During a press conference at the Venice Film Festival, a cigar-puffing Harmony Korine advised the U.S. film industry to “encourage the youth” because he believes that Hollywood is starting to “crumble creatively.”
Korine has returned to the festival with his new film Baby Invasion, which is imagined as an ultra-realistic, multiplayer FPS game that follows a group of mercenaries using baby faces as avatars. Tasked with entering mansions of the rich and powerful, players must explore every rabbit hole before time runs out.
Accompanied by his designer Joao Rosa and a green-masked Gaspar Noé, Korine started the conference by lighting up a cigar.
He first discussed the storytelling format for Baby Invasion. He described the film as the “base layer” with “three or four other sub films” coming later for audiences to experience the story from different points of view. He added: “When we release the film, there’ll be a way to watch it through your phone, but there’ll be certain codes within the movie that’ll take you to other movies.”
Korine also touched on the current state of the U.S. film business, saying: “Hollywood needs to encourage the youth, the kids. We’re starting to see Hollywood crumble creatively because they’re losing a lot of the most talented and creative minds to gaming and to streamers.”
He added, “they’re so locked in on convention and then all those kids who are so creative are now just going to find other pathways and go to other places because movies are no longer the dominant art form.”
Korine was last in Venice with his film Aggro Dr1ft in 2023, which premiered Out Of Competition.
