![]() ![]() In his visual decisions, Korine seems to be asking: what exactly is it like to experience the world with a different cognitive condition? What are the sensory experiences? How do they comprehend the world? What are complications in articulation or communication? What is it like to “be” Julien?Ĭhloe Sevigny wading through the grass. Abrupt montage, stop-motion, freeze frames, and superimposed images are some of the devices employed to create a hyper-sensory, fractured, and discordant experience. In Julien Donkey-Boy, the unusual form feels grounded in the film’s attempt to depict the subjective sensory experience of its titular character. Korine’s aesthetic experimentation is usually the highlight within his films but too often it feels arbitrary and without conceptual underpinning. But there is an unusual beauty to be found in their rawness, and in conjunction with unorthodox editing techniques, Korine shows an enthusiasm for using these visual distortions for expressionistic purposes. ![]() By conventional principals of filmmaking, this is “bad” cinematography. The refrain from correct white balancing also provides the film with an unusual colour palette of gaudy greyish blue tones and oversaturated tungsten oranges. Combined with the imposed restriction of only using natural and source lights with no other accompanying lighting equipment, the images have a heavy grain quality and alternate between being overexposed or underlit. The film’s idiosyncratic visuals was shot by veteran Dogme 95 cinematographer, Anthony Dod Mantle, using camcorder footage that was later transferred to film prints. Like Vinterberg’s masterful Festen (1998), the achievement of the film lies less in its supposed Dogme 95 “purity”, but rather, its curiosity in exploring the aesthetic potential of low budget filmmaking.Įwen Bremner in Julien Donkey-Boy. While critics were right to point out the ludicrousness of a dogmatic approach to filmmaking, given the humorous certification process and the fact that none of the founders actually made a film that fully adhered to all the precepts, it’s pretty obvious the “vows of chastity” were intended as tongue-in-cheek. ![]() Julien Donkey-Boy is situated as the sixth accredited Dogme 95 film a somewhat divisive movement founded by Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg that dictated strict restrictions in the filmmaking process. Through the use of an unconventional aesthetic, it depicts a sensitive portrait of mental illness and the various struggles to find genuine emotional connections at a familial or societal level. The boy that time donkey series#It is a series of impressions involving the titular Julien (Ewen Bremner), a young man suffering from a schizo-affective disorder as he interacts with his dysfunctional family and the wider community around him. Julien Donkey-Boy (1999), however, is the one time where all of Korine’s weirdo antics and impulsive improvisation actually coalesced into greatness. I didn’t care for the irony-soaked vacuousness of Spring Breakers (2012) and the less said about Trash Humpers (2009) is for the better. Gummo (1997) and Mister Lonely (2007), located roughly in the middle, are quite solid, if uneven at times. My critical appraisal of his works runs the whole spectrum. Given the erratic and irreverent nature of the man himself, it’s no surprise the output of his career has been so varied. When it comes to Harmony Korine, it’s complicated. ![]()
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