April 22, 2008

Harmony Korine, back for more

Were it not for Harmony Korine, life might have been very different for edgy leading ladies like Chloë Sevigny and Rosario Dawson. Korine wrote the screenplay for "Kids", the infamous tale of drug-addled, morally-bankrupt youth in New York. Directed by Larry Clark, the movie made stars of Sevigny (who once dated Harmony Korine) and Dawson, and came to epitomize the white-trash obsessed, hipster skateboard subculture of the 1990s.
Korine went on to make cult favorites "Gummo" and "julien donkey-boy", and wrote Larry Clark's semi-pornographic Ken Park. After a break of eight years or so, he returns with "Mister Lonely", an endearing celluloid oddity about a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) who falls in love with a Marilyn Monroe lookalike (Samantha Morton) at a commune populated by other faux 20th century icons in the Scottish Highlands. Director Werner Herzog plays a Panamanian priest in a seemingly unrelated storyline about a miraculous group of flying nuns (look out for Herzog's entirely improvised scene with an eccentric, tearful local).
"Mister Lonely" was screened at the Silent Movie Theatre in LA on Saturday, and I spotted Miranda July, and someone who looked very much like Chloë Sevigny hanging around, looking slouchy and beautiful.
Korine treated us to an amusing Q&A session after the movie, grimacing when asked questions like "what's your process", but relishing the telling of many wild and colorful stories about how he made the film. Some of them, (like how he decided to not shoot the movie in Iceland after meeting a creepy location manager who was wearing a see-through nightgown and had four frozen horses in her house) sounded almost as fantastical as the movie itself.
(Photo of Harmony Korine (L) with a fan at the Silent Movie Theatre)

April 22, 2008 in MEN | Permalink

Comments

I suggest reading Harmony's book. The one with love letters from Tupac in it. Gummo scarred me.

Posted by Gavin | Apr 30 2008 2:16AM

I once saw Chloë Sevigny and Vincent Gallo on a blanket making out in a graveyard. Okay, it was the Hollywood Forever graveyard screening of Lolita, but it was still nifty.

Posted by Big Bomb | Apr 28 2008 11:13AM

harmony korine is insanely talented

Posted by harmony in my head | Apr 23 2008 6:15PM