Themes: Fathers and Sons, Mind Games, Sibling Relationships
Main Cast: Ewen Bremner, Chloë Sevigny, Werner Herzog, Evan Neumann, Joyce Korine
Release Year: 1999
Country: US
Run Time: 94 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
In his second directorial effort, writer/director Harmony Korine embraces the hyper-realist aesthetic of Lars Von Trier's Dogma 95 film movement, which mandates handheld photography using only available lighting, among other restrictions. As in the controversial Gummo (1997), Korine abandons traditional narrative for a series of vignettes about bizarre characters, in this case centered on Julien (Ewen Bremner), a schizophrenic who works in a school for the blind. Julien lives at home with his pregnant sister Pearl (Chloe Sevigny); his brother Chris (Evan Neumann), who wrestles in his spare time; and their violent father (Werner Herzog), who slaps his children around, hoses them down with water, and offers to pay Chris ten dollars to dress up in his late mother's clothes and dance. Eventually Julien escapes from his home and interacts with people on the street (some of whom, reportedly, were not professional actors and had no idea that Bremmer was an actor playing a scene). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
More exhausting than elucidative, the follow-up to Gummo finds writer/director Harmony Korine again mining his tropes of dysfunction, disease, and depravity. This time, however, he foregoes much of the surreal comedy and visual punch of the earlier film. With a title character loosely based on the director's own uncle, it's no surprise that Julien Donkey-Boy seems to have more sympathy for its protagonist than Gummo did for the majority of its hapless characters. Yet the endless badgering of Werner Herzog's gas mask-wearing father, the ceaseless procession of outre supporting characters, and the banal brutality of almost every interaction -- all these elements quickly grow tiresome. That's not to say the film is without its moments. In the title role, Trainspotting alum Ewen Bremner gives a fearless performance that sometimes even verges on goofy charm, while Chloe Sevigny exudes determined serenity in a series of pastoral and domestic interludes. The scene in which Sevigny's tender sister pretends to be Julien's mother, telephoning from beyond the grave, is as sad and amusing as it is strangely sweet. Yet too much of the 90 minutes between the shockeroo opening scene and the overwrought conclusion simply meanders, caught up in its own lackadaisical transgression. Despite Korine's adoption of the Dogma 95 manifesto and the input of some of that movement's leading lights (cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, editor Valdis Oskarsdottir), Julien Donkey-Boy proves as muddy visually as it does conceptually. Too little happens, what does happen is almost uniformly unpleasant, and all of it is filmed in deliberately ugly digital video. The result is a film that upholds its director's difficult reputation, but not the squalidly beautiful promise of his debut. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Chrissy Kobylak - Chrissy; Alvin Law - Neighbor; Will Oldham - uncredited
Credit
Lori Eastside - Casting, Kerry Barden - Casting, Billy Hopkins - Casting, Suzanne Smith - Casting, Harmony Korine - Director, Valdís Óskarsdóttir - Editor, Kathy Ciric - Location Manager, Jim Czarnecki - Line Producer, Richard Rutkowski - Camera Operator, Anthony Dod Mantle - Cinematographer, Cary Woods - Producer, Scott Macaulay - Producer, Robin O'Hara - Producer, Brian Miksis - Sound/Sound Designer, Jeff Ward - Stunts Coordinator, Manny Siverio - Stunts Coordinator, Harmony Korine - Screenwriter, Tevin Adelman - Production Assistant, Elisa Deutsch - Production Assistant, Steve Rubin - Production Assistant, Tom Efinger - Re-Recording Mixer, Michael Taylor - Script Supervisor, Michael Ginsburg - Still Photographer, Melissa Lintinger - Production Accountant
Julien Donkey-Boy is an avant-garde1999independentAmericandrama film directed by Harmony Korine. The screenplay concentrates on the schizophrenic Julien, played by Scottish actor Ewen Bremner, and his dysfunctional family. The film also stars Chloë Sevigny as Julien's sister, Pearl, and Werner Herzog as his father. Julien Donkey-Boy is the sixth film to be made under the self-imposed rules of the "Dogme 95" manifesto, and the first non-European film to be made under the Dogme 95 "vow of chastity".
The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 1999, and received a limited release in Los Angeles at a single cinema on October 15, 1999; the film showed for a month's time at the Los Angeles theater, and grossed a total of $80,226 by that November.[1] It was, however, given a wide theatrical release in European countries the following year, particularly in France and the Netherlands.
The film is about a dysfunctional family consisting of Julien (Ewen Bremner) a young man with untreated schizophrenia, his sister (Chloë Sevigny) who is carrying his child, his brother (Evan Neuman) and his domineering, German father (Werner Herzog).
Writer-director Harmony Korine attempts to show the world through Julien’s eyes: a schizophrenic kaleidoscope of images — some hauntingly beautiful, some disturbing and violent. It was the first American film made in accordance with the Danish filmmaking manifesto Dogme 95. Shot on handheld digital video, the film was transferred to 16mm stock before being blown up to 35mm film for the final print. Korine used this unique method to give the film a low-definition degraded look.
Dogme 95
Korine broke a few of the Dogme 95 rules in making the film. For example, Dogme 95 stipulates that all props must be found at the location of filming. Julien's dead baby is a prop found in the maternity unit of the hospital where the scene was shot; it was used by the nurses there to practice pre-natal CPR. Also, all the camerawork is supposed to be handheld, but this film uses hidden cameras, technically not handheld. Murders are forbidden, but the film opens with a murder. There is also non-diegetic music in the ice-skating scene (Oval's "Mediaton" from Systemisch), although it sounds like it alternates between diegetic and non-diegetic use. And finally, the director must not be credited; Korine is credited (however, the film only gives his name — it does not say "directed by Harmony Korine", just "Harmony Korine").
Despite these major transgressions, the original Dogme 95 committee endorsed Julien Donkey-Boy. In an interview on the Epidemic DVD, Lars Von Trier, Dogme 95 co-creator, lauded Korine's ability to interpret the rules creatively.
Release and reception
Following the film's release in Venice, it hit Los Angeles, playing at a single cinema from mid-October to early November of 1999, grossing a total of $80,226 on a single screen- it was never released theatrically anywhere else in the United States. Critical reaction to the film was mixed, with much of it being negative.
Empire Magazine said that "Despite some creditable performances, Korine's bizarre, shambling direction renders the result less ground-breakingly experimental than rectum-numbingly dull."[2] Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle called the film "A self-indulgent mess."[3]
Despite a sense of negative reaction to the film, it was praised by some critics. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review, saying the film attained a "depth of compassion and understanding ... [it] acquires a spiritual dimension that allows it ultimately to become an act of redemption".[4] Additional praise for the film came from Chicago Sun Times film critic Roger Ebert, who gave the film 3/4 stars, saying that "[The film] adds up to something, unlike a lot of movies where individual shots are sensational, but they add up to nothing"; Ebert did, however, note that the film had a very limited audience: "The odds are good that most people will dislike this film and be offended by it. For others, it will provoke sympathy rather than scorn. You know who you are".[5]
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