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Harmony Korine shared his favorite films and we reviewed them

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Recently, writer/director, Harmony Korine of KIDS and Spring Breakers fame, released a list of his favorite films and we decided to take a look. Most of the list was unknown to me and the films I had seen, I barely remembered. So I set out to watch them all, hoping to finish in a week. Goddamn. It took me two weeks. That may seem like a long time but trust me, it wasn’t. Each film sticks with you, like the slow death of a loved one. Imagine mourning eleven dead family and friends in two weeks. No bueno.  Most of these films are pretty heavy, so if you are looking to relax and have a laugh, look elsewhere. But if you are looking to take a peak beneath the veneer of real life, usually kept from us when we go to the movies, start anywhere on this list, just don’t watch them all in a short amount of time, misery and introspection are guaranteed. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to watch Zoolander.

1. Numero Deux- Jean Luc Godard

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This one is kind of difficult to explain. First, don’t watch it with your parents because that would be awkward. Unless, you have cool parents that do not make you want to hide under the house when sex or nudity comes on whatever screen you might be viewing from. Numero Deux feels less like a film and more like obscure video art. It covers money, family, work, sex, and the role of a woman in a family. Shot on video tape and then transferred to film, it has an eery, voyeuristic quality. Almost like Godard was sneaking around taping these people through a window. At least I felt like a voyeur sneaking around watching them as they went about their lives. It is one of Godard’s best films and definitely worth a view.

2. In a Year with 13 Moons- Rainer Werner Fassbinder

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I have always found the days leading up to a persons suicide particularly frightening. A person can be depressed for a long period of time and then seemingly snap out of it but in fact, they have not. They only appear to be better because they have made the decision to die and now they can live free and happily until the day they have chosen to eat a bullet or a bottle of pills. Fassbinder, captures this truth, In a Year with 13 Moons. Fassbinder’s lover committed suicide on his birthday in the apartment they lived in together, after which Fassbinder was dragged through the muck by the press, who called for an investigation into the death and possible criminal prosecution. Instead of falling apart, he made In a Year with 13 Moons. A film that follows the last days of a transgendered masochist in Germany, as she deals with her depression and feelings of invisibility. The slaughter house scene will turn you vegetarian.

3. Stroszek – Werner Hertzog

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If you’re looking for a Road Trip movie that perfectly captures how alone we are in the world, no matter where on Earth you happen to be, this is it. Every character in the film has an amazing depth, you can feel everything they feel. From the pimps who run the films stars out of Germany to the pimp who works for the bank and repossessed their mobile home; you can feel exactly how terrible it is to be any of them. Everything is bleak. So why watch it? Bruno S.

Hertzog later said he was the best actor he ever worked with, and it is easy to see why. His performance encapsulates the diaspora of the human spirit, that has been trampled from birth.

4. The Outsiders – Francis Ford Coppola

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Fuck, man, Patrick Swayze is dead. The Outsiders is one of the best movies ever made and it has THE best soundtrack of any film [Van Morrison and Elvis will do that]. It hits on five universal themes: Rich vs the poor, family, friends, everybody fucks up and most of us, at some point, feel pretty alone. Yeah, that’s Tom Cruise being awesome. I still like the dude. I mean ever religion seems nuts to me. If you haven’t seen The Outsiders since you were a kid, watch it again.

5. Rumble Fish – Francis Ford Coppola

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This film captures the prison that being a teenager can be and how little you get it, until it’s too late to get. Mickey Rourke is the ex gang president who has realized how pointless it is, his younger brother Matt Dillon thinks if he can just become his older brother everything will be great and their drunk father Dennis Hopper realized it was all pointless long ago and retired to the life of a drunk. Rumble Fish is an art film for anybody with angst, especially teenagers, and one of my favorites. Unfortunately, it’s the only film where I dislike Nicholas Cage.

6. The Mother and the Whore- Jean Eustache

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The Mother and The Whore is a nearly four hour marathon into the complexities of life and relationships. Alex is a creative person who does not create, a lover who does not love and more, loves too much. We watch as his current relationship with a Marie (The Mother) who pays his way and shares her apartment is bottoming out and another relationship with Veronika (The Whore) who cannot support him mentally or financially, flowers. In dating these two woman, Alex who normally allowed himself to be the child, is slowly forced to be the adult. Filled with smoke, alcohol, conversation and cafes, Eustache’s film on the nature of relationships is still completely relevant today. I’m still not sure how I went this long without seeing it.

7. Night of the Hunter – Charles Laughton

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If you’re in the mood for a little family fun, check out this classic from Charles Laughton. Robert Mitchum at his terrifyingly self righteous best as the marauding, serial killing, preacher, “Reverend Harry Powell.” If you needed a reason not to trust preachers [other than the fact that said person is a preacher], you will find it here. After getting a hot tip about a newly widowed woman [Rev. Powell had already married, robbed and murdered 24 widows] whose kids are hiding 10,000 in cash, the good reverend sets out to make his collection. For whatever reason, Harry’s knuckle tattoos were not enough to scare anyone away. Which I suppose is a testament to his prowess as a preacher. In pre-google America, this sort of traveling con game was not only possible but real thing people had to worry about. Which for whatever reason, makes me nostalgic.

8. Husbands – John Cassavetes

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A frightening look at three men having a mid-life crisis and going on a several day long bender after the death of a close friend. It’s hard not to cringe through the entirety of this film, which is rare in any film involving a mid-life crisis. Usually, we see (insert middle aged famous actor here) have doubts about his work, wife or family and watch him come to comically heartwarming resolution, so not to upset the children who are watching with their parents. Sometimes it’s nice to watch a film made for adults. Directed by and starring John Cassavetes [The husband from Rosemary’s Baby, if you can’t place the name].

9. Alan Clarke- all of his films. My pick: Made in Britain

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I first came across Made in Britain while looking through the international section at the Virgin Megastore in Union Square, RIP. I bought it because of its cover, which was Tim Roth with a swastika tattooed on his forehead and I rightly assumed it was fucking nuts. With how well Tim Roth plays the teenage skinhead Trevor [his first role] Alan Clarke must have found him throwing bricks through windows, shirtless and wearing suspenders, yelling at immigrants, somewhere in England.  Clarke and Roth capture the futility of trying to use reason with an insane teenager. Also, it was made for television, which I just read and can hardly believe.

10. Pixote – Hector Babenco 

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Made using real street kids in Brazil as actors, Pixote follows the title character as he goes from a juvenile reformatory to back out onto the streets. With drugs, sex, rape, corruption, Pixote is a sobering look at the desperate lives poor Brazilian kids get saddled with. You can definitively find parallels between this film and Larry Clark and Harmony Korine’s, ‘Kids.’ It also may have the darkest bathroom scene I have ever watched. Made in 1975, it is hard to believe how little things have changed in Brazil, and with the World Cup coming up, it’s gonna be hard to keep hiding. Six years after Pixote was released, Fernando Ramos Da Silva, the actor who played Pixote was gunned down by police.

11. Brewster McCloud – Robert Altman

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I have no idea what Brewster McCloud is about [Which is not a criticism]. There are birds and talk of birds and birds shitting on people and then those people die and then the cops find their dead bodies covered in bird shit. To help solve the mystery of the shitty corpses, a special investigator is called in from San Fransico. His name is Frank Shaft [not that shaft]. Instead, he is a homage to Steve McQueen’s, Bullitt. For Brewster McCloud, Altman created a big, weird world, where as soon as things start to make sense, a bird comes and shits on it. This is a strange one and worth the watch for Shaft’s death alone.

Article by Timothy White. You can follow him on Twitter @TipToTheHip


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