It’s hard not to be fascinated by outré director Harmony Korine (“Gummo,” “Julien Donkey-Boy“) especially since his life had been rumored to be a trainwreck and it took him 8 years to make his newest film, the lovingly weird, “Mister Lonely” (a proper review when it comes out next week).
We recapped a lot of his eight-year-long (or so) “lost-weekend” in a previous post about the ‘Lonely’ soundtrack, but a recent New York magazine profile has shed a few more details. Here’s the Cliffs Notes:
When He Was The Toast Of The Town He Was A Jackass
“I’m going to make movies like nobody has ever seen before,” he once pretentiously proclaimed. As a guest on ‘The Late Show that David Letterman’ he was a typical insufferable enfant terrible who believed his own press. “You know, I could pretty much have this conversation with myself,” he said to Dave.
He Didn’t Care – At Least At The Time – If You Didn’t Understand The Impenetrable ‘Gummo’ And ‘Julien Donkey Boy”
“I never cared so much about making perfect sense. I wanted to make perfect nonsense. I wanted to tell jokes, but I didn’t give a fuck about the punch line.”
The Lost Film – “What Makes Pistachio Nuts”
As we mentioned in a post dedicated specifically to the film that never was, “What Makes Pistachio Nuts,” was to be Korine’s masterpiece about a Floridian Trotskyite who owns the world’s biggest pig. The protagonist would attach special adhesives to the pet swine and people from the community watched as he rode the animal up walls while making pro-Trotksy speeches. Unfortunately this work of art was lost in a house fire, but the only other detail that Korine told NYmag was that it took place “after a race war.” “It was going to be my definitive work, my legacy,” he said.
Other Young, Pretentious NY Scenster Jackasses Use To Hang Out With Him
“I used to party with him. Being bad with Harm back then was like shooting dope with Burroughs.” Hipster jagweed photographer Ryan McGinley said without a trace of irony.
Taking Drugs to Make Films to Take Drugs To
During Korine’s prolonged absence from the world of film, rumors swirled about various spiraling drug addictions and dependencies. The rumors were evidently true. “Eventually he ended up in a room in Paris, doing so many drugs that his teeth started to fall out,” NY mag wrote adding that he drank a ton and also smoked crack (other articles point to meth and heroin too). During that time he tried to make a film with Gus Van Sant (“Jokes“), but failed miserably. “I was messed up. I was living like a tramp. You start to run out of money, and friends. It gets a little bleak,” he said. In his drug haze (or one assumes in his drug haze anyhow), he evidently spent a lot of time “painting eggs” (an autobiographical element that turned up in “Mister Lonely,” the film also starts out in Paris).
Salvation
He was saved by fashion designer Agnès b. She loved the shit out of “Julian Donkey Boy” at the Cannes film festival in 1999 and they had become air-kiss acquaintance-friends. She patiently gave him the time and space to clean himself up and the two of them started a production company, called “O’Salvation.”
Additionally, Spoutblog alerts us to the fact that Korine’s directed commercials for Bud Light can be viewed over Budweiser’s U.K. website. They feature two members of the Silver Jews (Korine is listed as “replicant engineer” on the Silver Jews album Tanglewood Numbers, released by Drag City in 2005).
The wonderfully weird “Mister Lonely” comes out in limited release on April 30 or May 2 depending on who you want to believe (we’ll side with the latter IFC films site).