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LARRY CLARK’S XXX

A new movie by Matthew Barney and other artists that's playing at the Los Angeles Downtown Film Festival is so graphic that it took four years to get U.S. distribution. Craig Stephens on the art world's cause celebre.

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Marina Abramovic, 2005
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The first of the films features an observation of old Balkan Rituals. The movie's narration describes various sexual actions that members of the Balkan culture performed. Acts include a Balkan man drilling three holes into a small wooden bridge and simulating intercourse . Another portrays multiple men lying nude on the ground simulating intercourse with small holes in the soil in an attempt to help fertilize the ground before planting their annual crops.

Marina Abramovic, 2005
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In the shortest of the films, Brambilla presents a collage of pornography scenes from a number of various movies. Through quick edits and a drum soundtrack, the scenes are cut so the perception is that one action is happening.

Marco Brambilla, 2005
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Barney’s film opens with a slug-like creature covered in leaves, dirt, and other debris. After some time the images begins to move; it becomes apparent that it is a penis and growing erect. A man is seen rubbing his erect penis against a wax-coated deforesting machine, ultimately ejaculating on it.

Matthew Barney, Photo: Chris Winget, 2004
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A young man, seated on a couch answers questions about his penis size, sex life, and the effect of pornography in his sexual mentality. Throughout the interview, other males take his place, answering the same questions. The interview of the men (shown one at a time) are interchanged as all of them strip nude in front of the camera. At the end of the interview process, the young man winds up with an older actress who is willing to have anal sex with him.

Larry Clark, 2005
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We Fuck Alone holds a warning that a strobing effect is used and should not be viewed by individuals with medical conditions. It portrays a young woman in the midst of a masturbation session. She is watching a pornography film on television as she lies on a couch. She eventually simulates oral sex using her large stuffed teddy bear. She shoves the bear into her exposed crotch. She climaxes.

Gaspar Noé, 2006
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House Call takes a scene from an older 70's pornography film and replaces the soundtrack. It appears as though the movie is being played on an older television, with the camera hovering directly in front of the screen. A voluptuous blond woman lies in bed and a doctor appears. In the midst of the check-up, the doctor and patient begin to have intercourse.

Richard Prince, 2010