Quarter Life Crisis
The world according to Sven-S. Porst
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316 words on Lars von Trier
Dogville [official, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Feedster, Google] is Lars von Trier's latest offering.
It is a three hour long theatre like ordeal for a very slender Nicole Kidman who comes to a distant village and wants to hide there, being open and nice to the people in exchange – offering help wherever she can. As time goes by people get used to her abusing her. In every chapter of the film things get worse without anyone admitting it. Eventually she has been raped by the most of the male population of 'Dogville, that town of decent and nice people and is chained to a millstone. At the end she has the opportunity for revenge.
Many interesting things in the film. The whole theatre-style set is quite cool. As the film goes on, it is really hard to tell when exactly borders are crossed and things start going wrong and why they do. Have people been too prejudiced from the beginning? Did things just accidentally go wrong? &c All of the above? Possibly. At the end of the film you really start wondering who's good and who's bad. Tricky one.
The film was good but a bit too long. I don't think it was von Trier's best. I liked The Kingdom or Dancer in the Dark much better. This film also is non-Dogma and lacks the 'immediacy' that I find Dogma films to have.
Strangely, the film is set in America. And critics have made the point of claiming it to be anti-American, particularly considering the Music and images that come with the closing credits. I am sure this was done on purpose to provoke people a litte. Within the film I didn't find the people to be particularly 'American' – whatever that is. Perhaps the inhabitants of the village could be characterised as 'protestant' – that was my impression at least.
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