Harmony Korine Retrospective

For the Los Angeles readers: Cinefamily is screening all of Harmony Korine's feature films as well as some rare documentaries and experimental works. It happens at 7 pm each Saturday this month at the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax. First up is Kids, the film Larry Clark commissioned Korine to write for him. Korine didn't direct this one but it is a classic and it started his career. Playing with Kids is a super rare screening of his experimental short The Diary of Anne Frank Part Two. The next week is a chance to see a 35mm print of my favorite movie: Gummo, a "phantasmagoric vision of tornado-torn rural Ohio that centers loosely on the glue-huffing exploits of Solomon and Tummler, two scrawny teenage sociopaths set adrift in a wasteland of poverty and excess." That quote is from the write up that Cinefamily did on their site. Their descriptions of the films show a deep appreciative understanding of the work. The highlight of the month is the first showing in LA of his first film in a decade, Mister Lonely. The film is about a commune of celebrity impersonators. Following the film there will be an hour long documentary about the making of the film and a Q&A with Korine himself. The final night is Julien Donkey-Boy, sure to look amazing in projected 35mm. Donkey-Boy contains one of the best acting performances I've ever seen: Ewen Bremner as a schizophrenic dealing with the weirdos in his family. Most people don't like this film but I think it is a masterpiece and I guarantee you will never see anything like it again. Also playing that night is Korine's documentary on his friend David Blaine's endurance stunt where he sat in a glass box above the River Thames in London for 44 days. It is a insightful portrait of Blaine and what he's all about. Regardless of what you think of Blaine's antics, you will see him differently after watching this. If anyone wants to go to any of these, let me know and we'll go.


David Blaine and Werner Herzog on the Mister Lonely set in Panama.