THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

For me at least, you can never look at something and find it wholly beautiful, or wholly disturbing.  When people accuse me of being interested in things that are ‘grotesque’, there are so many arguments in there that I don’t understand.  I mean, I’m attracted to girls with scars on their faces.  I like girls with missing limbs.  I always have.  I’m sexually attracted to that.  So a lot of times, what people consider to be grotesque, I’m really aroused by.  But I also like the idea of making things a bit more confusing.  I think what’s gross about a lot of movies now is that things have been so simplistic and so one-way.  They exist on a very even plane.  If you’re making a film about life, based on some kind of truth, it’s much more complex.  And you can take something that’s supposedly grotesque, an ugly image, and you can beautify it, shooting it in a certain way or adding some lovely music to it, making the image so much more emotionally complex.

Harmony Korine in Kelly/Dogme