Harmony Korine on Kids: 'It would be impossible to make that film now'

The Guadian ^ | Melissa Locker

[Borges]

In 1995, photographer-turned-director Larry Clark and a bunch of novice actors made Kids. On its 20th anniversary, writer Harmony Korine and actor Leo Fitzpatrick remember the film dubbed a ‘wake-up call to the modern world’

“I gave one to Larry and he called me the next day and I went to his place and started talking about making a movie together. He had an idea for a film and wanted to know if I wanted to write it.”

The film they ended up making together was Kids, a frank exploration of 90s New York City youth culture gone wild that the New York Times called a “wake-up call to the modern world” and the New Yorker dubbed “nihilistic pornography”.

[Borges]

Love it or hate it, anyone who saw it back then hasn't forgotten it.

[Borges]

Remember this?

[DemforBush]

I never saw Kids, but I did see Clark’s film Bully. One of the more disturbing films I’ve seen in my life. Especially because it’s based on a true story (Bobby Kent murder).

[oblomov]

It’s an excellent film. Our contemporary social dysfunction came into full flower in the 90s as the film portrays, not under Obama.

[guido911]

Hated it. That it bordered on porn. This song was good though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiD2MxSaSG4

[discostu]

Very verite. And I think the first art house movie I actually saw in the art house rather than renting the VHS.

[golux]

I saw it, and... I forgot it.

I seem to remember it's a movie about how if you do things that kill you, you die.

Never forgot Gilda, though!

Or Otto e Mezzo!

...Or Cinema Paradiso! Or Once Upon a Time in the West...

Guess I'm just another Gen-Xer who doesn't know quality filmmaking when I see it.

[samtheman]

Social dysfunction of the 90s. You are correct. BTW, I liked the movie Oblomov.

[GeronL]

child porn is what it is

every copy should be burned

[SeeSharp]

That was Chloë Sevigny’s first film wasn’t it?

[BenLurkin]

if you do things that kill you, you die.

Sounds like you've found a 'killer' tagline!

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Another good Folk Implosion song from the soundtrack:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28yUf5l6egw

Otherwise, probably the worst experience I've ever had in a movie theater. It's an atrocious, downright evil, film.

[Borges]

You don’t think it advocates the lifestyle it depicts do you?

[guido911]

Rosario Dawson too. Not sure if her first movie though.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Yeah, I absolutely do. The after-school special AIDS ending didn’t change that for me at all. The movie reveled in what it portrayed, then tried to take cover behind the bogus moral high ground of a tacked-on AIDS ending.

I also think Larry Clark is a pedophile. Actually, I know he is. You couldn’t pay me enough to endure another moment of his “work”.

[BBell]

I agree. I watched bully and it was pretty shocking. Then I watched the original unedited version of bully and it was even worse. I thought the movie was very well done.

[Borges]

I found the lifestyle pretty revulsive. Then again I wasn’t a high school age. The film was aimed at adults.

[Talisker]

It’s an excellent film. Our contemporary social dysfunction came into full flower in the 90s as the film portrays, not under Obama.

Clintons.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

I was a very liberal, hedonistic twentysomething working in the movie business... and I was still utterly repulsed by it. I guess that was the right-wing Christian in me screaming to get out.