Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Antichrist (2010)
Another sensitive portrayal of a woman from unrelenting misogynist Lars Von Trier. Married couple Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe are grieving the death of their infant child (the child's death is shown in a brilliant and heartbreaking opening sequence) and retreat to their cabin in the woods to work it out. Things quickly go to shit, and as guilt and resentments come to the surface, supernatural things start to happen all around them. This is similar to Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1973) in many ways (death of a child, graphic sex, fear of the supernatural) yet far more beautiful and repulsive. Once again, Von Trier puts his actors, particularly Gainsbourg (and the audience) through the wringer. There are moments of breathtaking beauty (a sequence in which Gainsbourg approaches the cabin is almost primeval and completely mesmerizing) However, Von Trier's visual skills seem more and more like cold display. Beautifully made bullshit.
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You think SHE was put through the wringer? I suppose cutting off your own clitoris could be a defense of that statement. But it is certainly DeFoe who is put through "the wringer" by her. Or rather, the whetting stone through his calf by her.
ReplyDeleteAnd to call Von Trier a misogynist just shows that you know absolutely nothing about him, or his films. I'll bet you dollars to donuts you haven't seen more than three of his films.
But, you're point is your point. And it's as valid as anyone's.