Trier's Element

The focus of a lot of my following blog posts will be on the filmmaker Lars von Trier from Denmark.

To give you a little information on him, he is considered to be (by many) the most controversial contemporary filmmaker in the world with such shocking and polarizing films as Antichrist, Dogville, Dancer in the Dark, and (the product of the film movement he co-founded named Dogme 95) The Idiots.

To some, von Trier is a perverse, self-righteous, narcissistic, exploitative madman using the guise of "the artist" to give legitimacy to his self-indulgent drivel. To others, von Trier is the voice of doubt in a world setting where Idealism and percieved Universal Truths and Standards reign supreme.

Whatever your opinions may be on the man, his work is undeniably complex, precise, and difficult. Along with these attributes of his work, his focus on detail and expression of technical skill and prowess is something even his harshest critics cannot deny.

I strongly urge those of you that have not heard of von Trier (which is understandable... his films are rarely shown in America, and CERTAINLY aren't advertised when they are) to investigate him and a few of (what I deem to be) his most important works.

If any of you wish to borrow some of his films, I own them, and would be willing to help you get started.

The film I recommend most to serve as an introduction to his body of work is Europa (1991).

However, if you wish to have a more "crash course" in Lars von Trier's controversy and art, you need look no further than last year's Antichrist... BE WARNED HOWEVER, THAT THIS FILM CONTAINS CONTENT AND IMAGERY OF A NATURE SO EXTREME THAT IT IS VERY LIKELY TO DISTURB, DISGUST, OR CAUSE PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS! THIS IS NO EXHAGGERATION, AND I WANT TO BE PERFECTLY CLEAR THAT THIS FILM IS NOT FOR THOSE WITH DELICATE SENSIBILITIES OR THOSE THAT ARE NOT PREPARED TO VIEW UNCENSORED GRAPHIC VIOLENCE AND SEXUALITY!

I own all of his films, including Antichrist, but several of them cannot go without a word of warning... Antichrist deserves a more special warning, because it is not only the most extreme of his films, but it is quite possibly the most extreme film ever made.

(this is HONESTLY no exhaggeration. When I went to a pre-screening in Chicago, a middle-aged man who had seen his fair share of violent films got up to leave during a particularly graphic sequence and lost conciousness in the isle)