Ken Park - Larry Clark and Ed Lachman

I'm still in the marathon exploring mode (maybe not 100%, but close enough), once again Larry Clark shows me something on the big screen that I found authentic and genuine. It's like he puts these trouble kids in a time capsule, when you open it, the rebelliousness of the teenagers has a really strong presence.

I don't know where I've heard of this, it says: no matter how different their movies are, directors are always trying to say the same thing, more or less the same theory, the same values in their works.

This time round, we see something different, a hint of family influence. It shows how the relationship between parents and their children affects each other. I am not saying if you come from a dysfunctional family you will automatically become into kinky sex. No, kinky is not the word, we all do aware sex dominates a big portion of our mind, especially teenagers. For some people sex is a HUGE part of their lives. And exploring their sexuality is a stage we couldn't avoid, we experiment stuff, we do stuff we might not be too proud of. We all have been in this grey zone. (even if you don't want to admit it, somehow you have been there.) Of course Ken Park might be a little extreme, one way or another it is a phrase people go through. When you are a teenager everything seems like the end of the world, it's you against the world and Ken Park reveals how we feel (had felt) when we are a teenager and how we handle those feelings. Something not everyone is capable to handle.

Simulated sex scenes don't really bother me that much, (of course unless they are pointless and too repetitive.) Nowadays, they could be shown in the cinema easier. I don't feel like they are redundant. It helps telling a story.

The Smell of Us is going to be in the cinema like in few days, I'm so excited.

Kids - Larry Clark

2015, I decided to explore a little more in movie. During christmas I accidentally stumbled across "new french extremity" (http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2014/15-essential-films-for-an-introduction-to-the-new-french-extremity/), downloaded a bunch of movies. (watched a few already, quite enjoyed them, will post my thoughts later) 

Since Larry Clark's new movie "The Smell of us" is going to be in french and be released in the french market first in like 2 weeks, so why not get to know this director. I finally took time to watch a Larry Clark movie, his first one, Kids. I do found some similarities of those two: like trangrassive. I don't think Kids fits in that category but according to wikipedia the movies which Larry Clark make are quite controversial. (Kids was banned in some countries, since it was accused to be simulated child pornography)

Skins, the first thought after watching Kids are, an under produced version or the original version of the UK TV series Skins. Unlike the US version (yes they tried to make a US version but it faiedl so bad that they candled it like after 2 or 3 episodes), Kids is super honest, no fancy production, complicated plot lines. Kids is simply depicting a phenomenon in the 90s and how kids were like in those days (I have to say there aren't much differences from now) It was about sex and drags and since it was in the mid 90s, AIDS was a big element as it was the new emerging disease which affects almost everyone. It was just a day of those teenagers' lives. 

I would say it is pretty good at addressing the problem. How the boys thought what the girls like and vice versa how Telly loves to fuck virgins, how gullible people can be. As I said it was a honest interpretation of adolescents, it felt so real and natural.   

Larry Clark has a love for the subject adolescents (a lot of his other works are about teenagers too), and always tires to re-define the boundaries between art and pornography, like his short film in the movie Destricted, Impaled, which explores the comfortability of man acting in porn instead of woman, is basically a porn, during 30 minutes you are watching a few casting with actual intercourses. I found it less convincing, however, some other shorts like HOIST (which I absolutely love) and Balkan Erotic Epic are more justifying in this subject. 

After all Kids is a photo from 90s which no photoshop, a movie isn't afraid of telling what people dare not speak of.