Tagged: Harmony Korine
Watch: Harmony Korine Directs Dior Addict Ad
“I got Escape! Calvin Klein Escape! Mix it up with Calvin Klein Be. Smell nice? I smell nice!” That’s a line from Aliens’ (James Franco) monologue in Harmony Korine‘s Spring Breakers, where he shows the girls all of his stuff (or shit). Who would have thought that the director of films which are mostly about white trash characters like Gummo (1997), Julien Donkey-Boy (1999) or Trash Humpers (2009) would go on to direct an ad for Christian Dior, one of the top French fashion houses? Certainly not me, but it works. Take a look!
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Three Reasons: Emir Kusturica’s Underground (1995)
What’s Three Reasons? A lazy version of Five Reasons of course. But then isn’t it an exact ripoff of the Criterion Collection YouTube videos? Yes, but I prefer the word homage. Anyways, enough chitchat let’s get down to business. This is a short article about Emir Kusturica’s Underground (original title: Podzemlje). This film won the Serbian auteur the top prize, the Palm d’Or, at the Cannes Film Festival that year. Continue reading
Are You Being Serious? James Franco Still Wants You To ‘Consider This Sh*t’
When A24 first asked Academy Voters to consider James Franco‘s performance as Alien in Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers many, myself included, viewed it as a marketing stunt. Since then however the studio has never stopped believing in the film and the iconic character it managed to create. Last week cult director John Waters singled out Spring Breakers as his favorite film of the year. The film holds a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and also got mostly favorable reviews on Meta Critic. Continue reading
Consider This Sh*t: James Franco Best Supporting Actor
If you’ve seen Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, whether you liked it or not, chances are you remember James Franco‘s crazy performance as Alien the rapper/gangster that bails the lovely ladies out of prison. The film itself also got a lot of praise and critical acclaim as one of Korine’s best films to date and so it is only natural for new distributor A24 to exploit all the good buzz and try to get even more attention by supporting James Franco’s Oscar campaign. In tune with the film’s humor (and language) the provocative, but memorable, slogan is going to be “Consider this shit”, evocative of Alien’s iconic line in the movie “Look at my shit!”.
Personally I think this is more of a marketing stunt than anything else. Their chances of actually getting nominated are slim considering the people they’re addressing (older white folks), but it certainly gets people talking about the movie. Even now that the film is out on home video, the social media marketing on Facebook is still going on, constantly reminding people of the film. I think this is a prime example of film marketing done right and I look forward to finding out how Franco’s campaign works out.
I fondly remember David Lynch campaigning for Laura Dern with a cow, back in 2007, for her stellar performance in Inland Empire. Even if these tentatives aren’t successful they’re fun and inspiring, because these people don’t take themselves (or the Academy) too seriously, but they do so in a loving way. The campaign poster for Franco, showing Alien holding not one, but two statues is pure gold. Stay tuned for more news on James Franco and his Oscar campaign!
Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers (2012)
Faith (Selena Gomez), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Brit (Ashley Benson) and Cotty (Rachel Korine) are four young friends looking for something fun to do on spring break. Everyone seems to be out of town, while they’re still hanging around campus bored to death and with no money. While Faith is busy with her religious group’s meetings, her girlfriends decide to rob the local chicken shack to pony up some cash. After their successful coup they hurry on the next bus to Florida. After days of heavy drinking, casual drug use mixed with spiritual soul-searching, the police shows up and the party is over. With no cash to pay bail, it looks like the ladies are left to rot in prison (for two days), but luckily local gangster and rapper Alien (James Franco) gets an interest in their case. After freeing them from jail, they join him in his convertible, but Faith doesn’t feel very comfortable around thugs and former inmates. Alien is a gentlemen and lets her return home. Candy, Brit and Cotty stay with Alien, but things are about to get crazy as some old gang rivalries resurface. Continue reading
Spring Breakers Posters: The French Do It Better!
Except for the excellent towel poster the American billboard marketing for Spring Breakers was mostly underwhelming and characterized by poor layouts and lazy copy paste jobs, which means basically using unaltered screenshots from the film. Totally unaesthetic if you ask me.
Meanwhile the French marketing team was doing a bang-up job creating a variety of great one-sheets and clever designs. Here is a collection of colorful, neon-dripping, hot poster art. The first two might be fan-made, but the rest sure don’t look like it. Regardless, these look fantastic, and even when they do use images from the film: It’s still a more artful and thoughtful composition compared to the US one.
Spring Break forever!
Tyler Hosley’s new short film ‘Fixation 3: Magical Weed’
Friend Tyler Hosley mostly writes and directs short horror films about trashy redneck and deranged hillbillies (what’s the difference?). His Fixation trilogy, is about one of those character archetypes time-travelling or simply tripping really hard on illegal drugs, depending on your interpretation. While I’ll admit that I am not really a fan of the first two chapters, he definitely has undoubtedly evolved and gotten a lot better by the time he came out with his third one.
Featuring Hosley’s cast regulars Tim & Andrea Hosley and Tyler himself, while adding newcomer Royden Oyarbiden to the family, ‘Magical Weed‘ is a funny and entertaining, surreal time-travel film. Clearly influenced by his favorite directors Rob Zombie and Harmony Korine, he adds his own sensibilities and style to achieve one of his most visually dynamic shorts to date. To enjoy Fixation 3: Magical Weed you don’t need to have seen the previous episodes, although you do get a better understanding on “how” to approach this short. What I appreciate most about his vision, is his enthusiasm and genuine love for art, which clearly permeates all of his work.
black is white 
