Gummo

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Movie
German title Gummo
Original title Gummo
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1997
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Harmony Korine
script Harmony Korine
production Cary Wood
music Randall poster
camera Jean-Yves Escoffier
cut Christopher Tellefsen
occupation

Gummo is an American film directed by Harmony Korine , who also wrote the screenplay, from 1997 .

action

Xenia, Ohio , was devastated by a tornado in 1974 and has not recovered from it twenty years later. The episodic plot shows the often harsh life of some of the mostly young residents of the small town. Left to fend for themselves in a world in which adults are “alcoholics, rapists, pornographers, prison brothers, insane”, but mostly simply absent, they “hang around on concrete verandas, shoot cats with air guns, sniff glue, feed on corn dogs and Milkshakes ”and“ playing in the shade of their stunted family trees ”.

Production background

Gummo was shot primarily in little-changed, authentic locations in the slums of Korine's hometown of Nashville . Similar to the film Kids , which is also based on a screenplay by Harmony Korine , most of the actors had little or no acting experience - among the 40 cast members were only four professional actors: Jacob Reynold, Linda Manz, Chloë Sevigny and Max Perlich. Nick Sutton (Tummler) had caught the director's attention in an issue of the tabloid television talk show "Sally Jessy Raphael" entitled "My child died from sniffing paint"; other actors were childhood friends and acquaintances of the director or were cast in the pre-production phase on the streets, in fast food restaurants or bowling alleys of Nashville.

Chloë Sevigny also designed the costumes for the film by her then friend Korine.

Soundtrack

The film music comes mainly from bands from the metal subculture; are represented among others Bathory with the song Equimanthorn , Sleep with the song Dragonaut , Mystifier , The Electric Hellfire Club , Absu , Burzum and Nifelheim . Some pieces were recorded or edited exclusively for the film. You can also hear Madonna's Like A Prayer , Roy Orbison's ballad Crying and a historical field recording of the children's song My Little Rooster sung by folk singer Almeda Riddle .

reception

Gummo divided the critics, some highly rated the film, others found it tasteless. Among other things, he was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize at the Venice International Film Festival . The film was often perceived as provocative. As an example, VA Musetto wrote for the New York Post that Gummo was “not a film for cat lovers”: “Like an attention-seeking child, the smartass desperately wants to be direct - insult and provoke. And he's doing a damn good job of getting it done. "

Director Werner Herzog praised Gummo and called it a "science fiction film" that shows with "tender eyes" the consequences of the loss of soul and spirituality. Gus Van Sant found the portrayal of American small-town life "refreshingly realistic and poignantly dreamy".

The film service , on the other hand, wrote rather skeptically: “A deliberately provocative view of the American province full of formal experiments, where sadness and wretchedness are exhibited rather than made an issue. A panopticon whose arsenal of characters is shown mercilessly. ”Richard Williams from the Guardian praised the camerawork of the film, but was disappointed overall: The film did not look realistic and the view of director Korine on his characters seemed“ cold-hearted ”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Felicia Feaster: Gummo . In: Film Quarterly . 52, No. 2, pp. 41-43. doi : 10.2307 / 1213273 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Gus van Sant: Forward. Official Website for Gummo (1997). harmony-korine.com, accessed January 24, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Werner Herzog: Gummo's Whammo. Interview with Harmony Korine (November 2011). harmony-korine.com, accessed January 24, 2020 .
  4. ↑ VA Musetto: LOCK UP YOUR CATS! IT'S 'GUMMO'! In: New York Post. August 29, 2004, accessed October 17, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Gummo. Retrieved October 17, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Gummo | Reviews | guardian.co.uk movie. Retrieved October 17, 2019 .