Avis des critiques

If audiences still exist for movies like this and debate them afterward -- if, that is, not every single moviegoer in America is lost to mindless narcissistic self-indulgence -- the arguments afterward will be the real show. Many moviegoers are likely to like the film less than the discussions it drags them into.

[Manderlay] is a better film than Dogville; in fact it is the film he should have made instead of Dogville. The action is cleverly constructed and strongly played, shorter and sharper than Dogville with some sort of focus to it - however questionably intentioned... At bottom, Manderlay is a wind-up, but an effective wind-up, a startling wind-up.

Although nothing like as good as Dogville, Manderlay remains a compelling and important film. It's not as visually interesting and its moments of revelation don't have as much impact as they should, but it clearly has valuable things to say.

With Manderlay, von Trier has created another ode to the classic Hollywood filmmaking he so obviously reveres, and while his dexterity at fashioning mordant and highly provocative films may have reached its apogee a few years ago, it’s still a testament to the fact that von Trier at half cock is better than 99 per cent of most directors firing on all cylinders.

While the fable's bitter ironies are wryly effective, [Manderlay] lacks [Dogville's] startling power. By swapping innovation for cheap provocation, von Trier reduces complex racial and behavioural issues to simplistic plot devices.

Von Trier’s hand isn’t as sure in Manderlay as it was in Dogville. His film exasperates and illuminates in equal measure. But no film addict will want to miss his cinematic brilliance.

Be it a reflection on racial inequality, a philosophical treatise on the nature of freedom, or an allegory about the Bush administration’s ‘nation-building’ policies, the film fails, partly because what it has to say is so muddled and inadequate, partly because – as cinema and as drama – it is so dull.

The stage-play artifice—black backdrops, floor markings, minimal sets and props—has less impact the second time around, and Manderlay’s former slaves aren’t characterized as forcefully as Dogville’s townspeople were. But the story holds up well enough to deliver a pointed critique of establishing self-rule at gunpoint.

The novel Brechtian formalism that stirred the more ambiguous Dogville’s philosophical inquisitions is put to uninspired use in Manderlay. Far worse, the lessons taught and learned are also more explicitly conveyed.

“Manderlay” is less tedious than “Dogville,” even if it can be equally headache inducing to those not attuned to von Trier’s giggly camera style. Those eager to lap up what the Dogmatic one has to say will readily do so. But the problem for others is the incessantly felt presence of a puppet master pulling strings to make his ideological points, and employing several techniques guaranteed to distance all but the preconverted.

More tightly scripted and less gruelling than Dogville, Manderlay keeps up a running commentary on events through a wry, sarcastic narration that injects a welcome degree of humour into the film. The experimental nature of the film is less of a novelty this time and less of a distraction from the ideas.

If there's nothing in the film that hasn't been said before about America's persistent racial strife and the reasons for it, its tone is that of a practical joker strewing whoopee cushions at a gathering, then sitting back to cackle at the rude noises made by credulous fools taking their seats.