DVD Review: Llik Your Idols

Llik Your Idols

DVD Released: 2007
Approximate Running Time: 75 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Rating: NR
Sound: DD Stereo
Subtitles: None
DVD Release: MVD Visual
Region Coding: Region 0 NTSC
Retail Price: $19.95

The Film

It was the eighties and punk was becoming New Wave. A group of film makers decided to set the world on its ear and auteur Nick Zedd coined the phrase ‘transgressive cinema’. With names like Richard Kern, Lydia Lunch and Nick Zedd, these people took the standards of film making and threw them out the window. It was more of getting a reaction in a world that was fighting an uphill battle against the calming effects of Reaganomics. These were people who had something to say and weren’t afraid to say it.

Llik Your Idols was the five year project of French film director Angelique Bosio. She immersed herself in the counter culture that still exists in New York today. Became a part of it and gave us this document of people who changed the way that people would look at cinema forever.

With lengthy interviews with the aforementioned along with the likes of Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and Joe Coleman, to name a couple, Bosio shows us a group of people who knew what they wanted to say, had a partial grips on the basics of film making and wanted to shock the world. Now, they look back on what they have done and see if it made a dammed bit of difference.

I have always been a fan of Transgressive Cinema. I can remember seeing Richard Kern’s Hardcore and being amazed at what was on screen. I sat through Zedd’s Geek Maggot Bingo and while most people revile that film, I see what he was doing. They shot their films cheap and dirty. Just the filming process alone gave the film a look that would be impossible to replicate today.

Sure, there are a lot of people out there doing things that rebel against the norm of society today. People like William Hellfire, Bill Zebub and many more. But they have it easy. Shooting on videotape and having the internet to ply their wares and get the message out there on a much grander scale. These people had to shoot in the worst conditions, get the film developed and peddle their asses out on the street to get their films seen. And the works shows. They seem more emotionally invested in what they have created and this documentary shows some of that fire that still lies with them.

Bosio has created the definitive documentary on a genre of cinema that goes largely ignored by the masses of today.

Transfer And Audio

This was probably shot on video so it looks as good as you would come to expect for that kind of thing. The huge amount of clips look as grimy as the day they were made and that’s how they should look.

Extras

We get two Nick Zedd shorts. The Infamous Police State and the bizarre and incomprehensible War Is Menstrual Envy. Also a nice interview with the director is included.

Overall

If you are a fan of Transgressive Cinema, then this is a must have for you. If the names Lydia Lunch and Nick Zedd ring a bell then this is something you might want to check out. But, be warned, this stuff will either enthrall you or repel you. There is no middle ground with Transgressive Cinema.

Review by Douglas Waltz