A withering indictment of American social values, written and directed by a man who has never set foot in America, Lars von Trier’s Dogville is an ambitious provocation. With an all-star cast led by Nicole Kidman, this epic Brechtian drama is a raw examination of small-town hypocrisy and prejudice.
From controversial director Lars von Trier comes the first entry in his Golden Heart trilogy, which was followed by The Idiots and the Palme d’Or winning Dancer in the Dark. Starring Emily Watson in an uncompromising performance, Breaking the Waves remains one of Von Trier’s finest achievements.
This early triumph by Lars von Trier, which won no less than three prizes at Cannes, is one of his most bizarre yet accessible works: a feverish retooling of film noir, an unhinged thriller, and a visually mind-blowing odyssey into a nightmare of our past.
A difficult yet rewarding film from the equally complex Danish provocateur Lars von Trier! This fiercely polemical, little-seen sequel to Dogville tackles a topic as sensitive as slavery, all the while maintaining its predecessor’s Brechtian premise, anti-American bent, and yes, its brilliance.
A fascination with the extreme is written across all of Lars von Trier’s works, beginning with this mesmeric investigation of criminal minds. Captured in burnt sepia tones expressive of photographic fragments or uncertain memories, the ashen film is also evocative of a changing—crumbling?—Europe.
