“Perhaps in fact, it was not so much a statement against women, or men, but against the world that they live in that does not permit them to be good in a saintly way. It will always destroy them, and brutally.”
Spot on imo. Breaking the Waves is an attack against misogyny. It’s an attack against those who subscribe to the Madonna-whore complex, and against the Church’s fierce patriarchy,,,
Lars von Trier is a million miles from misogynistic.
indeed
nice. looks von-trier-y.
i’m there
it looks like something from sophia coppola
That’s Zentropa – Trier’s company.
oh damn me and my reading problems still think it looks like a Sophia work in ways
people are in a tizzy over von trier-y
:P
I really don’t want to see Kirstin Dunst running anywhere in a fancy dress again. Really.
Yeah but it’s not exactly nuanced to say that because someone features women as main characters and critiques men that they aren’t misogynist. I think von Trier’s tendency to romanticize and obsess about solely female martyrdom as the only possible outcome of interpersonal relationships and the relationship of the self to society is what is being critiqued by most people. The same thing was said about Mizoguchi to a certain extent except his “women problem” narratives were infinitely more justifiable due to their time periods and setting and they were simply more artfully done and complex imo.
I feel the same way about feminist films that end up killing the main male characters as a way of “resolving” the battle of the sexes. Perhaps in the 70s – the era of descriptive feminist films – this makes sense but at some point different ways of imagining relations should emerge.
Lol – yeah, it’s always a question in my mind when a writer takes the time to develop a character and get you interested, only to kill them off. I always feel like they got sick of their own creation and had to execute it.
This looks awful.
Von Trier has never disappointed me so i would see it even if i didn’t like the trailer. Some of the performances look a little wooden but the cinematography is mesmerizing.
Looks like Antichrist part deux. Not on my must see list by no means.
shyamalania :)
I don’t know why realists are so frequently labeled as nihilists, misogynists and so on.
Didn’t care for Antichrist, but this looks great. I can’t wait to see it. The only thing I’m not thrilled about is his stupid use of slow motion which seems to be utilized in this film.
Lol. Long live slo mo.
I think it’d be even better, however, if he used continuous freeze frames. For no reason.
I was actually sort of surprised to find myself liking Antichrist, so I’m down for this. Dunst can be a good actress in the right role, so I’m not too worried about her. Plus I like how she looks, so…
But this is a trailer, right? A piece of advertising. It’s meant to appeal to us in a certain way. What way is that? I don’t know and I’m not sure I care either. It at least looks like it won’t be dull.
I have no idea what to expect from this just from the trailer. Lars von Trier has always thrown curve balls at the audience, so the film could dumbfound people after expecting it to be like it’s trailer.
Personally, this could be great or a film so bad it’s comedic from the footage I saw, although as a fan of his work he has only made two ‘bad’ films for me (‘The Element of Crime’ and ‘The Boss of It All’). The cast, especially Dunst, was a surprise at first until I thought about how he has managed to get actors like Nicole Kidman to star in his previous work, a lot of which is always confrontational and controversial. My only issue is the performances; I have only seen the Spiderman films, so I have no idea if Dunst can give a good performance alongside reliable actors like John Hunt and Gainsbourg. Aside from that, only the surprising amount of slow-motion concerns me. Thankfully its not at a Zack Snyder level, but if its overused it’ll be annoying.
Antichrist isn’t misogynistic. It’s basically about the guilt placed on women for their sexual desires, which are the same as men’s, and how Gainsbourg’s character, who’s studied the repression of women throughout the ages goes off the deep end after her son dies, and mistakingly takes that historical idea into herself and thus abuses herself, showing the power to destroy herself as a way to be free from her own personal guilt and pain. Dafoe then acts out the role of men throughout history as Gainsbourg pushes the notion that she is evil so far that Dafoe either believes her, and has his mind warped by everything that happens, or just does it because he knows that she’ll kill herself eventually.
Either way, it’s showcased for out entertainment, and is not misogynistic except in the eyes of those who still believe that when a character that an artist has created says that they hate women or anyone or anything, they believe that that is an immediate representation of the artist themselves. Artists tend to be smarter than we give them credit for. Unless said artist makes really wordy, rambling philosophical train wrecks with more to say than to show.
And it looks like Gainsbourg is being pushed into the ground by an increasing gravitational state, which makes me very happy that there’s some pseudo science being thrown around and it’s not just earth blowing up like a paper mache ball.
I can’t believe the hostility for Element of Crime, it’s actually one of the top 3 Von Trier films which belongs to a period before his so-called “auteurism” came forward and “conquered” the cinephile community with his anti-American gimmick tricks.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the world ended? We could all just finally relax because there would be nothing to worry about.
Well, we would be dead so there wouldn’t be anything going on in our heads. Other than rotting.
you’ll get your wish in 2012 mary :)
2012, Mary… 2012.
EDIT: aha…
Ahh to be worm soup. :P
Or… 2012 will pass and some people will have to start planning a whole new date.
2666
Yes, women will be punished, but not more than the audience.
Buh-dum-ching!
M°
Yeah I agree with her (Akerman) wholeheartedly. If anything I’d be concerned about the opposite: the veiled suggestion that men lack the stamina to be truly compassionate which it’s completly untrue. I don’t remember male characters worthy of great admiration in the lars films I’ve seen :P (but then it’s to me a minor thing really since I don’t think he has to “balance” his films to be politically correct or something)