Film Bombast: Llik Your Idols
After watching BLANK CITY and delving into all the Nick Zedd and Richard Kern I could get my hands on, I decided to check out Llik Your Idols, an earlier documentary on the Cinema of Transgression by writer/director Angélique Bosio.
Unless you (for whatever bizarre reason) have something against ultraviolence- you know, cannibalism, rape, shooting people in the neck at the dinner table, pornographic self-flagellation, drugs, Nazis… you should totally check out this brilliant film movement of late-’70s / early-’80s New York.
Overall, I think it’s worth watching both BLANK CITY and Llik Your Idols. BLANK CITY is better produced, more beautiful, more academic, and more artsy. Llik Your Idols is basically more fucked-up, which is appropriate in the context of the documentary’s content. The latter more thoroughly explores the connection between the Cinema of Transgression to the coinciding No Wave music/visual art movement. It probes more deeply into themes of poverty, violence, horror and the core of humanity’s base urges. Llik Your Idols also features FAR more intense, pornographic, disgusting and violent clips from related films. Which I appreciate.
Plus, there’s a lot of Lydia Lunch in Llik Your Idols, including clips from Fingered, The Wild World of Lydia Lunch, and interviews from 2007. And we all know there’s always merit in listening to Lydia Lunch talk about ANYTHING. Lydia actually dated (“regularly fucked” might be a better description) both of the most prominent No Wave filmmakers- Zedd and Kern. I was hoping to hear more about her relationships with both of them, but all she said on the topic was simply that she and Kern “had the same sickness.” That’s sort of a beautiful way to describe love, no? Having the same sickness. Well, it’s very Lunchian, at least.
In short, if you’re in the mood for death, sex, and generally disturbing DIY film, you ought to watch Llik Your Idols. Oh, and I had never heard of outsider-low-brow-oddity artist Joe Coleman until watching the documentary. He’s pretty cool too.
Nick Zedd- “I think the most patriotic thing you can be is rebellious.” (How very Howard Zinn of him.)
Ribbon Around A Bomb 
Lydia never “dated” or “fucked” R.Kern.
She and I did, though.
“Nick Zedd,” interesting- I’ve read accounts that say otherwise. But… I’m only 25, and I’ll believe anything. Also, thank you for Police State.
x
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