On The Set Of 's cinematic New Wave to emerge since '70s Julien Donkey-Boy Germany. In fact, when I ring up Harmony the day of my arrival, he informs me that Werner Bruce Labruce / Index / May - June 1999 Herzog himself has been cast as the father of Chloe Sevigny and , It was Herzog "Dear Ass Fucker," begins a recent e-mail to who championed to a top prize at the yours truly from one Harmony Korine, the Kids before it was egregiously scribe and Gummo who, if reduced to a ignored in America. (I hereby issue a fatwa against mathematical equation, might be described as the that harridan Janet Maslin, whose scandalously spiritual great-grandchild of any one of the Marx ignorant review of Gummo in The New York Brothers, divided by Orson Welles circa his War Times all but demolished its US distribution.) Of The Worlds broadcast, times your cool whigger Sevigny is, of course, Korine's radiant muse, and rapper of choice. "I don't know how you guys do who could forget the other and currently far more it that way," he continues blithely. "In the ass interesting, non-McGregor Ewen in Mike Leigh's seems like such a brutal action for men who are Naked, screaming "Maggie" forlornly on a damp too weak to hold up their wrists." Here, here. And street corner, his head twitching convulsively. In with that one off-hand remark, Harmony nails the the same conversation, Harmony also tells me a essential paradox of homosexual existence. How I little secret: that he has won a certain literary cherish him. award - the identity of which I can't reveal - for his first novel, A Crack Up At The Race Riots . I first met Harmony at the Park City International Personally, I prefer his other book, The Bad Son , a Film Festival in 1995. As the poor boy was too one thousand copy limited edition printed in young to buy alcoholic beverages for himself, I Japan, exclusively featuring hundreds of his half recall that my friend D-J and I kept on buying naked photos of MacCauley Culkin. It's truly a him modified Long Island Iced Teas. We kept remarkably modern artifact: has-been child star shoving them under his shnozzola, as one of kiddy porn. The tragic Culkin, so ravishing with Harmony's great heroes and role models, Jimmy his bee-stung lips and porcelain skin in Korine's Durante, would say. sublime music video for 's song "Sunday" was at one point, along with his little Who knew then that only a few short years later, brother Kieran, attached to julien , but bailed, as on assignment for Honcho magazine, I would be did Leo the Lost, no doubt owing to a bout of shooting a handsome Puerto Rican porn star gout. named Tyger Tyson of Latino Fan Club fame, avec formidable hard-on, in Harmony's midtown Having reputedly rejected several famous apartment? A frequent visitor to Riker's Island, cinematographers for julien , including Wong Kar the naked Mr. Tyson was surprisingly cooperative Wai's d.p. Chris Doyle ("Those movies look like as Harmony and I snapped away enthusiastically shit," carps the always candid and competitive Ñ why he even deigned to pose with the banjo! Korine), Harmony has finally settled on Anthony But when Harmony suggested that our model be Dod Mantle, who shot The Celebration. You see, photographed holding a pair of rare Harmful has been designated, by no less a records, I thought the jiggy may have been up: personage than Lars Von Trier, as the only Tyger akimboed his arms and leaned away from suitable American member of , the us in a "step back" posture. Happily, violence was Danish filmmaking group which has produced a averted and the shoot continued smoothly. So manifesto called the "Vow of Chastity." Among successful it was, in fact, that my editor requested its many bizarre prohibitions, the "Vow" eschews that Harmful and I essay another spread on my the use of tracking shots, black and white film, most recent trip to New York. But as the Boy studio sets, props which are not indigenous to the Wonder was smack dab in the middle of shooting location, extraneous narrative devices (fake his latest directorial effort, julien donkey-boy , I knew violence, guns, etc.), and music which is not he wouldn't have time. Instead, I suggested to suggested directly by the setting. The filmmakers index a report from the set of Harmony's new who sign the manifesto are also expected to keep movie. Although Harmony readily agreed, I knew credits to a minimum, or even eliminate their own it wasn't going to be easy. But then again, it never director's credit, to be celibate during shooting, is. and to wear a white lab coat with "Dogme 95" written on the back while directing. The films can I dutifully book two weeks in New York be shot in any format, but must end up on commencing the day that Harmony is scheduled Academy 35mm stock. to start shooting Julien, his first foray into the wild world of Dogme 95, the most significant The "Vow of Chastity" also declares that its proponents should no longer identify themselves which are always pandemonium. I begin to get the as artists. Although it's always a good idea for an sinking feeling that maybe this isn't going to artist every once in a while to announce that he is happen at all, but I nonetheless start up a cell no longer an artist, there is one type of artist who phone relationship with Diane, his personal never goes out of style, the category which assistant, to see if I can insinuate myself onto the obviously bonds Von Trier and Korine so closely: set on Thursday. Meanwhile, I think I may be the bullshit artist. And I mean that strictly as a coming down with the influenza that is knocking compliment Ñ it's a club to which I like to think I everyone out, and have to hold it off through hold at least a provisional membership. sheer will power. Regardless, Harmony's association with Dogme 95 has also garnered some more tangible fruits: On Wednesday, Diane informs me that Thursday although julien is gamely being produced by is no good, so I begin to lobby for Friday. It's Gummo funder (who also produced possible, she tells me, but she'll have to get back Godzilla - go figure), Harmony has been invited by to me tomorrow. I remind her that I'm returning Von Trier to Copenhagen to use his post- to Toronto on Monday afternoon, and as there is production facilities, effectively upping his million to be no shooting on weekends it will probably be dollar budget by about fifty percent. my last chance. On Friday, Diane calls to tell me that it is a particularly heavy day with several Incidentally, Harmony's aptly named, ongoing location changes, and Harmony would prefer if I video project, Cinema Of Cruelty - in which a came on Monday. I almost begin to think I'm hidden camera records the auteur harassing getting the bum's rush in melody. I call Air people in the street until they get annoyed and Canada and inquire if I can get a later flight on beat the shit out of him - is already, it seems to Monday; they inform me that I can fly stand-by if me, the heart and soul of Dogme 95. (After the I get to the airport before seven. melee, Harmony explains the point of the exercise to the unsuspecting participants who, remarkably, And so it is that I find myself on Monday in most cases, agree to sign a release.) In one afternoon on the way to the set of Julien via A recent episode, Harmony emerged with a black New Day car service with my luggage in tow. You eye, bruised ribs, a sprained ankle, and a night in see, the location is somewhere in the outer limits jail under his belt. How's that for conviction? of Queens, so it's only logical for me to drop by on my way to LaGuardia. I'm given a set of Anyway, to make a non-story short, discovering directions rivaling It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World that Harmony's shoot has been postponed by one in their intricacy: take the Midtown Tunnel to the week, I set out on my usual Kafkaesque trajectory Long Island Expressway to the Van Wyck, take in New York, obfuscating the line between the first exit and stay in the left lane, take a left at business and pleasure until neither applies. I hang Jewel Avenue, which is also called Harry Van out with my dear friend Tom International, A-list Arsdale Road, continue past the overpass, take a Russian call boy and one of the stars of my latest right on Main Street, a left on 77th Road... You movie, Skin Flick , who introduces me to various get the picture. Thing is, somewhere along the members of the Velvet Mafia. I shoot, with the line I seem to have contracted a dire case of assistance of index's own Chris Buck, another diarrhea - it must have been that New York tap Puerto Rican porn star, this one named Cobra, water. Of course the driver gets us hopelessly lost also for Honcho, posing him on crutches and (we find 77th Terrace, 77th Avenue - everything with a tensor bandage on his knee against a but 77th bloody Road) and there I am in the lavender backdrop. I meet Jack Walls, former backseat with my legs and eyes crossed having to lover of Robert Mapplethorpe and subject of go really badly and struggling to pull the map into perhaps his most famous photograph, "Man in focus. After driving around in circles for a half Polyester Suit." Jack kindly installs me in the hour or so we finally get lucky and reach our apartment of Parker Posey, who is out of town. It obscure destination of desire. feels strange to repose in Miss Posey's bed while conducting my own little Parker Posey film I notice a couple of unmistakable film production festival on her VCR. And everyone who hears types hanging around outside a modest attached where I'm sleeping wants a pair of her panties. brown brick house. I hobble toward them, lugging my luggage. It's Harmony's Grandma's On the Sunday before my second week in New House, one of the film's locations and currently York, I call up Harmony and ask if I can visit the the production headquarters. The actual day's following day. He informs me that the first day of location is a barren, muddy field between this shooting is now slated for Tuesday, and that I neighborhood and the projects several hundred won't be able to visit the set on the first two days, yards away. The crisp, business-like First A.D. greets me with a warning not to be too obtrusive, professionally. Little does he know that he will as a good First A.D. should. Then out of the soon find himself half-submerged in a cold mud house pops the Dogme Boy himself, Harmony hole, the SAG rep hovering nervously in the Korine. He looks exuberantly haggard in his background. winter gear - it's bitterly cold for the exterior shoot today. He's sporting a brand new pair of The size of the crew and the general atmosphere size 15 boots with the price tags still on them, of the shoot is refreshingly modest for a million which the production has bought for him to dollar-plus movie - definitely not, thank Christ, replace his perennial sneakers. With his cowlicked the scaled-down hierarchical Hollywood system hair, baggy attire, and over-sized clodhoppers, he needlessly adopted by most American indie looks like a kid playing dress-up in adult clothing. productions. As the entire picture is being shot in His security chapeau attached to a dummy string digi-beta and within the relatively austere slung around his neck as well as a wool cap atop restraints of the Dogma, the crew has been kept his head only adds to the effect. And as the down to a very manageable and mobile fifteen. director will also once again appear in his own Although Harmony speaks of the Dogme "rules" movie, I suppose it's only appropriate that he is with a certain irreverence, I get the impression literally wearing two hats. that both the director and his d.p. take aspects of it quite seriously. When I ask Dod Mantle about I give Harmony a hug and say, sotto voce, "I have his lighting for the interiors, he tells me that they diarrhea." It reminds me of the time that a really are using only practicals as much as journalist friend of mine happened to be on the possible, and indeed he is loathe to move or rag when she was suddenly dispatched to conduct manipulate even the existing lighting of a location, an interview with La Streisand at the diva's otherwise, he says, "What would be the point?" I luxurious digs. The journalist blanched when she also overhear him complaining about the was ushered into the receiving room, furnished in soundman on another Dogme project who was Arctic White. After the interview, as the story manipulating the sound during a scene, as goes, she left behind a little crimson reminder on opposed to the straightforward live sound mix one of the settees, which caused Ms. Streisand- that is being used in the making of julien . Purists Brolin to go into convulsions. Harmony's they are to a degree, so I mischievously ask response to my pronouncement is much more Harmony if he is wearing his Dogme 95 labcoat pragmatic, and wholly in keeping with his under his parka. He says he's not, but confesses process-oriented art:"I should put that in my that they have already shot one scene in their movie," he says. (Not to compare in any way skivvies. menstruation with diarrhea, although as a homosexual I might be granted some leeway.) I discover that some scenes will be covered by as many as twelve cameras - the number 4 on the After using the facilities, Harmful introduces me slate designates the number of cameras being used to Mr. Dod Mantle, a friendly, rugged man with in this particular scene. Apparently, Harmony and the unmistakable confidence and bravado of a Dod Mantle had a field day at a surveillance and director of photography. They are about to shoot espionage store which rents state-of-the-art spy the crucial opening scene of the movie, taking equipment. In the scene with Ewen and the kid, advantage of the "magic hour," that most elusive, both actors are rigged with miniature, virtually diffusive time of day just before the sun goes invisible cameras on their chests, and wired for down, which God invented especially for remote sound on their backs. The director and filmmakers. In the scene, a bewildered Ewen the d.p. each cover the action with lightweight Bremner happens upon a pudgy young boy with digi-betacams from a distance with long lenses. glasses playing with a turtle in a wooded area. He The technique requires quite a bit of time to rig, eventually strangles him to death in the mud. The but once everything is set, the actors are free to unfortunate victim is played by a show business move around and improvise without having to veteran named Brian Fisk who, his father - a worry about lights or booms or hitting marks. I larger, decidedly less cuddly version of his suspect there will be a lot of improvisation, since offspring - informs me, has appeared in over forty the script of Julien, inspired by the story of the commercials and feature films, including the job director's schizophrenic uncle, reads like an epic, of stunt-kid on Stepmom. Just before shooting meandering poem. begins, I attempt to snap a picture of the bespectacled boy, who has a Piggy in Lord Of The Owing to technical difficulties with the sound, the Flies aspect, but he shields his face and cries, scene is delayed as the sun nudges down below "No!" When I explain to him that it's for a the horizon. "Fuck the sound, let's shoot MOS - magazine, however, he says, "Oh," and poses we're losing the light," decrees Dod Mantle. The cameras roll and Ewen walks somnambulistically toward the fat kid holding one of the turtles, which were transported to the set in a beer cooler half full of water. After a brief conversation, Ewen suddenly grabs the kid and throws him headlong into the mud, flailing at him wildly with both hands. As if the whole city is in collusion, an eerie silence follows - no sirens, no distant voices, a strange lapse of street noises - out of which emerges Ewen's odd laugh, then his cries for deliverance. As the sky offers a brilliant sunset that even Hollywood couldn't contrive, I can't help but think this movie has been blessed.

Afterwards the crew converges in Harmony's Grandma's little house, trying to confine its muddy boots to the path of green plastic garbage bags gaffer-taped to the wall-to-wall carpeting. Grandma Joyce sits brightly in a comfortable chair, poodle in her lap, taking it all in. She informs me in broken English and I assume Yiddish that Harmony's father gave her the pooch as a present at the cost of one thousand dollars. She proudly shows me childhood pictures of Harmony and his older brother and younger sister. I snap photos of Harmony with his Grandma. I tell him to look suitably demented, but then I say, "forget it, you already look demented enough."

Harmony and Ewen and Anthony gather around the portable monitor to look at the day's footage. They peruse the fruits of their labour, discussing it animatedly. In one shot, from the boy's point of view, a huge drip of snot hangs off Ewen's nose, which looks amazing. "I'm good with snot," he remarks proudly.

I get the location manager to call me a car service and miraculously make it to LaGuardia just in time to catch my plane back to Toronto. I can't wait to see julien when it's finished. My only regret is that I didn't get to witness the ineffable Chloe Sevigny in action. After all, she and Harmony are the Jack and Anjelica of the future.