The comforts of madness (Julien Donkey Boy (DVD))

Name: maz

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Product:	Julien Donkey Boy (DVD)
Date:	03/10/00 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Entirely original

Disadvantages: Not for everyone (not a disadvantage, really)

'julien donkey-boy' (yes it is all lower-case) is the latest film from Harmony Korine, who also directed 'Gummo' and wrote the screenplay for Larry Clark's disappointing 'Kids'. It's also the first American film to be made according to the strictures of the Danish Dogme 95 group. Other films in the canon include Lars von Trier's 'The Idiots', 'Mifune' and 'Festen'. The broad idea behind Dogme is to pull movie-making out of the Hollywood rut of excessively artificial spectacle - and with rules such as using only natural light and no props except those found on location, the style of the films recalls classic Italian neo-realism stripped down to the barest essentials. Of all of the Dogme films, 'julien donkey-boy' is perhaps the most original, relying less than the others on conventional narrative technique and themes to present instead a new vision for film-making. It won't appeal to many - the jerkiness of the camera movements, graininess of the look and unblinking gaze at society's freaks and misfits will make this an altogether uncomfortable viewing experience for anyone who's wandered in mistakenly, wanting to see 'Mission Impossible 2'. Considering how few films get made outside this 'interest group', however, this is a real boon.

Korine appears to be the linear successor to both Pasolini and 'Dreamland'-era John Waters at the same time, strange as that may sound. His work combines Waters' delight in non-conformity, freakishness and impossibly skewed family units with a more serious sense of truth and beauty which recalls, to my mind, early Pasolini films.

SPOILER - DON'T READ IF YOU WANT TO SEE THIS

The story here, such as it is, deals with father Werner Herzog and his two sons and one daughter (at least I think it's his daughter!). The mother has died giving birth to the second son, who is a wrestling fanatic. Julien
has problems - we're not sure if he's been institutionalised previously or not, but he's even more whacked-out than the rest of the family. This takes some doing: his sister, played by Chloe Sevigny looking for all the world like Jack Lemmon in drag, is pregnant with Julien's child; his father likes to dance wearing a gasmask and holds forth on everything under the sun, including, hilariously, the poetry of the final scene in 'Dirty Harry'; even the younger brother's ostensibly 'straight' obsession with wrestling isn't as wholesome as he'd like it to be: witness his attack on a 'garbage can' (in the local terminology) and his cowed behaviour in front of Julien and his father in full freak mode. The daughter's pregnancy provides the focus for the devastating ending, although there's a slight sense of compromise here, as it's the only part of the film which recalls traditional narrative technique - but how else do you provide a climax, or even a story at all?

SPOILER OVER

The rhythm of the film jumps all over the place - from sloppy documentary-feel to stills sequences to impossibly precise editing, so you never know quite what's going to happen next. Korine's trademark use of people with real disabilities is on display as never before - blind men ten-pin bowling, an amazing character with no arms and prehensile feet playing drums, a man eating lit cigarette after lit cigarette - but the tone is always celebratory rather than patronising.

The acting's top-level; Herzog is a revelation as the father, while Julien himself is played by Ewen Bremner, who some of you may remember as Spud from 'Trainspotting'. I didn't actually recognise him until the end credits - I thought the actor was a character Korine had 'discovered' on the streets or in a mental hospital, which is testament to the power of his performance. While his 'Trainspotting' co
-stars go on to play himbo roles in career-advancing films with budgets bigger than some countries' GDPs, Bremner demonstrates that he's the only one with any kudos -and any real acting skills - with roles like this. If you like challenging, different cinema, this is unmissable.

Summary: