Larry Clark doesn’t care if you’re comfortable. He never has. From the gritty, grainy needles of Tulsa to the cultural explosion of Kids in 1995, the man has built a career on making people want to look away while simultaneously staring. But then there is The Smell of Us. Released in 2014, it wasn't just another entry in his filmography. It was a Parisian nightmare that felt like a breaking point for many critics and fans alike.
Most people remember Kids for Chloë Sevigny or that hauntingly bleak ending. The Smell of Us is different. It’s slicker but somehow grosser. It follows a group of self-destructive teenage skaters in Paris who spend their days at the Trocadéro, drifting between skating, drugs, and selling their bodies to older men. It’s nihilistic. It’s arguably exploitative. Honestly, it’s a lot to handle in one sitting.
The film serves as a spiritual successor to his earlier work, but the change in scenery from the streets of New York to the shadow of the Eiffel Tower changes the vibe entirely. It's colder.
The Messy Production Behind The Smell of Us
You can’t talk about this movie without talking about the chaos behind the scenes. Clark famously clashed with his screenwriter, Sacha Sperling. Sperling was only 23 at the time and had written a buzzy novel called Mes illusions donnent sur la cour. He was supposed to be the "voice of youth" for the project. Instead, the two ended up in a creative war. Sperling eventually distanced himself from the final product, claiming that Clark basically threw out the script to favor improvisation and shock value.
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That shows.
The narrative is thin. Very thin. It feels less like a structured story and more like a collection of moments—some beautiful, most disturbing. You’ve got Math (Lukas Ionesco), a kid who seems to have everything but wants to destroy it all. There’s Marie (Diane Rouxel), caught in the middle of a toxic web. And then there is "The Rockstar" (Michael Pitt), a character who feels like he wandered in from a different, even weirder movie.
Why the Critics Hated (and Sometimes Loved) It
When it premiered at the Venice Days section of the Venice Film Festival, the reaction was polarized. That's a nice way of saying some people walked out and others called it a masterpiece of raw cinema. Variety and The Hollywood Reporter weren't particularly kind. They pointed out what many feel is Clark's obsession with "youth" that, by 2014, started to feel less like documentary-style realism and more like a creepy fixation.
But here is the thing: Clark is a photographer first.
The cinematography in The Smell of Us is undeniably striking. Hélène Louvart, who has worked on brilliant films like Never Rarely Sometimes Always, handles the camera. She captures the light of Paris in a way that feels both romantic and decaying. It’s that contrast that keeps the film from being totally unwatchable. You’re looking at these kids who are essentially falling apart, but the sun is hitting the pavement just right. It’s a trick Clark has used for decades.
The Reality of the Skater Subculture
Is it accurate? Sort of.
Clark actually spent months hanging out at the Trocadéro before filming. He recruited real skaters off the street, not polished actors from an agency. This gives the film an authentic texture that Hollywood usually fakes. The way they talk, the way they hold their boards, the bored look in their eyes—that’s real.
However, the "prostitution for drug money" angle feels dialed up to eleven. While youth exploitation exists in every major city, the film treats it as an inevitability of the lifestyle. It’s a bleak worldview. Clark seems to suggest that if you give a kid a skateboard and a smartphone, they’ll eventually end up in a hotel room with a stranger. It's a leap.
The Digital Age and Modern Alienation
One thing The Smell of Us gets right is the role of the camera. In Kids, the characters were just living. In this film, they are constantly recording themselves. They are performing.
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The internet changed the way Clark’s subjects interact with the world. There’s a scene where a character records a sexual encounter just to watch it back immediately. It’s meta. It’s Clark acknowledging that his own lens is part of the problem. Or the solution. He’s never been clear on which one it is.
The film also features Clark himself in a role. He plays "The Rockstar's" father, or a version of an aging creep, depending on how you read it. It’s a self-aware move. He knows what people say about him. By putting himself in the frame, he’s basically daring the audience to judge him.
Technical Breakdown and Visual Style
- Format: Digital, which contributes to that "found footage" or "Vlog" feeling in certain sequences.
- Location: Exclusively Paris, specifically around the Palais de Tokyo and the Trocadéro.
- Soundtrack: A mix of aggressive electronic music and indie rock that heightens the feeling of a permanent, exhausting party.
The pacing is deliberate. It’s slow. Some might say boring. It mimics the aimlessness of the characters’ lives. If you’re looking for a plot with a beginning, middle, and end, you’re in the wrong place. This is a mood piece. A dark, sticky, uncomfortable mood piece.
Is It Worth Watching Today?
Honestly? Only if you have a strong stomach and an interest in the history of transgressive cinema.
It’s not "fun." It’s not "enlightening" in a traditional sense. But it is a fascinating artifact of a specific time in French youth culture as seen through the eyes of an aging American provocateur. It represents the end of an era for Clark. Since this film, his output has slowed down, and the conversation around ethics in filmmaking has shifted significantly.
In the MeToo era, a movie like The Smell of Us would likely struggle to get financed. The power dynamics between the director and the young, non-professional cast are fraught with questions that 2014 wasn't quite ready to scream about yet.
Actionable Takeaways for Film Students and Buffs
If you’re planning on diving into Larry Clark’s filmography or studying this specific era of independent film, keep these points in mind:
- Compare and Contrast: Watch Kids (1995) and then The Smell of Us. Look at how the presence of technology changes the "innocence" of the characters. In the former, they are unaware of the world. In the latter, they are hyper-aware of their own image.
- Study the Lighting: Pay attention to Hélène Louvart’s work. Even if you hate the subject matter, the way she uses natural light in Parisian urban spaces is a masterclass for cinematographers.
- Research the "Non-Actor" Method: Look into how Clark finds his casts. It’s a controversial technique that involves "street casting." It brings a level of realism that is impossible to replicate with SAG actors, but it comes with heavy ethical baggage.
- Check the Soundtrack: The music is often the best part of Clark's films. It acts as a time capsule for what was "cool" in the underground scene at that exact moment.
The film remains a polarizing landmark. It’s a reminder that cinema doesn't always have to be "good" to be significant. Sometimes, it just has to be loud, ugly, and impossible to ignore. Whether you think it’s art or filth, it’s a pure distillation of Larry Clark’s career-long obsession with the friction between beauty and self-destruction.