THE SMELL OF US
France, 2014, 92 minutes, Colour.
Lucas Ionesco, Diane Rouxel, Theo Cholbi, Hugo Behar- Thiniers, Larry Clark.
Directed by Larry Clark.
In 1995, photographer and artist, as well as film director, Larry Clark, created a cause celebre with his film Kids. It was a portrait of teenagers in New York City, their attitude towards life, some permissiveness, promiscuity, drugs… It alarmed many audiences, especially parents – and, by and large, parents were absent from the film. However, many involved in work with young people, teenagers, youngsters on the street, commented favourably on its presentation of the situations.
In succeeding years, Larry Clark was to make a number of films, which focused on young people, films like Bully and, becoming more explicit in the presentation of sexual scenes and nudity, Ken Park (2002).
20 years later he is back photographing youngsters in Paris, with the same themes, although there are some scenes with parents, some confronting their children, others being deliberately seductive, bizarre presentation of parents and adults. And Clark himself appears as a man on the streets, initially shown as lying on concrete, youngsters on their skateboards jumping over him, sometimes hitting him. They call him Rockstar. Later in the film, he sits with the young people and sings – but not a very sympathetic portrait of an adult.
The film focus on some of the skateboarders, two of them deciding that it must be easy to be male escorts and so go to hotels, use the Internet, and get clients – with some very ugly scenes of sexual encounters, especially a group humiliating a man who has become unconscious with his drink, painting his face, humiliating and ridiculing him. There is also a scene with another of the escorts, this time with a rather more sympathetic older woman who nevertheless exploits the young man
The central character, JP, is alienated from his family (and with the scene with his seductive mother later, it is no wonder) but he makes himself available as an escort, declaring he is not homosexual, and becoming friends with a young teenage girl with whom he has sexual relationships.
However, his close friend, Hugo, is infatuated with JP and is rejected by him, resorting to nude dancing with JP’s girlfriend, sexual encounters on the Internet, masturbation, and, ultimately killing himself.
Larry Clark might be a photographer, but his films do not show that he has a talent for narrative or interesting ways of putting stories together. We are shown sequences, suddenly cut off before they are completed, sudden shifts to other stories, no dramatic momentum or build-up, the closest being to Hugo’s suicide.
In many ways it is difficult to see the target audience for this film. Those interested in Larry Clark’s career will want to see it as a further film in his CV. Others may be pruriently curious and some of this curiosity will be satisfied – momentarily. But other audiences, who would be disgusted with the behaviour that they see, may accept that this is reality but have no particular desire to see it portrayed, especially in this way.
