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An Extremely Early Review Of Lars Von Trier's Horror Film, ANTICHRIST!
Beaks here...
As the new year arrives around the globe, here's a review for a film that ought to make a lot of noise later on in 2009. Being that it's from Lars von Trier and is not due out commercially until late summer/early fall, it's practically guaranteed to be "in competition" at this year's Cannes Film Festival - even if it stinks. Happily, our spy in Europe says that ANTICHRIST (starring the instant box office duo of Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) is another triumph from the Danish auteur - which, of course, is no guarantee that many of you won't hate every frame of it.
Our spy also wrote a very long intro, so I'll quickly hand it off to him (if you're scanning, his review of the film doesn't start until the fifth paragraph).
I’ve just seen a very early print of Lars von Trier's next feature, set to premiere on September 11. 2009. A movie that initially annoyed me, when I heard of it, three years ago.
Three years ago I was among those who were baffled to hear, that Lars von Trier wasn’t going to complete his latest trilogy right away. Complete and utterly in love with both his Europe trilogy and his Golden Hart trilogy, I was already getting hard by the thought of how he might finish his latest, the American trilogy. Dogville being one of my all-time favorites I initially worried as the mom of a junkie, that he couldn’t continue this trilogy without Kidman. But Manderlay proved that Lars can make anybody act radiantly to a degree were you want buy a rubber finger and cheer as if your life depended on it. Which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s seen Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves or Björks performance in Dancer in the Dark! Also loving Manderlay, and Bryce Dallas Howard in it, I couldn’t wait for the third installment of the Americana trilogy. Was he going to make Wasington with neither Bryce or Nicole, just one of them or perhaps with both? And what would the overall moral point of the trilogy be? So I was very disappointed when I learned he was going to postpone the final chapter, or maybe drop it altogether. Instead of Wasington we were promised a straight forward, no crazy rules or messing about, horror, starring major Hollywood actors. At first the idea bored me, but slowly my disappointment vanished in the hope that this could possibly be the final breakthrough, that would make LvT the household name I’ve always felt he deserves to be. Something that he’s seemed to avoid on purpose through his whole career.
After making the Europe Trilogy back in the eighties, where he perfected his esthetic brilliance, Lars was headhunted by Spielberg and the likes to do Hollywood movies. But refusing to direct anything he hadn’t birthed himself, he missed this opportunity to reach a larger audience. And instead of continuing his visual style, that had made him a festival darling, he decided to go in the opposite direction, writing and directing the handheld-shot TV horror-series Riget (the Kingdom). He continued this visual technique in his next feature, Breaking The Waves, which won him the Grand Jury prize at the Cannes Festival. But being pissed he didn’t win the Golden Palm, he famously “dropped” the prize while leaving the stage. While not winning him the prizes he felt it deserved, Breaking the Waves won him a new audience. Still an artsy audience, but larger and certainly more mainstream than his old following. And now the world wanted to show whatever he put out, and therefore he decided to make the second series of Riget for one of the smallest markets on the planet: Danish television. Subsequently he founded “dogme95” and made the intensely brilliant “Idioterne” (the idiots), and after this, the mainstream audiences seemed to have forgotten about him again. Except the likes of me, who were just reaching the right age to begin opening their eyes to less mainstream movies, and were blown away by The Idiots. A movie that was brilliant on so many levels, that you didn’t even have time to fully judge whether you actually liked the movie or not. Inventing Dogme95, a movement all about “spassing” with the conventions of moviemaking, and then writing and directing a movie about people spassing as humans in social context, while not crediting yourself as the director – is just too much for me to even comment on. Then he made Dancer in the Dark, a musical so grim and dark in its themes that it was sure to make anybody depressed. Dancer won him the Golden Palm, and now he was on everybody’s lips again. He got Nicole Kidman for the lead in his next feature, and just when I thought there was no way around getting the mass appeal I felt he deserved, he announced that he was going to let his next trilogy be played out on a soundstage, with chalk outlines as the only set pieces. And at the same time, he decided to call it the American Trilogy, thus pissing off anyone who had been pissed of that Dancer in the Dark took place in America, even though von Trier, due to his phobia of flying, has never been there.
It seems there is always some kind of controversy surrounding von Triers movies, which clouds his brilliant subtexts. This always bothered me, although I know that he does this very knowingly. A true provocateur. At the same time, the controversy is what’s fun about being a von Trier fan. So was antichrist going to be any different, although we had been promised a straight forward horror? To anyone who has seen his straight forward comedy (and not many has) The Director of it All from 2006, that question is easy to answer: No.
In short, Antichrist is about a psychiatrist, played by Willem Dafoe, who decide to take his wife, played by Charlotte Gainsbourgh, to the one place she fears the most, to help her overcome the grief of their son's accidental death. That place is Eden Forrest, where they have a small cabin, where she once wrote a thesis about the persecution of witches in the middle ages. While trying to understand why such tragedy could happen to them, the couple opens their eyes to the possibility that the nature of the world is to be evil. And more so, that the nature of humans is evil. And without giving away too much, I can tell you that her thesis comes to play a major part in their discovering. And although this was the first screening of Antichrist ever, before any effects, before its initial editing was supposed to end, before any major sound-editing and so on, Lars von Trier's way of showing the evils of nature was extremely beautiful. Never has anything this gruesome been shown in such a poetic way. A beauty I haven’t seen in a von Trier movie since his Europe trilogy. But the movie was also a tour-de-madman, into von Triers viewpoint on the human nature. Although the style was very atypical of late von Trier and very atypical of early von Trier, it sort of mixed the two von Triers, and everything on screen SCREAMED von Trier. Already in the six minute opening sequence of the movie, which was filmed with a high speed camera and shown in super slow motion, black and white images, to opera music, the movie denied itself of any chances of getting an MPAA rating less than NC-17.
Initially being just another movie about someone going to a cabin far from civilization and then coming in contact with something supernatural, Trier excels and makes it a beautifully poetic movie, with so much written between the lines that I am not going to pretend that I fully understood it all after this first viewing - much like the before-mentioned The Idiots. Luckily Antichrist also worked on its own terms as a horror movie, and while it didn’t scare me as much as I hoped it would, it made me physically ill, due to gruesome content that borderlines gore, except it seems to artsy to be allowed such a label. But I mean gruesome!! Take Hostel and mix it with The Piano Teacher, and you’re close to an idea of what you have in store. And I am positive that the final edit, and the special effects and sound departments will do the trick, and the fright-factor will be upped for the final cut. In all circumstances, this is a movie to look forward to, if only for the tour-de-madman into the fucked up mind of von Trier that will leave you shaking your head in disbelief of what you are witnessing – even if you’re a LvT fan, who expects the unexpected.
Antichrist is a brilliant mixture of the old Trier and the new Trier. Intensely beautiful pictures that speaks more than a thousand words, but also content and subtext that speak a million words of their own. I seriously doubt this film will make him a household name, but I have hopes that this will be one of his biggest hits. The gore alone will make it a hit with certain audiences, but still the story has so much depth and finesse, that it could be a contender for some major awards.
Anyways, I can’t wait to see it again.
Happy new years from this anonymous Dane.
"HOSTEL meets THE PIANO TEACHER!" There's your pull-quote, future distributor.
Three years ago I was among those who were baffled to hear, that Lars von Trier wasn’t going to complete his latest trilogy right away. Complete and utterly in love with both his Europe trilogy and his Golden Hart trilogy, I was already getting hard by the thought of how he might finish his latest, the American trilogy. Dogville being one of my all-time favorites I initially worried as the mom of a junkie, that he couldn’t continue this trilogy without Kidman. But Manderlay proved that Lars can make anybody act radiantly to a degree were you want buy a rubber finger and cheer as if your life depended on it. Which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s seen Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves or Björks performance in Dancer in the Dark! Also loving Manderlay, and Bryce Dallas Howard in it, I couldn’t wait for the third installment of the Americana trilogy. Was he going to make Wasington with neither Bryce or Nicole, just one of them or perhaps with both? And what would the overall moral point of the trilogy be? So I was very disappointed when I learned he was going to postpone the final chapter, or maybe drop it altogether. Instead of Wasington we were promised a straight forward, no crazy rules or messing about, horror, starring major Hollywood actors. At first the idea bored me, but slowly my disappointment vanished in the hope that this could possibly be the final breakthrough, that would make LvT the household name I’ve always felt he deserves to be. Something that he’s seemed to avoid on purpose through his whole career.
After making the Europe Trilogy back in the eighties, where he perfected his esthetic brilliance, Lars was headhunted by Spielberg and the likes to do Hollywood movies. But refusing to direct anything he hadn’t birthed himself, he missed this opportunity to reach a larger audience. And instead of continuing his visual style, that had made him a festival darling, he decided to go in the opposite direction, writing and directing the handheld-shot TV horror-series Riget (the Kingdom). He continued this visual technique in his next feature, Breaking The Waves, which won him the Grand Jury prize at the Cannes Festival. But being pissed he didn’t win the Golden Palm, he famously “dropped” the prize while leaving the stage. While not winning him the prizes he felt it deserved, Breaking the Waves won him a new audience. Still an artsy audience, but larger and certainly more mainstream than his old following. And now the world wanted to show whatever he put out, and therefore he decided to make the second series of Riget for one of the smallest markets on the planet: Danish television. Subsequently he founded “dogme95” and made the intensely brilliant “Idioterne” (the idiots), and after this, the mainstream audiences seemed to have forgotten about him again. Except the likes of me, who were just reaching the right age to begin opening their eyes to less mainstream movies, and were blown away by The Idiots. A movie that was brilliant on so many levels, that you didn’t even have time to fully judge whether you actually liked the movie or not. Inventing Dogme95, a movement all about “spassing” with the conventions of moviemaking, and then writing and directing a movie about people spassing as humans in social context, while not crediting yourself as the director – is just too much for me to even comment on. Then he made Dancer in the Dark, a musical so grim and dark in its themes that it was sure to make anybody depressed. Dancer won him the Golden Palm, and now he was on everybody’s lips again. He got Nicole Kidman for the lead in his next feature, and just when I thought there was no way around getting the mass appeal I felt he deserved, he announced that he was going to let his next trilogy be played out on a soundstage, with chalk outlines as the only set pieces. And at the same time, he decided to call it the American Trilogy, thus pissing off anyone who had been pissed of that Dancer in the Dark took place in America, even though von Trier, due to his phobia of flying, has never been there.
It seems there is always some kind of controversy surrounding von Triers movies, which clouds his brilliant subtexts. This always bothered me, although I know that he does this very knowingly. A true provocateur. At the same time, the controversy is what’s fun about being a von Trier fan. So was antichrist going to be any different, although we had been promised a straight forward horror? To anyone who has seen his straight forward comedy (and not many has) The Director of it All from 2006, that question is easy to answer: No.
In short, Antichrist is about a psychiatrist, played by Willem Dafoe, who decide to take his wife, played by Charlotte Gainsbourgh, to the one place she fears the most, to help her overcome the grief of their son's accidental death. That place is Eden Forrest, where they have a small cabin, where she once wrote a thesis about the persecution of witches in the middle ages. While trying to understand why such tragedy could happen to them, the couple opens their eyes to the possibility that the nature of the world is to be evil. And more so, that the nature of humans is evil. And without giving away too much, I can tell you that her thesis comes to play a major part in their discovering. And although this was the first screening of Antichrist ever, before any effects, before its initial editing was supposed to end, before any major sound-editing and so on, Lars von Trier's way of showing the evils of nature was extremely beautiful. Never has anything this gruesome been shown in such a poetic way. A beauty I haven’t seen in a von Trier movie since his Europe trilogy. But the movie was also a tour-de-madman, into von Triers viewpoint on the human nature. Although the style was very atypical of late von Trier and very atypical of early von Trier, it sort of mixed the two von Triers, and everything on screen SCREAMED von Trier. Already in the six minute opening sequence of the movie, which was filmed with a high speed camera and shown in super slow motion, black and white images, to opera music, the movie denied itself of any chances of getting an MPAA rating less than NC-17.
Initially being just another movie about someone going to a cabin far from civilization and then coming in contact with something supernatural, Trier excels and makes it a beautifully poetic movie, with so much written between the lines that I am not going to pretend that I fully understood it all after this first viewing - much like the before-mentioned The Idiots. Luckily Antichrist also worked on its own terms as a horror movie, and while it didn’t scare me as much as I hoped it would, it made me physically ill, due to gruesome content that borderlines gore, except it seems to artsy to be allowed such a label. But I mean gruesome!! Take Hostel and mix it with The Piano Teacher, and you’re close to an idea of what you have in store. And I am positive that the final edit, and the special effects and sound departments will do the trick, and the fright-factor will be upped for the final cut. In all circumstances, this is a movie to look forward to, if only for the tour-de-madman into the fucked up mind of von Trier that will leave you shaking your head in disbelief of what you are witnessing – even if you’re a LvT fan, who expects the unexpected.
Antichrist is a brilliant mixture of the old Trier and the new Trier. Intensely beautiful pictures that speaks more than a thousand words, but also content and subtext that speak a million words of their own. I seriously doubt this film will make him a household name, but I have hopes that this will be one of his biggest hits. The gore alone will make it a hit with certain audiences, but still the story has so much depth and finesse, that it could be a contender for some major awards.
Anyways, I can’t wait to see it again.
Happy new years from this anonymous Dane.
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+ Expand All
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2009 will suck! Celebrate life!
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just sayin
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Any original horror (especially coming from a director like von Trier) now a days is more than welcome by me. AND it has Willem Dafoe in it. Yeah, I can't wait.
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As if he's been putting off making that extremely lucrative artsy NC-17 existential horror film his entire career. Fates be damned! Lars now must accept his mantle as the next Spielberg!
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I'M LARS VON TRIER MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!! YOU TALK DURING A BRAD PITT MOVIE I'LL BLAST YO ASS!! POP!! POP!!
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Cut to the chase, Tolstoy!Anyway, sounds interesting. Willem Defoe's never been in a bad film. Who am I kidding, he's been in a shitload of bad films. But he's a great actor.
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This sounds like a winner to me. I'm adding this to my growing list of FILMS TO SEE 2009.It replaces the space that WATCHMEN has left.
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You've come a long way, Mini Me.
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Is awesome. Any horror fan should check that one out and forget about Stephen King's remake.
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A shame it will never be finished.
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Dec 31, 2008 12:47:30 PM CST
Are there any reviewers who are NOT fucking in love with themsel
by landrvr1
Honest to Christ.
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I'd be interested to read a review by someone not so close to Von Trier's work. To say "it's just so VON TRIER!" is not going to encourage anyone to see this.
Von Trier fell off my radar after his third "provocative matryr-film". A challenging director is one thing; a director who holds me contempt is something else. -
any point to them at all?
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....why else would someone find their personal opinion important enough to feel the need to share it with the masses?
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Yay! I love Von Trier's stuff. He's brutal and he's brilliant.
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The dipshit makes movies that bash America and its citizens, while admitting that not only does he know little about the country, but he's never visited it nor has any desire to -- he simply doesn't like it. Hmm, let's see -- why don't I make movies about how fucking worthless Denmark is, and what shitty people Danes are, while being completely ignorant of my subject? Lars, I don't give a shit if you want to criticize the U.S. (or any other country), but don't proudly proclaim that you're making "art" out of your fucking ignorance and preconceptions, twatwad. As for Dogme95, it's one of the most asinine sets of filmmaking "rules" ever conceived -- having an entire film be hand-held doesn't make it more "realistic" -- if anything, it's a distancing effect making the audience acutely aware of the camera and its operator every moment of the movie, and it's annoying as hell. But what do you expect from a Dane? I don't know anything about them as a people, or much about Denmark, but my gut feeling as a brilliant American artiste is that they're idiots and their country is stupid, so that's what I'm gonna run with in my movies. Hurray -- now I'm as astute as Lars Von Trier! [P.S. The preceding was sarcasm, for the humor-challenged here on AICN.]
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Because he used "Young Americans" in the ending credits of Dogville? Ooookay? Sensitive much?
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His films are just way too much art for the sake of art. It's like he doesn't make movies for the audiences, but for the critics. And not the "normal" critic, but the wannabe-intellectual critic who even searches for a deeper meaning in a Michael Bay movie and writes a 20 pages long essay about how Bay uses explosions to make a comment on the rise of feminism in the 1950's, even if there is absolutely no such thing as subtext in it. I'm still surprised how he managed to make lazy ass dilletantic filmmaking an aknowledged artform.
But damn, this new movie sounds very interesting. -
...I'd claim this person hasn't seen the film at all. An official synopsis was turned up in the last couple of days and almost all of the info here is to be found there. The only other piece of info at all is mention of the slow-motion opening. This could either be invented or found elsewhere online.
Not found it elsewhere online yet... have any of you? -
The guy has done terrific horror, like THE KINGDOM, and the most pretentious crap like MANDALAY and DOGVILLE.
So, let's see what he does with this. -
Read the last paragraph only. Works every time.
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the Faber & Faber submission site.
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No thanks.
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Then you'll understand his anti-U.S. comments, which he's made repeatedly. Again, I don't care if he wants to criticize the U.S. -- God knows we've got a fuckload of issues that need to be fixed -- but Von Trier, don't attack something out of ignorance, 'cause you just come across as a tool. FYI, my wife and I have traveled all over the world (Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa), and we're always astonished at how many non-Americans literally believe that every Hollywood movie and TV show they see paints a completely accurate picture of the U.S. Say what you want about the ugly, ignorant American tourist (and we've seen plenty of them, believe me), but the picture that a lot of non-Americans have about the U.S. is astoundingly inaccurate, especially if they've never visited the U.S. To them, the entire country is filled with gang violence, where men in Miami Vice-wear (or cowboy gear) openly carry handguns in the streets and drive fast red sportscars, and women are blonde, bikini-clad, and walking on endless beaches. 15 years ago, some friends of ours from Belgium -- a young couple who've traveled all over the world, and are reasonably intelligent and informed -- visited us in San Francisco. We were driving them around the city, showing them the sights, when Jacques (the guy, of course), asked, "Will we see cars chasing each other up and down these streets, with people shooting at each other?" My wife and I laughed, and thought he was joking, and he got annoyed -- he was SERIOUS. I am NOT kidding you -- this well-traveled Belgian literally thought that he had a more-than-reasonable chance of seeing a car chase with gunfire in San Francisco, because he had seen it so often in the movies and on TV. Yep, Americans are derided as ignorant by a lot of people around the world, but don't try to tell me that Europeans or any other non-Americans are inherently well-informed about the U.S. unless they've spent a decent amount of time here.
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The fact that you felt forced to add a disclaimer makes me weep.
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The woman ends up getting tortured.
Lars Von Trier's attitude to women and depiction of them in his films is despicable. BReaking the Waves is so unbelievably offensive I can't believe that it wasn't intentional
Apart from being a woman-hater, he's also a smart-arse and a know-it-all.
That whole Dogme thing can fuck off.
Man I can't think of another director who infuriates me so much!! -
Dogville is the most dull and pretentious movie I've ever seen. I had the misfortune of viewing it at the Toronto Internation Film Festival several years ago and it was by far the worst moviegoing experience I've ever had. If you've never seen the film it's segments are separated with chapter headings. After about Chapter Five every time a new heading appeared there was an audible groan from the audience as I believe we'd all hoped the previous chapter would be the last. The only glimmer of quality or hope, in my opinion, was when James Caan showed up to wipe out the miserable inhabitants of the most boring yet evil town in "America". Bauhaus does not belong on film. I think the only reason no one got up and outright left the film during the screening was because Nicole Kidman was in the audience and they didn't want to appear rude. An utter waste of time, suited only for overly "artistic" film school students and over-indulgent wannabe filmmakers. FUCKING DOGVILLE. ARGH.
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Dec 31, 2008 2:11:03 PM CST
Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark were both good too.
by future help
just saying...
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Do you have links to them? I'm just looking at his work, most of which has been brilliant (if long winded). Nothing in any of his films, at least the ones that I've seen, seem necessarily anti-American (more like anti-Everyone). He does seem anti-Hollywood though. But, again, so is everyone from the most elitist culture snob to knuckle-draggin' gun-totin' religious redneck dipshit. I don't think any of his alleged anti-American statements will make me change my mind about his movies.
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Pure and simple, likes to TORTURE actresses...Just go look up how he simply fucked with Bjork because he got off on it. His films are simplistic garbage wrapped in a "arty" shell to cover up his hateful opinions. Ever notice how EVERY SINGLE ONE on Von Trier's films ends with a woman debasing herself in some way? That's the way he looks at the world, period...which is why he's happy to run a porn company on the side. As for his American Trilogy, and his opinion of my country, yes, there is a lot of fucked up shit that goes on here. However, if you're gonna be high and mighty, and look down your nose at us, ALL OF US, I suggest you turn off your torture porn, pull your fat ass away from your semen-stained sheets, and actually take the time to vist our country and see that Americans are just as human as anyone else.
Fucking prick. -
Not to knock the poor guy too hard for just trying to talk about a movie, but at one point it seemed like he was using the word "Von Trier" the way the Smurfs use the word "Smurf."
"Although the style was very atypical of late von Trier and very atypical of early von Trier, it sort of mixed the two von Triers, and everything on screen SCREAMED von Trier."
Wow.
I wonder how much more awesome would that sentence be if instead of using "Von Trier" he instead used "Van Halen." Maybe *this* awesome:
Although the style was very atypical of late Van Halen and very atypical of early Van Halen, it sort of mixed the two Van Halens, and everything on stage SCREAMED Van Halen. Rock on! -
Who would even think to ask for such a thing?! What madman?! WHAT DEMON?!?!?!
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His anti-American feelings are well-documented, as is his refusal to visit here. What bugs me more is how ignorant his analysis of America seems to be. Dancer in the Dark, though it has brilliance and inspiration, is ultimately pretentious in my mind, and though it is set in Washington State, it doesn't feel like America at all. Nothing about any of his recent films appeals to me at all.
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Got it.
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A link? One link? Just one where he is quoted as saying anything negative about America or Americans. Anyone? C'mon people back your statements up, don't just parrot whatever some paranoid right wing blog made up back before their movement imploded. Help me. I'm curious. I wouldn't be surprised, but I've seen no proof of these alleged statements.
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And its all done Dogme95 style!
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Either that or the writer had a mouthful of LarsCock© when he wrote it.
Jeebus.
MT
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but damn, it sounds interesting.
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Dad's 'anti-Dutch' sentiment.
That said, I agree with him. Admiral Nelson needs more misspellings and the transposition of pronouns, but his ranting style polemic is worthy. I would take up arms in order to bludgeon his opposition to death. Would you consider a move to Commandant? -
You know it in your heart to be true.
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...Enjoy
http://tinyurl.com/a5vhna
http://tinyurl.com/6t8emh
http://tinyurl.com/8gjndh
http://tinyurl.com/8negel
http://tinyurl.com/8rzbs4
http://tinyurl.com/9lsjyz
http://tinyurl.com/9h973j
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Great friggin movie. It layers an interesting story on top of 2 parallel metaphors that seem totally separate but end up tying together beautifully.
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I can so imagine him writing that as a joke and sending it in while off his face on vodka.
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obama? anything else will not do
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....
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Dec 31, 2008 5:27:56 PM CST
Dogville and Dancer in the Dark some of the worst films ever..
by quantize
laughably silly and pretentious wank..
Von Trier pretty much apologies for Dogville himself on the DVD extras. -
It was a deeply moving look into religious psychosis. *spoiler* the chimes at the end signifying she was a Saint was brilliant, because she was.
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...that came up with this one?
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Yous sometimes have to tke the Gut with der Evil!!!
Happy New Year All!!! -
It makes me sad to hear the discourse on here framed completely in terms of "my country doesn't suck - YOURS DOES!" Whether Von Trier dislikes America or not, anyone interested in examining the pros and cons of human nature, regardless of what country it happens to take place in, would find plenty to chew on in Dogville and Dancer in the Dark. Whatever country it happens to be in, from a sociological or psychological standpoint, nothing in those movies is a stretch. People should try to learn more about their species. It's fascinating.
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Never heard of Trier, but I can't wait to see the amazing Charlotte Gainsbourg in this. I'd wade through a lake full of alligators for a date with her.
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von trier likes to experiment, sometimes it back fires. sometimes i like to smear jelly on my balls. im going to see this film.
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he's anti-American? Oookay. Maybe he's anti-racist? Sorry to break it to you, but America has a rich, disturbing history with racism. Seems fair game to me. So does Europe, of course. Would it had been okay if he made a movie about, say, anti-semitism in Europe? Would that be anti-Europe or anti-Racist? Still think many of you are being a little sensitive around the patriot-hole. Later on some of the quotes about feeling that he's a part of some all-encompassing American media barrage leans towards being anti-American, but on that point I also kind've agree. I'm an American and I feel like I'm living in a non-stop media barrage of mediocrity and manufactured desires 24/7, so I can kinda relate. I don't know if thats an American export, though, as much as it is a function of a global capitalist system that all countries take part in.
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Hail Santa! (I'm dyslexic.)
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so we put a von trier in your von trier so you can von trier while you von trier.
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Pedophilia and coprophilia. I read Portrait of an Englishman in his Chateau and felt my innocence sapped away. I can't believe European countries harbor that kind of filth that seeks to offend on every level for the sake of 'art'. When did art become about being provocative only in degenerate ways?
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"But Manderlay proved that Lars can make anybody act radiantly to a degree..."
Howard's acting was awful in Manderlay. -
As in, the God that created our reality was an evil God?Or, with talk of effects work, will this be another Omen movie?
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It seems that a lot of people like Von Trier because it makes them seem "Deep" or "Intellectual". Everyone is so into his perspective. He's a documented bipolar shut-in!! He is a chemically imbalanced asshole that enjoys torturing his actresses. He's so deep yet he thorws a public tantrum at Cannes for not winning the grand prize. Give me a fucking break. This next movie could have a 10 minute scene of Willem Defoe taking a nasty shit and guys like this reviewer will praise it to the heavens.
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I read the last paragraph and, yeah, I think I got the full picture. Thanks.
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Sheesh!
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Jan 01, 2009 7:58:10 AM CST
Dancer in the Dark and Dogville are pretty fuckin brilliant.
by knuckleduster
Few films I know of have ever managed to have such a strong effect on an audience. Von Trier may be a prick, but he's a damn talented one. Also, why are people upset about a film about America not being shot in America? Hollywood does it all the time. Casablanca wasn't shot in Morocco, motherfuckers. (Was it?)
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Jeezus, context is fine, but talk about the effing movie!
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Too much HOSTEL meets anything out there already, in my opinion.
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ONE-TWO-THREE-FOUR-FIVE-SIX-SEVEN-EIGHT...K-I-N-G-D-O-M!!!
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Sorry if I am too purile for the Danes but damn me if his craptastic opus with the white mannequin Nicole Kidman wasn't a condescending oeuvre of shitism and his equally fecal fantastic film with Bryce 'I can act but I damn ugly' Howard didn't make me want to whack him in the head with a big black dildo. This sounds like crap and again a movie that few will watch, none will revisit except that shy guy in the corner who has about 5 scripts he wishes someone would make but consoles himself that no one in his lifetime gets his pain and glory. I remember this stupid Dogma95 crap back in the day and thought it was the utmost pretension then, that he is still around and still doing it is really sad, Von Trier make a movie about the sound of one hand clapping.
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You're still not getting it, even after multiple people here have explained it to you. Von Trier has made movies (and repeated public statements) attacking a country, its people, and its culture while admitting that he's DELIBERATELY IGNORANT of what he's criticizing! That's not "art," that's not intelligence -- it's astounding arrogance and willful stupidity. If you'd bothered to read any or all of those interview links posted above, this fact would be obvious, because Von Trier actually admits it. I can't imagine the backlash that an American director would get if he made a series of films attacking, say, France, because he personally dislikes the country, yet admitting that he doesn't actually KNOW much about France or its people, has never visited, has no desire to visit -- yet still feels that he has to lambaste them, because they "upset him" all the time. Any director who made statements like that would be dismissed (correctly) as a fucking moron. It doesn't make any difference what the subject is -- anyone who persists in criticizing things they know nothing about, while admitting that they don't really WANT to educate themselves about the subject that obsesses and upsets them, is an ignorant bigot, period. Hope this is finally clear to you.
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Don't like all his films or his opinions, but anyone who can garner this much thought and attention (negative or positive) is making interesting art. I hope he keeps making films that most people consider "pretentious" because it's nice to have a filmmaker out there who wants to use the medium in ways that will go over most people's heads.
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That strong effect Von Trier's work brings out in an audience is boredom and an immense desire to pour a warm bath and open one's wrists. At least in the case of Dogville.
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But I'm not sure that that's what makes something magnetic ...
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So I gather you're not a fan then.
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Nice work.
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Willem Dafoe is my favorite fake Jesus.
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or eli roth. HAHAH i love how we havent seen that name in months at this site. looks like harry finally got the memo
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This review is so weird. It's like a direct transcription of one of those hour-long "the making of ___" shows. Could've done without the long overenthusiastic overview of all his previous movies. Still, I'm curious about the prospect of a Von Trier horror movie, and this one sounds pretty cool. I disagree that he's a mysoginist - I think he over abuses women in his films, but it's not because he hates them. It's because it's one of the easiest ways for him to manipulate and access the audience's emotions. I think his uninformed anti-americanism is basically used for the same purpose - to push buttons, but, that he actually does hate American politics and culture. He's sort of hit and miss for me. I loved the Kingdom and The Idiots (in the idiots his compulsion to manipulate the audience works really well) but I hated Dogville and Europa. Dogville was so heavy handed and condescending, it was hard to take sericously. Dancer in the dark was just brutal, though - I knew I was being jerked around, but Bjork was so good, and real, it was just heartbreaking. Oh, yeah, and his short film about people talking during movies is hilarious and everyone should see it.
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AHAHAHA WHO'S LAUGHING NOW!?
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Easily the most disturbing film I have ever and will ever see.
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