1997: Harmony Korine: Gummo, Fine Line Features

1997: Harmony Korine: Gummo, Fine Line Features [1]

• Harmony Korine’s first directed film after the release of Larry Clark’s Kids, which Korine wrote.
• With Gummo Korine established himself as a director who could push the sensibilities of 1990s indie filmmaking into avant territory as he wrapped a series of disjointed scenes populated by amateur actors around a loose narrative set against a background of a natural disaster - the film takes place in Xenia Ohio not long after, but not immediately following a bad tornado - and blended with footage and imagery from disparate sources.
• I first saw this film when it was first released and I remember enjoying it but it includes a number of scenes of cat killings and I was plagued by the thought that those scenes were real. Only recently I learned that they were not, phew.
• Something that stood out to me was the element of metal, specifically the death metal soundtrack. I found this to be VERY jarring when I first saw this, not only because I’ve never, at that time, seen a film that used Death Metal like this, respectfully, (I know Ace Ventura Pet Detective featured a scene with Cannibal Corpse but that was to provide the background for some jokes) but also because I just figured punk made more sense. Now that I’ve lived in a small midwestern American town for a time I see how extreme metal, that is death and black varieties, and all of their demonic and satanic poesis makes so much more sense as a rebellious artform in those places that are saturated with Religion.