Doesn't Cut It

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As much as I'm looking forward to Lars von Trier Antichrist, which will presumably play at next month's Cannes Film Festival, this just-posted trailer isn't very good. It has a kind of jagged off-rhythm and on-the-nose quality that doesn't feel right. It suggests, however accurately or inaccurately, that the film, clearly a kind of forest-primeval horror piece, is on the crude side and dependent on cheap "boo!" cuts. Von Trier should give it the hook, fire the people who cut it, and make a better one.

On 3.24 I summarized Antichrist as being about "a married couple (Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg) grieving over the death of their son. Dafoe's character is a therapist. They retreat to a cabin in the woods and eventually run into all sorts of horrific manifestations, which are at least partly based in their psychologies. Because Lars von Trier doesn't do horror-for-horror's-sake."

A day later I ran a photo that seemed to identify the inspiration for Von Trier's use of a Dante-esque image of writhing bodies and tree roots -- i.e., Henry Otto's 1924 silent Dante's Inferno.

My favorite Antichrist observation, however valid or loony, came from an IMDB poster: "It was originally a horror film about a demiurge" -- a deity responsible for the creation of the physical universe -- "but now it's a horror movie about two bankable actors in a forest with a few trained animals."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on April 14, 2009 at 5:17 AM

comment #1

Calraigh Bracken says ...

In fairness , for a below-par trailer, it's pretty great. I agree, it's a bit too pristine and schlocky but I'm damned if I'm not excited about it.
I think I've loved everything Von Trier has ever produced and I hope this lives up to it's potential.

Posted by Calraigh Bracken at April 14, 2009 5:55 AM

comment #2

JD says ...

Bankable actors? Talented, yes. Bankable, definitely not. Anyway, this trailer looks like a calculated attempt to generate sales interest before the movie's unveiled at Cannes. Nonetheless, it also appears to contain all the Von Trier trademarks, including requisite nods to Dreyer and Bergman. Of course, any of the conventional simplicity of this trailer will be replaced by mindbending complexity in the movie itself. Von Trier is one of the few directors whose work is thrilling, ambitious and impressive even when it fails.

Posted by JD at April 14, 2009 6:01 AM

comment #3

JT says ...

...and he fails more than he doesn't.

Posted by JT at April 14, 2009 6:24 AM

comment #4

Bob Violence says ...

The quality of a von Trier film is inversely proportional to its budget, so keep your expectations low

Posted by Bob Violence at April 14, 2009 6:42 AM

comment #5

Noah Redfield says ...

For all his talent and risk-taking, I don't trust Lars Von Trier. When I watch his films, I always feel like he is beating me down with miserable images for no other reason except to depress the hell out of me. That said, this sounds a little more interesting and I will be giving it a chance when it comes out.

Posted by Noah Redfield at April 14, 2009 7:06 AM

comment #6

actionman says ...

Breaking the Waves is a masterpiece but nothing else that I have seen of his has hit me like that one film did.

Posted by actionman at April 14, 2009 7:23 AM

comment #7

JT says ...

I know when I get paralyzed in an industrial accident, I will tell my wife to become a whore and get raped and murdered so I can walk again. Genius!

Posted by JT at April 14, 2009 7:44 AM

comment #8

erniesouchak says ...

Except for "The Boss of It All," which is actually pretty funny, I've found LVT's movies to be torturous. If I see this, it will be for the actors.

Posted by erniesouchak at April 14, 2009 7:55 AM

comment #9

Bob Violence says ...

Epidemic and The Kingdom are pretty funny too.

Posted by Bob Violence at April 14, 2009 8:12 AM

comment #10

Mark says ...

This looks like reverse torture porn where the director gets off on torturing the paying audience.

Posted by Mark at April 14, 2009 8:20 AM

comment #11

JD says ...

The Idiots is also very funny. Even some of his really dark movies (ie. Dogville, Manderlay) have moments of perverse black comedy. At some point, people need to give Manderlay the attention it deserves. It seems like everyone who was turned-off by Dogville ignored it, but I thought it was a much more dense, complex, ambivalent film. Von Trier's sensibility can be a bit one-note and didactic at times (ie. Dancer in the Dark, Dogville), but Manderlay was a really intricate, self-contained argument with itself. In fact, I still find it hard to pin down exactly what Von Trier thinks about the subject of race in America. There's obviously a very strong critique there, but he goes after more than just the usual targets. I'd also strongly recommend The Five Obstructions, which is one of the most entertaining (but still kinda depressing) films Von Trier has ever been involved with.

Posted by JD at April 14, 2009 8:52 AM

comment #12

TL says ...

Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg are bankable actors?

Posted by TL at April 14, 2009 9:42 AM

comment #13

rr3333 says ...

Seems to me that if Von Trier wasnt making unwatchable movies, then he'd be in a straight-jacket drooling uncontrollably.

He makes Harmony Korine look sane.

Posted by rr3333 at April 14, 2009 12:15 PM

comment #14

D.Z. says ...

"this just-posted trailer isn't very good. It has a kind of jagged off-rhythm and on-the-nose quality that doesn't feel right."

Plus it rips off Evil Dead.

Posted by D.Z. at April 14, 2009 1:45 PM

comment #15

Bob Violence says ...

Evil Dead is a ripoff of The Wizard of Oz

Posted by Bob Violence at April 15, 2009 1:55 AM

comment #16

Bob Violence says ...

The Idiots is also very funny.

I'll say this for The Idiots, it did the whole "jokes that are supposed to make you feel bad for laughing at them" thing much better than Observe and Report.

Posted by Bob Violence at April 15, 2009 2:05 AM

comment #17

Crystal P. Mcglynn says ...

Epidemic and The Kingdom are pretty funny too... i really like it

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This looks like reverse torture porn where the director gets off on torturing the paying audience.

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comment #19

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comment #21

CaHomesMark says ...

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comment #22

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