The Smell of Us (2014)

A story centered around a group of self-destructive skateboarders in Paris.

Director:

Larry Clark

Writers:

Mathieu Landais (screenplay) (as Scribe), Larry Clark (screenplay)

Stars:

Lukas Ionesco, Diane Rouxel, Théo Cholbi

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lukas Ionesco	...	Math
Diane Rouxel	...	Marie
Théo Cholbi	...	Pacman
Hugo Behar-Thinières	...	JP
Ryan Ben Yaiche	...	Guillaume (as Rayan Ben Yaiche)
Adrien Binh Doan	...	Minh
Larry Clark	...	Rockstar
Maxime Terin	...	Toff
Valentin Charles	...	Toff's Friend
Haïtham Panunzi	...	Rimka
Eva Menis-Mercier	...	Céline (as Eva Menis Mercier)
Serena Perret	...	Thelma
Louis Robiolle	...	Skater 1
Samy Znimi	...	Skater 2
Anthony Andrzejewski	...	Skater 3

Storyline

A group of skateboarders in Paris are at the heart of a loose coalition of young people who do drugs and have sex. Several of them are rent boys, including the Dorian Gray/Narcissus of the group Math (Lukas Ionesco) and his friend JP (Hugo Behar-Thinieres) who is in love with him, but is continually rejected because Math reckons he's only gay for pay. There's a girl who sometimes comes over and is jealous of JP's closeness to Math, and so she snitches on JP to his parents, and there's an indigent old man nicknamed Rockstar (Larry Clark) whom the group tolerate as a kind of mascot/despised pet. And there's Michael Pitt (who featured in Clark's "Bully") with a guitar in a couple of scenes looking slightly uncomfortable at being so clearly surplus to requirements.

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Plot Keywords:

male frontal nudity | skateboarder | male pubic hair | graphic nudity | male nudity | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

France

Language:

French English Japanese

Release Date:

14 January 2015 (France)

Also Known As:

O Cheiro da Gente

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Box Office

Budget:

EUR3,540,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$87,212

Company Credits

Production Co:

Morgane Production, Polaris Film Production & Finance, Polyester

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The 4th best film in Cahiers du Cinéma's Top 10 Films of 2015. [Nov. 2015]

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Soundtracks

Street Walking Zombie
(uncredited)
Performed by Michael Pitt

User Reviews

Nothing new from Larry Clark

Nothing new from Larry Clark.

The lives and times of a few young skateboarders in Paris. However, their lives consist entirely of skateboarding, getting high and having sex with strangers, sometimes for money...

If you know Larry Clark's work, you'll know he generally likes making movies about young people, with a sleazy angle to it all. This was fine in Kids, which showed the emptiness of their lives, the harmful effects of their actions and how the cycle repeats itself in later generations. Bully was good too, as it had a crime- centred grittiness to it.

However, everything else he has made just uses the Kids formula over and over again. Young people, being depraved.

The Smell of Us certainly follows that formula, to the point that it should be called "Kids in Paris". Nothing new, and doesn't have the profundity that Kids has. It's pretty much sleaze and depravity for shock value sake.

Avoid.