as if he just fell out of bed, the two begin a colloquy that is not only about screenwriting but about identity.



Korine: Here's the big difference between us -- rich [pointing at Black], not rich [pointing at himself].

Black: No, no, no. Pal, you're in for some big dough.

Korine: I doubt it. I'm not really so interested in linear storytelling -- like, beginning, middle and end. Or the idea of some kind of contrived plot. The only thing I remember about films are scenes and characters. So when I write movies, I'm basically writing only things that I want to see, with nothing leading up or nothing following. Just those scenes on their own.

Black: But even in your film ''Kids'' there is suspense. Which means the story is going from A to B. You're waiting to see if something's going to happen. In other words, it's not just shot in random order over a few months. You find out this kid has contracted H.I.V., he's trying to scam on this 13-year-old girl. And the suspense is, Is he going to give AIDS to this 13-year-old girl? And people are waiting to see the story unfold. So I think there is a narrative that's very strong.

Korine: Yeah, there was with that. I mean, I wrote it for someone else. Basically, for me the plot of ''Kids'' wasn't what was interesting. That just gave me an excuse to show these scenes. Collage is the ultimate art form of this century. Film is the great art form of the century, and most conducive to a collagelike style. But collage still has yet to take hold in film. Everybody's still making these really simple kind of ----.

Black: Formulaic.

Korine: Formulaic. No subtext. Everything is just easy, basic, minimum, no personality.

Black: You're right. There have been no good movies in the last few years. I do think the challenge, in a way for me, is to write a narrative film and when you finish watching it you feel like it's a collage. You tell the narrative, you tell the story, but you feel like you've created this tapestry. But it also has a shape, a story. So I think there's a middle ground that I try to strike. It isn't quite as revolutionary as where you go. But it's certainly in that direction -- and away from where everyone else seems ready to go, which is, setup, payoff. You know, He's afraid of water, oh, and at the end he's swimming in water -- oh, my God. I hate that stuff.

Korine: I never think about the audience. Never. I mean it's never even occurred to me, ever.

Black: You won't go to see ''Jurassic Park'' or something, a Spielberg film, just to have fun?

Korine: I think it's important that there are films like that.

Black: Why?

Korine: Because I do think that kind of mindless entertainment -- I think that's important. I think that there's a history of that. I don't think that every movie should be something that smashes you in the head or teaches you something or is revolutionary.

Black: Are you trying to teach things with your film?

Korine: Oh, no, no, no.

Black: I think about the audience in the sense that I serve as my own audience. I have to please myself the way, if I saw the movie in a theater, I would be pleased. Do I think about catering to an audience? No. Do I think about satisfying people with a good story? Yes. But I would never compromise anything to accommodate what I perceive to be the demands of the public.

The worst of the action films are the ones where everything is one shout from beginning to finish. And there's no differentiation between beats, like small or big, or quiet or expansive. It's all just one loud shout. And by the end, the audience has been beaten in the face so many times, you could blow up the Taj Mahal and they'd go, ''O.K., that's nice.'' Because they've seen so much. They're just dead. We're in a culture where people want to be deafened, apparently. And there's an elegance, which is somehow missing. It used to be that when people talked, they talked in a very communicative way. They varied their tone, they varied their pitch. Now they just yell at you until you fall down. And that's what I don't like. But my films are bombastic enough. I mean, I have no business trashing other ----.

Korine: What are your movies -- ''Lethal Weapon''? And ... what else?

Black: ''The Last Boy Scout.''

Korine: Oh, yeah. I saw those.

Black: ''The Long Kiss Goodnight.''

Korine: I don't remember. I don't think I saw that. Who's in that one?

Black: [laughs] Nobody saw that. That's cool. I understand. Believe it or not, I'm really only interested in doing my own thing. I've turned down lots and lots of work. Things that could have made me some money. But in the long run, you look at each of these films and I really think I made the smart move by turning them down.

Korine: I'm making my films the way I want to make my films. I'm happy, I can sleep at night. [pause] Actually, I can't sleep at night. I am an insomniac.

Black: I don't sleep that well, either. [pause] Man, I mean, I used to think I was sort of rebellious. I'm sitting here feeling like a hit man talking to Mother Teresa.

Korine: What do you want?

Black: I'm still finding it. I'm still finding what it is I want to write. It's, like, the next thing I do, I don't know what it's going to be, but it's going to be different from what I've done before. You look at Lawrence Kasdan, one of my favorite writers. He wrote ''Star Wars'' movies, he wrote ''The Accidental Tourist,'' ''Body Heat.'' Who knows, you might write a romantic comedy.

Korine: Sure. I never say I won't do anything.

Black: A romantic comedy without a narrative? [laughter]

Korine:: I'm not setting anything in stone. I always liked the idea of going against, or going back. That's interesting to me.

Black: What has been the reaction ... I mean, since you've done ''Kids''? Obviously, you got a lot of attention. Did your life change?

Korine: I don't live in California. So I have no friends in the film business. I don't know anybody.

Black: That explains it.

Korine: Completely. Also it's my work to make everything seem as if it's not written, as if it's just happening. But everything is totally thought out and written.

Black: So you do believe, not in narrative, but in control from start to finish of a film?

Korine: Oh, yeah.

Black: Would you ever want to work with an established movie star?

Korine: Personally, I have no interest in it. I have no interest in anyone that's, like, a professional. The idea of being a pro or someone who does it over and over again ... it's a job. Actors, to me, they fail to startle.

Black: So Kevin Costner comes to you ----.

Korine: [laughs] Maybe. I mean, I wouldn't ... I mean, I would do something with him. Like, if I felt like I could make him do something he'd be embarrassed about or something, you know what I mean? And I like Tom Cruise. I had the idea of making ... did you ever read the Guinness Book of World Records? There's this great photo of Eddie Gaedel. The St. Louis Browns once paid a midget, Eddie Gaedel, to go up to bat. ''Don't swing, just let him throw the ball'' -- and that's what he did. So Eddie Gaedel walked to first base. I want to write a movie about Eddie Gaedel and have Tom Cruise play him on his knees. [laughter]

Source (http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/16/magazine/the-two-hollywoods-the-screenwriters-shane-black-harmony-korine.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm)
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: jenkins on April 09, 2014, 03:20:34 PM
s&s or somewhere else. not a new list, but i like seeing it like this
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fj0326mE.jpg&hash=baaefbfcfcd9546cd2fe1fbe24f9cbcb4cd54c60)
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: wilder on July 29, 2014, 05:59:28 PM
Harmony Korine Is Writing A Gangster Movie For Robert Pattinson
via The Playlist

In early May, Robert Pattinson revealed that he might make a movie with Harmony Korine. There wasn't much else in the way of details at the time, but a few more nuggets have been revealed, and yes, it's the sort of unlikely pairing of actor and material we'd expect from any working with Korine.

In a recent profile in Esquire UK, the magazine reveals that Korine is writing a Miami-set, gangster movie for the actor. Could this be the same movie as the Southern set, multi-generational, crime family picture that was announced in early 2013? It's not certain, but we don't think it's a coincidence that these sound pretty similar. And credit Pattinson for making this happen, as he reportedly called Korine out of the blue, and the next thing you know, they were working together. If and when it happens, we'll just have to see, but it's another chance for Pattinson to continue trying something different, which seems to be his modus operandi.

"I never went to acting school, so this is just me trying to get better," he said of his diverse choices, adding: "I've literally only done jobs which interest me. There have been two which I auditioned for and didn't get, but other than that..." And when it comes to stepping back into the blockbuster, franchise world, Pattinson is reluctant.

"A couple of offers, but with those things, if you express any interest, you have to do a screen test or whatever, and they make you sign a six-picture deal before you even know what the part is. It's crazy. And I didn't grow up reading comic books and stuff, so..." he explained.

Pattinson has even more brewing in the background, including the previously announced "Childhood Of A Leader (http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/tag/the-childhood-of-a-leader)." The film is from writer/director/actor Brady Corbet, and while production was first announced to start last spring, it didn't happen, but it's still developing. "It's about the youth of a future dictator in the Thirties," Pattinson said. "Like an amalgamation of Hitler, Mussolini and some others. I don't want to jinx it, but Brady is like a savant of film. I've known him for like eight years, and he's only 25 now."
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: wilder on January 29, 2015, 01:02:40 PM
Korine's 10-minute documentary short "The Legend of Cambo"

Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: jenkins on January 30, 2015, 12:23:36 AM
Quote from: wilder on January 29, 2015, 01:02:40 PM
Korine's 10-minute documentary short "The Legend of Cambo (http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-10-minute-documentary-the-legend-of-cambo-directed-by-harmony-korine-20150129)"

in my top 2 of this year so far forever
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Just Withnail on January 31, 2015, 04:45:01 AM
That was beautiful.

"She was standin in the water 'bout belly-button deep. She had a camo bikini top on and she had a bow in her hands drawn back I thought hell that's kinda seeexy."
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: jenkins on January 31, 2015, 04:09:19 PM
believable as a doc, and i wonder about the doc's ecstatic truth. it'll tie together nicely with this year's giuseppe makes a movie

if i could subtitle this fucker i'd screencap it left/right:

"i come out here. 'cause there ain't no doubt in my mind don't matter what happens. i'm a'right out here."

idiomatic grammar. grammar straight outta the woods indeed. it's my favorite grammar

that was a quote from the trailer! good trailer pick. i could quote this whole thing

"i've never been big on time. because if you keep track of time, time will keep track of you. so. i just, forget."

similar(ish) doc (http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/22810/1/small-town-dreaming-in-lake-havasu-city) shot by my dp
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: 03 on February 01, 2015, 01:38:24 PM
i know cambo. he's an alabama legend. strangely enough, i didn't know about this movie..
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Axolotl on February 02, 2015, 12:33:16 AM
Quote from: Larry on February 01, 2015, 11:26:07 PM
sorry to digress- is this Wes anderson's writing? lol where did you find this

https://facebook.com/harmfulkorine/photos/a.367018285084.369365.23467465084/10154034743745085/
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: wilder on March 24, 2015, 11:46:05 PM
Idris Elba Replaces Jamie Foxx In Harmony Korine's 'The Trap,' Al Pacino, Robert Pattinson, James Franco Also Join
via The Playlist

Harmony Korine's "The Trap" is finalizing its major casting pieces and three more actors have joined the cast, "Luther," "The Wire" star Idris Elba, evidently the new lead actor, James Franco and Al Pacino in supporting roles. They join the already cast Robert Pattinson and Benico Del Toro in additional supporting roles.

What does this mean for the originally cast Jamie Foxx? Well, he's dropped out of the project and has been replaced by Elba. But his loss is really the "Thor" actor's gain as aside from TV work, Elba hasn't scored many plum lead film roles yet and this sounds like the part.

"The Trap" is set in Miami's music scene and is a revenge and crime tale set within that milieu. Elba will play a gangster rapper and Del Toro will play his best friend. THR says in "The Trap" Elba's characters " is at the top of his career and about to enjoy a triumphant night at the Grammy Awards when Slim (Del Toro) is released from prison after 14 years. Slim is determined to exact revenge after learning that Rico not only achieved fame and fortune but also married his girlfriend and raised Slim's son as his own." Del Toro's uzi-wielding crew also features Pattison and Franco who sound like typical Korine character freaks. Pacino will play Del Toro's parole officer.

Korine has recently said the film will loosely incorporate elements of the electro-rap music genre popularized by Gucci Mane. "You could almost say there's some type of Florida trilogy going on," he said, in reference to "Spring Breakers" and... perhaps another film in the works?

Focus Features are in talks to pre-buy the film before it even a frame of film has been shot. No word on a release date, but "The Trap" begins shooting very soon (Del Toro said March a few months back, but April sounds more feasible now). It's possible we could see it at a film festival later this year, but that's a tough turnaround. Even if it did pop up somewhere, you can almost guarantee a proper theatrical release date probably won't hit until 2016.
Title: Re: harmony korine
Post by: Reel on March 25, 2015, 05:43:10 AM
Great news! I'm tired of seeing Jamie Foxx's face and he's had a TERRIBLE run since Django. Go get busy playing Mike Tyson or whateverthefuck it's gonna be next
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: OpO1832 on May 14, 2015, 12:14:15 PM
I agree. I wish Chris Tucker played Django, he was the best thing about Silver Linings Playbook, despite his brief appearance.
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: Reel on August 03, 2015, 09:57:43 AM
Awesome interview on WTF (http://www.wtfpod.com) today. I don't think I've ever heard a director speak so openly about their craft. They always seem to be hiding some mystique about it, but Harmony is very straightforward about the why's and hows of the way he does things. Makes a great argument for his use of celluloid at the end, too.
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: jenkins on August 03, 2015, 12:47:03 PM
He essentially regurgitates the principle elements of film vs. video that are found in every conversation these days, referencing the popular production perception of film making better use of time (which is so, so, so absurd. who's making these time sheets?), film burning money and causing people to focus (oh fuck off), film as magic (classic QT quote), analog having dissonance true only to itself and evoking Korine's fantastic lifelong psychological journey that can be described as he was born in film and he wants to die in film.
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: Reel on August 03, 2015, 01:30:16 PM
But he said it better
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: jenkins on August 03, 2015, 01:35:51 PM
The fact that he said it at all is meaningful. Korine is a person I respect. But I'm not currently impressed by people rallying for film. I support them, but I'm not impressed by them.
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: Reel on August 03, 2015, 02:08:25 PM
Love watching film, wouldn't wanna make one.
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: wilder on February 11, 2016, 03:07:10 PM
Talking Art, Cock Moulds and Revolvers with Harmony Korine - Dazed (http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/29728/1/talking-art-cock-moulds-and-revolvers-with-harmony-korine)
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: wilder on February 24, 2016, 04:36:39 PM
Harmony Korine Says His Chris Cunningham Collaboration 'Mitch Poppins' Might Be Released This Year
via The Playlist

As we await to see which feature film Harmony Korine shoots this year — he's deciding between "The Trap" and a new, "Scarecrow"-esque picture he's recently written — there's still some stuff in the archives to see the light of day. And one of them may finally surface this year.

Last summer, Korine told Marc Maron about a 20-minute short he made in the early 2000s with acclaimed music video director Chris Cunningham (Björk's "All Is Full Of Love," Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker"). Titled "Mitch Poppins," Korine said it's about a man with Tourette's Syndrome whose tic takes the form of breakdancing, and noted that while it wasn't finished at the time, he was waiting for the moment to release it. And it might soon be arriving.

Chatting with The Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/24/harmony-korines-art-rehab?CMP=twt_a-film_b-gdnfilm), he told the paper "Mitch Poppins" might be released this year...but we'll see if that's the case.
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: The Ultimate Badass on February 28, 2016, 12:59:42 AM
I can see that. Korine and Cunningham have similar meta-thematic sensibilities, even though they are totally different in so many ways. I don't know why Cunningham never panned out. I really thought he was the next Kubrick. Maybe he still will be. If I had one director to give a hundred million dollars to to make a movie it would be Cunningham.
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: wilder on April 20, 2016, 02:43:28 PM
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: wilder on August 26, 2016, 07:07:39 PM
Harmony Korine Adapting Controversial Novel 'Tampa,' Says New Florida Set Movie Will Shoot Next
via The Playlist

Directing Rihanna's sexy "Needed Me" video and an ad for Supreme featuring his rapper pal Gucci Mane, the one thing Harmony Korine hasn't done this year is gear up production on a new feature film. Initially, his super-promising-sounding project "The Trap," that had Idris Elba, Benicio Del Toro, Robert Pattinson, Al Pacino, and James Franco set to star, was slated to lens earlier this year, but there were delays, and the director started losing interest in the movie, thus pivoting toward writing something new, something he described as "a cross between a Cheech and Chong movie and...'Scarecrow.' " Now, not only does it look like that latter picture is next, but Korine has also lined up another very provocative project.

During a Q&A last night at the Miami Beach Cinematheque, Korine revealed he's working on an adaptation of Alissa Nutting's controversial and acclaimed novel, "Tampa." The 2013 book caused no shortage of scandal, with the story explicitly detailing a teacher's journey in seducing her 14-year-old student. It's pretty charged material, so much so that Slate editor Dan Kois wrote, quite prophetically it would seem, "someone hire Harmony Korine to make the movie, ASAP." Here's the book synopsis:

In Alissa Nutting's novel Tampa, Celeste Price, a smoldering 26-year-old middle-school teacher in Florida, unrepentantly recounts her elaborate and sociopathically determined seduction of a 14-year-old student.

Celeste has chosen and lured the charmingly modest Jack Patrick into her web. Jack is enthralled and in awe of his eighth-grade teacher, and, most importantly, willing to accept Celeste's terms for a secret relationship—car rides after dark, rendezvous at Jack's house while his single father works the late shift, and body-slamming erotic encounters in Celeste's empty classroom. In slaking her sexual thirst, Celeste Price is remorseless and deviously free of hesitation, a monstress of pure motivation. She deceives everyone, is close to no one, and cares little for anything but her pleasure.

Tampa is a sexually explicit, virtuosically satirical, American Psycho–esque rendering of a monstrously misplaced but undeterrable desire. Laced with black humor and crackling sexualized prose, Alissa Nutting's Tampa is a grand, seriocomic examination of the want behind student / teacher affairs and a scorching literary debut.


That's right up Korine's alley of provocation, and he suggested that "Tampa" might be headed to HBO, which would mark a new turn for the arthouse filmmaker. But we'll have to see how that shakes out.

Next for the director will be the aforementioned Cheech-and-Chong-meets-"Scarecrow" script, which he's aiming to shoot in south Florida, though there's no word just when cameras will roll. After that will be either "The Trap" (which hopefully he hasn't grown tired of) or "Tampa," and we'll follow whatever Korine decides to go with. And in case you're counting, including "Spring Breakers," this will mark four movies that Korine will have set in Florida.
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: wilder on February 07, 2017, 03:04:16 PM
Matthew McConaughey Will Be Harmony Korine's 'Beach Bum'
via The Playlist

For a while now, Harmony Korine has been teasing that he's been working on a new script which would likely be his next movie, bumping back his previously planned "The Trap." As you'll recall, that film was set to star Idris Elba, Benicio Del Toro, Robert Pattinson, Al Pacino, and James Franco, until an issue with one of the cast members — who Korine has refused to name — essentially kiboshed everything. The filmmaker cooled on "The Trap" and started writing something new, and many thought it was the adaptation of "Tampa," but it's something else entirely, with a big A-list lead actor.

Matthew McConaughey has signed up to star in the stoner comedy "The Beach Bum." The film follows the misadventures of the rebellious and lovable rogue Moondog, who I presume is not based on the experimental musician, though I can't imagine that name is a coincidence either. Korine has previously described the picture as "a cross between a Cheech and Chong movie and that movie 'Scarecrow,'" which, through Korine's cracked lens and McConaughey's breezy vibe, should be something pretty fun.

Production will get underway in July, so we'll likely see this on the festival circuit in 2018. As for "The Trap," Korine has said it's still in the works, and could be his next one...after this.
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: Robyn on September 27, 2017, 06:37:15 AM
"A rebellious stoner named Moondog lives life by his own rules." with Matthew McConaughey directed by Korine?

that sounds pretty fun.

Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: jenkins on April 03, 2018, 09:13:03 PM
what happened was i decided to learn about Neon (http://neonrated.com). so i read this (http://moviecitynews.com/2017/08/neon-launches-new-label-super-ltd-with-anthony-bourdain-produced-doc/) and barely learned anything actually.

but now i'm aware that Korine's The Beach Bum will be distributed by Neon. imdb lists the movie in post-production. Korine wrote/directed, Benoît Debie is behind the camera again. Debie also shot Audiard's The Sisters Brothers btw
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: WorldForgot on April 04, 2018, 02:48:21 PM
Benoit Debie'z sense of color is going to make these gaudy designs trashique

(https://i.imgur.com/SflIWdM.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/5wbDcVk.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/qpNfUhY.jpg)
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: jenkins on September 03, 2018, 04:10:48 PM


i'm sort of madly impressed by how basically perfect this Harmony Korine commercial is. how does it feel so alive when all its elements aren't so new really? the music is T L Barrett (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._L._Barrett)
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: Reel on September 03, 2018, 07:37:58 PM
Anyone who's wanted a glimpse into Harmony's day to day life should check out this episode he did for a vice show that profiles skateboarders



It's kind of annoying how they have to bring everything back around to skating somehow but I didn't know how much Harmony's aesthetic was inspired by skate videos. The blonde dude he's skating with seems likely inspiration for 'The Beach Bum'
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: jenkins on September 03, 2018, 08:32:51 PM
watched the whole thing thanks
Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: wilder on December 30, 2022, 05:18:26 AM
His first short film

Title: Re: Harmony Korine
Post by: wilder on August 24, 2023, 04:07:05 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/m1uRD6C.jpg)

Harmony Korine's Hi-Tech Vision for the Future of Movies
by Zach Baron, August 23, 2023
GQ

Just up the beach from Mar-a-Lago, Harmony Korine is out on the sand, wearing a horned demon mask, staring at the ocean. Palm Beach in June is humid and a little dazed. I would tell you how one of the most transgressive and perpetually youthful filmmakers of his generation looks now, at 50, but again: horned demon mask. "This is EDGLRD," he says, pointing at it. Pronounced "edgelord." Slightly muffled, vocal-wise, from the mask, but you get the idea. Then he takes it off—face still mischievous, if also a little professorial these days; eyes as gleeful as ever—and asks if I want to go inside and see the rest of it for myself.

There are many ways to describe EDGLRD, it turns out, none of them simple. This is the first time Korine or his partners have talked about it publicly. It's a design collective; it's a creative factory; it makes movies that are not really movies, movies that are closer to video games, that sometimes are actually playable as video games. It also makes video-game video games. EDGLRD is using AI in exactly the way that people in Hollywood speculate AI might somehow be used, to help make the things it makes, except it's already doing so. Plus, EDGLRD is prototyping clothes you can wear and clothes that your digital avatar can wear while you play EDGLRD games (that are also sometimes movies). Posters for various characters Korine and his team call FloridaLords—a girl with a hamburger face named Patty Melt; Trinika Young, a Caribbean tech psychic—line the walls of the beach house they're using for an office.

There are maybe 15, 20 people in the house. Animators, game and fashion designers, 3D printers, character riggers. Men and women who used to work for Marvel, or the big video game studios. Sean Pablo, the great 25-year-old skater from Los Angeles, is here, sitting on a couch in the living room, because EDGLRD has a skateboarding component too. Korine's main partner in this venture, Matt Holt, who owns the house, is a private-equity guy and the president of the board of The Paris Review. He and Korine began hanging out during the pandemic. "I started talking to Harmony about starting his own company," Holt says. "And I remember the moment he said, 'That's a great idea. Will you be my partner?' "

They've since found other investors; their ambition is not small. Korine says they'd like to get to a point where they're dropping films once a month. "It's like: Instead of someone writing a check for $50 million to make one film," Korine says, "how do you make 50 $1 million films? I'm saying 'films,' but they're not really films either."

A few weeks earlier, in Los Angeles, Korine had arranged for me to see what had been described to me as his newest movie, something called AGGRO DR1FT. Korine's films, starting with his debut, 1997's Gummo, made after he'd already become famous for writing the screenplay for 1995's Kids, have always played with notions of time, of continuity, of narrative itself. But even by the standards of Korine's past work, AGGRO DR1FT—shot in the blurry red-yellow-green palette of thermal imaging, starring the Spanish actor Jordi Mollà and the rapper Travis Scott, and scored by AraabMuzik—is not quite a feature film. It's got the repetitive cadence of a video game cutscene, plenty of strippers and plenty of guns, and tells the story of "the world's greatest assassin," played by Mollà, who is watched over by a horned demon, the likeness of which Korine was wearing on the beach. The film will be the first EDGLRD project to be released into the world. Korine calls its aesthetic "gamecore."

Korine says he spent a lot of time trying to imagine "what is the feeling of being inside of a game? Or even something close to a drug experience? Is there a physical kind of component to what you're watching? Is there something that blurs the line between reality and unreality?"

(https://i.imgur.com/73UC4Uq.jpg)
Travis Scott, rendered in thermal photography in Korine's new film AGGRO DR1FT.

EDGLRD has arisen out of a suspicion Korine and his collaborators have: that movies as we know them are on their way out, victims of increasingly corporatized studio systems reliant on broken financial models so fragile and strained that, within a month of our conversation, Hollywood's writing and acting guilds would both be on strike in protest of them. Part of the issue, Korine thinks, is the demolished attention spans of younger people, who are seeking something else, something that we don't quite have words for yet, even as the EDGLRD team is busy trying to invent them. "It's not even anyone just sitting down watching one thing," Korine says, about how people approach entertainment these days. "There's multiple things. You're listening to music, you're on TikTok, and you're watching a film."

The question is, says Korine, "How do you take the whole idea of entertainment, of live-action gaming, and create something new? The obsession here is that there's something else after where we've been—that one thing is dying, and something new is being born right now."



When I first met Korine in 2019, it was at his painting studio, which is in Miami's Design District. I was there to write a profile of him loosely tied to the release of The Beach Bum, which stars Matthew McConaughey as a talented but reluctant poet. But I had other questions too. Korine has led many lives, all of them fascinating, and I spent a lot of time trying to pin him down on the details of those lives: Did he really punch Meryl Streep backstage at an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman? Was Leonardo DiCaprio really a cameraman on Korine's lost film, Fight Harm, a comedy consisting entirely of footage of Korine starting fights with strangers on the street? Why did the various houses he was living in have a way of burning down? And so on.

Rereading what I wrote about our encounter now, I have the distinct feeling of missing the point. Korine's art has always pushed on reality in fascinating ways: Kids both starred and was about Korine's real-life friends, and showed them exactly as they were, but in the context of a lurid and entirely fictional plot, which unnerved audiences then and made the film a sensation. Subsequent movies, like Gummo and Trash Humpers, went further, doing away with narrative almost entirely, even while Korine often employed nonactors and other techniques to make the films feel, well, real. To ask what was fake and what actually happened, as I spent a lot of time doing in 2019, was to misunderstand the project, which was always about trying to bring into existence a category-less world Korine could sense right around the corner, a world he was doing his best to create in his life, his films, and his other artwork.

As a student at NYU, Korine would often spend nearly all of his waking hours watching one film or another. But at some point, as he got older, his relationship to the movies changed. "They became less and less interesting," Korine says, lighting a cigar and staring at the ocean. Especially in the modern era of streaming and increasingly consolidated production, there was an artificial quality to movies that Korine couldn't help but notice. "They just all feel like they've been so processed. Even the dialogue, it all sounds like it's written by the same person. Everyone speaks exactly the same."

Korine's films have always been a response to this feeling, that there were things to be made that did away with the artificiality, the contrivances of plot, of backstory, of context, and went straight to the good part. "I would always just remember, like, one or two scenes that would stay with me," Korine says. "And I was like: Why can't you just make a film that consists entirely of those scenes? Why do you have to waste all this time with people having conversations at a coffee table, at a dinner table? I remember looking at these books that my mom made that were just photos of us as kids. And, like, she'd put them all behind plastic. They were all washed out and grainy. But it was great. I was like, 'Wow, this goes from me on the beach skateboarding in South Carolina in the '80s. Then it jumps to like, you know, my grandfather on his deathbed.' There's a story. It's almost as much about what's missing as about what's there. So, narrative always felt like a place for disruption."

For a long time, he tried to do this in conventional feature filmmaking, often hand in hand with studios. These films—*Gummo, Julien Donkey-Boy, Mister Lonely—*had reputations, but they didn't always have audiences. "I spent so many years making things that nobody saw," Korine says. His movies were nonlinear and fluid in a way that feels contemporary now, when each YouTube video or TikTok or Instagram reel bleeds into the next, but at the time, audiences often didn't know what to make of them.

Famously, the critic Janet Maslin, writing in The New York Times in 1997, called Gummo "the worst film of the year." Korine remembers this moment well. "But I noticed," he says, "that she stopped working right after that."

This is not true, I say—Maslin just switched beats and started reviewing books instead.

"Makes sense," he says, grinning again. "She should have gone to books."

Korine went through some dark personal years at the end of the '90s and into the next century, but he kept making things, and every once in a while, something he made, like Spring Breakers, a neon fever dream of a film, would sneak through to the larger consciousness—these fleeting, fascinating moments where we all dreamed the same weird Harmony Korine dream. Korine says he enjoyed that friction, of seeing his films "in a commercial context," but he also, in the past decade, became more and more skeptical about whether it could ever happen again. "I don't really see that many kids going to movie theaters anymore," Korine says. "I watch my own movies and it's almost like when my mom tried to make me read books, you know what I mean?"

After The Beach Bum, Korine says, something that was always fraying finally snapped. "I just lost interest in normal films," he says. Entirely. "I was like, There's something else. That really became the obsession. I was like, What comes after all this?"

Today, Korine says, what people pay attention to has been shattered into a million pieces. "The way it used to be was that movies would come out, films would come out, games would come out, music would come out, and everyone knew about it," he says. "Now, not only do you not know what's out there, you don't even know the channels that exist that it's out there on."

Some filmmakers might find themselves depressed at the loss of one single, unified audience. But Korine feels the opposite: "I waited my whole life for this. For this moment, and the ability to function like this and to create like this. Like, I've always just wanted to get to a point where you go beyond 2D, where it is like aesthetic drugs. Do you know what I mean? And then, how can you be thrown? Like, how can I throw you off? There is no center. There's no actual.... Narrative has been completely obliterated. And what you're watching really is just an experience."

(https://i.imgur.com/zUE0Zoo.jpg)
The scene in an EDGLRD studio in Palm Beach, where the team works on 3D printing and clothing design.



"This is Home Invasion," Korine says, pointing at a computer monitor inside the house. On the screen plays security--camera and GoPro footage of masked men and women, wearing horns, rampaging through various Miami McMansions, tying up various innocent-looking families. "We're trying to gamify movies," Korine says. So Home Invasion is designed to look, at times, like a first-person shooter, and inside the film the home invaders are sometimes playing games —the idea being you can scan a QR code and play along with them. "What we're trying to do is to build some mechanism that allows people to interface with the footage and basically remix, or make their own, films," Korine says.

They also have been experimenting, Korine says, with replacing the faces of the home invaders with the faces of babies. That film, he says, has a title too: Baby Invasion. Korine has EDGLRD cofounder and head of production Joao Rosa, a grave, priestlike native of Brazil, cue up some sample footage: terrifying.

At a table nearby, Jill Ubando, a real-time 3D artist, and Dominic Barriere, a character rigging artist, show me what they have in progress. Barriere cues up some images of an animatronic Chucky doll; Ubando shows me the same doll, skating through a nighttime environment she's built. "We create everything here," Korine says, from over my shoulder. The whole idea is to "create as quickly as you can think it. She'll just sit there and she'll build, and in a couple days she'll show us what 10 seconds of this would look like."

But that's only the beginning, Korine says. It's a game, now, or could be one. "Then you're like: What would a feature look like with that character? Or what would a clothing design look like?"

Korine bounces from station to station, weaving through the house, introducing me to people: Nicolau Vergueiro, a creative director with a big swoop of hair, designs most of EDGLRD's prototype clothes, some of which are dimensional, with various bumps and protrusions; one design has a monitor placed on the chest of a sweatshirt. "So when you're wearing this," Korine interjects, "this will then become a screen."

I meet a fashion designer. I meet a guy who owns several skate parks. I meet a bunch of video game designers. Sean Pablo drifts in and out, sometimes wearing a mask made out of a transparent veil. More people, working from all over the world, cluster on Zoom screens visible from all over the house.

Carlos Fueyo, one of EDGLRD's creative directors—kindly eyes, extremely competent vibe—was in the virtual art department for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. He says he came to work here because unlike in the traditional studio system, there's no bureaucracy, no barriers. On Ant-Man, he says, "I think every single set was created way in advance a year before the shot." Here they just make stuff as soon as they can think to make it.

Fueyo shows me on a monitor something he's been working on: a scan of Korine's face and head, but with cornrows. He hands me a tablet, has me look at its camera. All of a sudden my facial expressions are transposed onto Korine's face—unsettling. "This is the future of entertainment," Korine says, laughing. This is basic, though, Fueyo says. Gaming engines have come so far that you can do whatever you want, almost instantaneously. They've gotten so sophisticated, Korine says, "that it's almost gone 360. You could look at the Call of Duty trailer now, and it looks better than anything that Spielberg's ever done."

There's also a concept they've been playing around with, Korine says, called Leprechaun Yakuza. It's what it sounds like. "It's basically about these leprechauns that fight these yakuza. We should show that." Korine says. "Casia, can we show that?"

Casia Levine, another creative director working this week from what looks like her bedroom, in East Hollywood, cues up footage of a rampaging leprechaun via Zoom. "We're making a blinx that can guide the creation of the game," she says.

"We should explain what blinx are," Korine says. "Blinx is something that we're using to describe what everything is now. Instead of films or games, a lot of these things—we're just calling them blinx."

A portion of a short film featuring a character called Xandra, part of a wider cast of personalities Korine and his team call FloridaLords. Courtesy of Harmony Korine and EDGLRD.

Korine says Levine is really wise about everything they're working on. All of the EDGLRD kids, I'm finding, are philosophers, living as they do at the verge of what's possible. Levine is particularly adept at explaining both the purpose of and the theory behind EDGLRD's model—how they are making things for people who are spending increasing amounts of their time online; how EDGLRD's aesthetics, which are often beautiful but just as often disturbing, mirror the unbalanced lives of their intended viewers.

"We're in this moment right now where people are existing in new ways," Levine says, from her Zoom screen. "Like, public life has kind of disappeared, and I feel like the virtual space really needs to address this in some way. I feel like a lot of virtual reality is like: Make an avatar and never leave. And that's like one way it could be—you can become your most beautiful self and look at yourself in the mirror. But I think what's interesting is we're kind of going between the hyper-virtual and the hyperphysical in the way where it's like, we're interested in this virtual embodiment, this way that people can feel empowered and excited and just have a lot of kinetic fun in the virtual space. But we're also interested in bridging that to the reality of going out into the world."

Which is where the clothes and the skating and the collectible figures and the real-life masks come in, she says.

"So I feel like EDGLRD's all about us being at the edge of being really iconic and really pathetic," Levine continues. "I think people have these glimpses of themselves as deities, and these glimpses of themselves as, like, hyperphysicalized beings, a lot through social media and virtualization. And then day-to-day, you know, we're, like, eating 7-Eleven rollers and, like, our cars are a little messed up. So I do feel like people are living double lives in the virtual realm."

The idea behind EDGLRD, she says, is to live on that border: You can go be a glorious being in its insane virtual reality and then bring some of that demented but appealing reality back into our world.

Game director Corey Martin pipes up from another Zoom window. "We're really excited about making these heavily sensory experiences that are, you know, just everything turned to 11, and then down to zero."

"Aesthetic drugs," says Buck Weiers, EDGLRD's chief product and technical officer and another cofounder.

"That really is the whole thing," Korine says. His voice sounds muffled, and when I look over, he's got the horned mask on again. "That's the next frontier. That's the fourth wall."



These Days, Korine says, the excesses of his youth—performance art appearances on late-night television shows, drugs, physical combat, never sleeping—feel like they happened to someone else. "You're almost talking about another person," Korine says. "The world doesn't function in that way for me anymore. The stuff that we're working on now is maybe.... How can I say it? Transgressive enough."

One morning Korine and I meet near the water in Palm Beach and take a walk along the ocean. I say that it's funny to see Korine, who may be older but who still loses his wallet constantly, breaks electronics on contact, and has generally been staggering down his own unique path since he was a teenager, now managing an entire team of people.

"Yeah, I know," he says. He's wearing lavender corduroys and a polo in the Florida humidity. "I think even my wife is like, 'What the fuck?' I don't know. It just makes sense. It feels right. Like that's just the progression. And to be honest with you, it's also in some weird way the most exciting."

But whatever it is, he's all in. "I don't have such a big life savings," he says. "But it's more like: You sink your life into it."

(https://i.imgur.com/KqOsCHk.jpg)
A piece from a new group of paintings Korine will be showing this fall. "New show, new gallery, new body of work," he says. "This whole thing is kind of like the next phase."

When he gets sick of being around people, which does happen, he goes to his studio and paints. Recently he left his longtime gallery, Gagosian, for Hauser & Wirth, where he will have a show of paintings opening in September. "New show, new gallery, new body of work," Korine says. "This whole thing is kind of like the next phase." He shows me photos on his phone of some of the paintings: brilliant, photorealistic renderings, done in oil, based on stills from AGGRO DR1FT, made up of lush, beautiful colors on giant canvases.

The paintings remind me of something I noticed about AGGRO DR1FT, which features an assassin who is great at what he does but does not particularly enjoy doing it. It is the second film in a row*—*in The Beach Bum, McConaughey plays a lauded poet who doesn't actually like to write—about this kind of recalcitrant artist. I ask Korine if this was intentional, returning to this idea.

"Yes," he says. "I'm obsessed with that character. I'm really drawn to that. Like, people with an extreme talent who are reluctant."

I say I always assumed the obsession was autobiographical—that he was talking about himself. "Yeah. I mean, you almost become your own worst enemy," Korine says. "Or you fight whatever gifts you have."

Korine has always been a great filmmaker, but he hasn't always liked making movies. "Honestly, I always got more satisfaction from painting," he says, staring at the ocean. "I don't really have fun making movies."

So why does he keep making them? I ask.

"I'm still drawn to it somehow. It's interesting because I don't watch movies that much anymore, but especially not new films. And then my wife's been watching all these John Huston movies and John Milius films, and I see her watching them and then I'll look for a second and then I just get transfixed. There's still a pull. Those movies are so great."

(https://i.imgur.com/KyuOgfM.jpg)
An oil painting by Korine based on a still from his AGGRO DR1FT film.

Do you ever think you'll make a movie again? A real movie.

"It's possible," Korine says. "Terrence Malick wrote a script that he wants me to direct. It's a really, really beautiful script. And that's maybe one of the only things that I could imagine pulling me back into like actual, traditional moviemaking. But even then, the hard part now is just the idea of looking through a viewfinder and filming, like, people speaking at a table. All this dialogue always gets in the way. All these things that you don't really care about. I don't know. That would be a special case. I always loved him, and his movies were such a big deal for me as a kid, and even still now. But that would maybe be the one thing."

Korine stops and points. Making his way off the beach, shuffling up the sidewalk, is a shirtless older man with a stomach that is like one side of a beach ball. "You know when you see someone with a massive beer gut?" Korine asks. "I always imagine what it would be like if you took, uh, what is the thing you stick in a keg?"

The tap?

"Yeah, the tap. And you just inserted it into their gullet and then you turned it on. The shape is so specific, it's like a keg. So that would be like a FloridaLord sequence, right? The lager would be flowing out of his belly."

When Korine was a child, he could barely sleep, he was so besieged with images that would come into his mind, day and night. Now he's got a beach house full of cutting-edge technology and skilled collaborators that can realize any idea within seconds, hours, days. "When you realize you have the ability to, like: This dream creates another dream, creates another dream, creates another universe, creates another universe. It can become almost overwhelming creatively," he says. "For me, the most difficult thing is just—once you start dreaming, it can never end."

Infrared footage from AGGRO DR1FT overlaid with images of Korine. Courtesy of Harmony Korine and EDGLRD.

Zach Baron is GQ's senior special projects editor.