Larry Clark's fascination with fear and danger has always been intriguing to me. In his new film Marfa Girl, we discover it in a new light. This time, in a tale of a 16-year-old boy growing up in MARFA, it is soft and deeply moving but dark forces still strike with no remorse. I was dazzled by the beauty of the light and the climate of the Texan town, which has inspired many filmmakers and artists. The film can be viewed only on www.larryclark.com, where you can stream it for 24 hours for $5.99. Larry agreed to video chat with OC over Skype. Find out what he had to say about his latest project below.
Alexandre Stipanovich: Hi Larry, where are you now?
Larry Clark: I'm in New York City; I've lived in this loft for 32 years.
AS: Congratulations on Marfa Girl, I was just able to watch it. It seems like the film is built on a sequence of encounters (either forced, consenting, or naturally occuring) with a sexual ending, and with the desert as a backdrop––a place that separates the U.S. and Mexico, two very different worlds. Can you tell us about this choice?
LC: That's a good question! I wrote this film myself, without talking to any writers. Writers tell me there are certain rules to writing––things you can do; things you can't do. And I said I didn't want to hear any of that shit, I was just going to put in the film what is real and interesting to me. I've never thought of the film the way you described it, but I guess it's true. My interest was to show the reality of Marfa––the racism, life, and being a teenage kid and trying to navigate through this maze around you.
All the characters are composites of people I've known throughout my years. I was writing in free form in the morning, and then filming, so I was kind of making it up as I went along. If something wasn't working, I would change it on the spot and say, "Let's try this," to the actors. The actors would listen to me and do exactly what I wanted them to do––they were fearless. Sometimes it was just things I had thought of on the spot. But most of the time, it was ideas I had sketched out and written. But as far as structuring it the way you said, where it ends with the sex, it wasn’t really conscious. I wanted only to put in what I liked and leave everything else out––structures be damned.
In certain parts of the film, the characters stop and tell stories, like the spiritual healer and Anna's mother, Mary. One talks about the death of her cat, the other talks about the death of her bird; it's very emotional and very real. And then the end of the film moves very quickly, like a freight train. Actually, the train is one of the characters in the film because in Marfa, this train goes by and we'd be lucky to get it on film. Like at the end, when Adam is trying to get home in the middle of the night, the train goes right past him––that was pure luck.
In the one scene when he walks to school, the train goes by across the tracks to get into town. Well, that was the one day the train didn't come by––we waited four hours for the goddamn train! And we're waitin', waitin', waitin', then finally it came. Just as we were about to give up––we had dinner brought out to us. But other than that, the trains seemed to be coming by constantly. [Laughs]
So the end of the film moves along so fast and all these questions are left unanswered. What happens next? The end is a cleansing, a spiritual healing, and in the last shot of the film I just stay on Adam and Mercedes, who plays his girlfriend. Both of them actually turn 16 in the film. Adam
Alexandre Stipanovich: Hi Larry, where are you now?
Larry Clark: I'm in New York City; I've lived in this loft for 32 years.
AS: Congratulations on Marfa Girl, I was just able to watch it. It seems like the film is built on a sequence of encounters (either forced, consenting, or naturally occuring) with a sexual ending, and with the desert as a backdrop––a place that separates the U.S. and Mexico, two very different worlds. Can you tell us about this choice?
LC: That's a good question! I wrote this film myself, without talking to any writers. Writers tell me there are certain rules to writing––things you can do; things you can't do. And I said I didn't want to hear any of that shit, I was just going to put in the film what is real and interesting to me. I've never thought of the film the way you described it, but I guess it's true. My interest was to show the reality of Marfa––the racism, life, and being a teenage kid and trying to navigate through this maze around you.
All the characters are composites of people I've known throughout my years. I was writing in free form in the morning, and then filming, so I was kind of making it up as I went along. If something wasn't working, I would change it on the spot and say, "Let's try this," to the actors. The actors would listen to me and do exactly what I wanted them to do––they were fearless. Sometimes it was just things I had thought of on the spot. But most of the time, it was ideas I had sketched out and written. But as far as structuring it the way you said, where it ends with the sex, it wasn’t really conscious. I wanted only to put in what I liked and leave everything else out––structures be damned.
In certain parts of the film, the characters stop and tell stories, like the spiritual healer and Anna's mother, Mary. One talks about the death of her cat, the other talks about the death of her bird; it's very emotional and very real. And then the end of the film moves very quickly, like a freight train. Actually, the train is one of the characters in the film because in Marfa, this train goes by and we'd be lucky to get it on film. Like at the end, when Adam is trying to get home in the middle of the night, the train goes right past him––that was pure luck.
In the one scene when he walks to school, the train goes by across the tracks to get into town. Well, that was the one day the train didn't come by––we waited four hours for the goddamn train! And we're waitin', waitin', waitin', then finally it came. Just as we were about to give up––we had dinner brought out to us. But other than that, the trains seemed to be coming by constantly. [Laughs]
So the end of the film moves along so fast and all these questions are left unanswered. What happens next? The end is a cleansing, a spiritual healing, and in the last shot of the film I just stay on Adam and Mercedes, who plays his girlfriend. Both of them actually turn 16 in the film. Adam