Harmony Kormine's Mr Lonely
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Harmony Kormine's Mr Lonely
HARMONY KORINE catapulted to fame as an enfant terrible, and for a few years he played the part to perfection. He was the young skateboarder turned wunderkind screenwriter behind Larry Clark’s 1995 sensation, “Kids.” At 24 he directed “Gummo” (1997), about glue-sniffing, cat-killing teenagers in a Rust Belt backwater. Most critics hated its junkyard, freak-show aesthetic, but it spawned an instant cult, with devotees including Werner Herzog, who became a mentor and collaborator, and Gus Van Sant. Mr. Korine’s next film, “Julien Donkey-Boy” (1999), inspired by his schizophrenic uncle, continued the gutter-punk provocations.
But after that he largely receded from public view. Now 35, having dug himself out of what he called “a black hole,” he has finally made another film, “Mister Lonely,” a sweetly cockeyed fantasia about a colony of celebrity doppelgängers and a troupe of sky-diving nuns. Over coffee during a recent trip to New York — he now lives in Nashville with his wife, Rachel, not far from his childhood home — this onetime fixture of the downtown party circuit did not seem nostalgic for the old days. [Read More]
Deigo Luna, 28, was quite unprepared for the set of his newest film, Harmony Korine's "Mister Lonely," opening Friday, May 2. In keeping with the title, he says it was one of the loneliest experiences of his life - no Internet, no phone, no way to know how Mexico was faring in the World Cup soccer tournament.
"First of all, we were living the life of the characters," Luna says of the production, which was filmed in and around a castle in the Scottish highlands.
Luna was perfecting his moonwalk because he was playing Michael Jackson - or rather, a character who spends his life playing Jackson. Almost all of Luna's fellow cast members are celebrity impersonators: Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton), Charlie Chaplin (Denis Levant), the Pope (James Fox), Madonna (Melita Morgan), the queen of England (Anita Pallenberg) and Sammy Davis Jr. (Jason Pennycooke).
And they never break character: Chaplin and Monroe (a couple in the film) sunbathe, the Three Stooges tend sheep and the Pope drunkly presides over communal dinners. Together, they practice their shticks in a performance intended for the local community. They don't judge one another. They're all in the same boat.
Read More
**AND the music is another post in it's own right.**
J. SPACEMAN
SUN CITY GIRLS
MISTER LONELY
MUSIC FROM THE FILM
BY HARMONY KORINE
LP/CD
RELATED:
[::] NYTimes.com
[::] Watch the Trailer
[::] Music from the Film
HARMONY KORINE catapulted to fame as an enfant terrible, and for a few years he played the part to perfection. He was the young skateboarder turned wunderkind screenwriter behind Larry Clark’s 1995 sensation, “Kids.” At 24 he directed “Gummo” (1997), about glue-sniffing, cat-killing teenagers in a Rust Belt backwater. Most critics hated its junkyard, freak-show aesthetic, but it spawned an instant cult, with devotees including Werner Herzog, who became a mentor and collaborator, and Gus Van Sant. Mr. Korine’s next film, “Julien Donkey-Boy” (1999), inspired by his schizophrenic uncle, continued the gutter-punk provocations.
But after that he largely receded from public view. Now 35, having dug himself out of what he called “a black hole,” he has finally made another film, “Mister Lonely,” a sweetly cockeyed fantasia about a colony of celebrity doppelgängers and a troupe of sky-diving nuns. Over coffee during a recent trip to New York — he now lives in Nashville with his wife, Rachel, not far from his childhood home — this onetime fixture of the downtown party circuit did not seem nostalgic for the old days. [Read More]
"In broad terms, it's a movie about a Michael Jackson impersonator living in Paris who's down on his luck. He meets a Marilyn Monroe impersonator at a commune where all these other impersonators live. They want to put on a show in hopes that the world will come see them perform..." (Harmony Korine, Hollywood Reporter)
Deigo Luna, 28, was quite unprepared for the set of his newest film, Harmony Korine's "Mister Lonely," opening Friday, May 2. In keeping with the title, he says it was one of the loneliest experiences of his life - no Internet, no phone, no way to know how Mexico was faring in the World Cup soccer tournament.
"First of all, we were living the life of the characters," Luna says of the production, which was filmed in and around a castle in the Scottish highlands.
Luna was perfecting his moonwalk because he was playing Michael Jackson - or rather, a character who spends his life playing Jackson. Almost all of Luna's fellow cast members are celebrity impersonators: Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton), Charlie Chaplin (Denis Levant), the Pope (James Fox), Madonna (Melita Morgan), the queen of England (Anita Pallenberg) and Sammy Davis Jr. (Jason Pennycooke).
And they never break character: Chaplin and Monroe (a couple in the film) sunbathe, the Three Stooges tend sheep and the Pope drunkly presides over communal dinners. Together, they practice their shticks in a performance intended for the local community. They don't judge one another. They're all in the same boat.
Read More
**AND the music is another post in it's own right.**
J. SPACEMAN
SUN CITY GIRLS
MISTER LONELY
MUSIC FROM THE FILM
BY HARMONY KORINE
LP/CD
RELATED:
[::] NYTimes.com
[::] Watch the Trailer
[::] Music from the Film
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