"Antichrist" - REVIEW

During interviews leading up to and following "Antichrist"'s premiere at Cannes, Lars von Trier stated that the film was his way of expressing a dark period of depression in his life. Knowing that, "Antichrist" might just be one of the most disturbing trips into a director's mindset, particularly in its more explicit moments.
After the unsettling opening credits (which consist of von Trier's name and the title written in crayon), we're launched into the prologue: a gorgeously shot slow-motion black and white sequence in which He (Willem Dafoe) and She (Charlotte Gainsbourg) have sex, while their toddler accidentally slips out of a window blown open by the wind. Set to the music of Handel, it's a beautiful, albeit briefly graphic, opening that is a misleading as the title itself. Von Trier's film is not about a physical antichrist; in fact, it's really more about, well...other "things". The mention of the devil is nonexistent. Instead, what we're given is the story of a man and his wife dealing with grief, and their encounters in a forest getaway called "Eden" that hint at some sort of supernatural evil, without making anything completely clear.
She is convinced that the son's death is all her fault, while He disagrees, and tries to talk her out of her depression by stressing rationality. But at the same time, He himself is tested. Over the course of the stay in Eden, He encounters three cryptic animals: a deer with a dead fetus, a hawk that eats its dead young, and most famously/infamously, and a fox that tears at its own flesh and proclaims, "chaos reigns". Yes, it's all pretty insane, but for most of the film, save for tiny flashes, von Trier's film remains interesting and even accessible, despite falling into the almost nonexistent "art house horror" niche. He plays with sound and light to good and often eerie effect without gratuitous gore. Until the end. Whether you can keep your eyes open for two key scenes in the final 25 minutes or not, you will be shaken. And you'll never look at a pair of scissors the same way again.
I probably should have started my review with this bit, but, well, maybe I can tie it in here as well. There are those who claim that certain films aren't meant to be "enjoyed" because they are "art" and are meant to challenge us and be wrenching and unpleasant. This strikes me as total BS. Even if a film is tough to get through (for example, Mr. von Trier's "Dancer in the Dark"), one still enjoys seeing scenes that are well directed/shot/edited/acted. So while I may not be itching to pop "Schindler's List" into my DVD player every other week, to claim that it's not meant to be enjoyed in any sense of the word strikes me as nonsense. But I should have known that if anyone could make me make an exception, it's Lars von Trier. While much of the film could be "enjoyed" in a more conventional sense as a psychological thriller, the final portion is so extreme that is almost defies description. I'm still not exactly sure what I was feeling. For one scene I covered one eye but watching with the other, and in another I close my eyes at the last second. If you had a hard time looking at the "face-sewing" scene in "Pan's Labyrinth", you'll barely survive half a second of what's in store for you here. It's graphic, and not entirely justified (although I'm still trying to wrap my head around the film on a thematic/symbolic level), and certainly a shock to one's system.
That said, it's hard to fault Mr. von trier and crew in many areas. Anthony Dod Mantle's cinematography is potent, though it never soars as high as in the prologue, and the other tech aspects are solid. In terms of pacing, it certainly felt like on of von trier's faster films (it's also shorter: 1 hr 40 min), though I'm sure some will find the conversations between He and She unbearably slow. For me, this wasn't the case, thanks to the strength of the actors. Though so much of the film is built on mystery and ambiance, Dafoe and Gainsbourg turn in very good, though not quite great work. Their characters don't quite grow enough to give us the most well rounded performances, though they are intriguing; this is perhaps the first von Trier film that succumbs to style over substance. It will certainly shake you without resorting to cheap "jump" scares, and the characters are more interesting than anything in most Hollywood horror films, but as a whole it falls short of greatness due to feeling somewhat underwritten. If anything, it is a film made more so for the director, and not for the audience. Instead of leaving me speechless, von Trier has left me babbling, and much like his film, I'm not sure what it all means.

Grade: B/B-/C+

Lars von Trier gives hints about his next pyschological torture device...

Source: Slashfilm.com

Lars Von Trier has been doing press over the past week for the US release of Antichrist. (Remotely, as he doesn’t fly, and has never been to the States.) But it wasn’t until today that he revealed the name and nature of his next project. Planet Melancholia is said to be a ‘psychological disaster film’, which he will write and direct. Hm. Psychological disaster? Sounds like Antichrist, no? But this one has a sci-fi bent, and a couple other interesting things about it.

There’s the possibility that the film is actually just called Melancholia, which is how Variety is currently listing it. The trade says the title is illustrated in their press release by ‘an enourmous planet…that looms threateningly close to Earth.” THR says that Von Trier is “moving into Roland Emmerich territory” with Planet Melancholia, but also calls Antichrist an “art house mash up of the slasher horror genre,” so I’m not sure I trust the Emmerich description.

More intriguing is the note from producer Peter Aalbaek Jensen, who said the film will shoot next summer in Germany and Sweden, and feature “a mix of spectacular, cinematic imagery with Dogme-style handheld camerawork.” Jensen also said the film, which has reportedly come together very quickly, would be “romantic, in a Lord Byron sort of way.” The sci-fi intimations are slight, so I’m curious to hear more about that angle, if indeed it is significant. Jensen says the film does not involve an alien invasion, so there’s that. Wonder if this one will get a video game, too?

Unfortunately, we don’t know any more than this. We might get a few more details as the director does more Antichrist promotion, but I expect we’ll have to wait a few more months for anything significant.

As for Lars Von Trier, there was only one comment: “No more happy endings!” Be afraid

New US trailer for "Antichrist"

As much as I want to see this film, the more I read about it, the more that I feel that I'll be disturbed beyond belief if I watch it...

Creepy Australian poster for "Antichrist"

And knowing the things that I know about the film's ending, which involves some...er...mutilations or sorts, this is particularly disturbing.

Just to give you an idea of what those scissors are put to use for, here's a not-so-R-rated (and very funny) recreation/summary of "Antichrist":

Source: TheFilmExperience

Bold, text only poster for "Antichrist"

Oddly enough, I find this more unnerving than the posters with pictures or even some of the trailers. Hell, seeing the words "Antichrist" and "Lars von Trier" is enough to freak me out.

French poster for "Antichrist"

Bizarre head line of the day: Von Trier's "Antichrist" is getting a video game tie-in...

Never in a million years would I even think of associating anything that Von Trier has ever done with video games. However, the idea is an interesting one. It just seems odd to have a game based off of an indie film, as opposed to a big studio production.

Source: Slashfilm.com

Antichrist, the new movie from Lars Von Trier, was perhaps the most talked-about movie at Cannes this year. It continues to make headlines as it slowly winds towards theatres outside the Croisette and Scandanavian countries. And now, evidently, it is going to spawn a video game. A post on the video game message board NeoGAF led to some wild Googling, which turns up a Politiken.dk article (Google translation, which may contain movie spoilers) announcing the game’s development. What’s the deal? It’s after the jump.

According to the article, development on the game is being led by Morten Iversen, who wrote the Hitman games, and subsequently formed his own company, Zeitguyz, which created a game called Recoil: Retrograde. The article mentions Zentropa Eden Games as the developer of the title. Indeed, Iversen is listed as ‘game developer’ on the main Zentropa website. Lars Von Trier will approve (or not, one supposes, as it may happen) the final design.

Eden, as the game will be called, will be a first-person thriller/adventure game that invites players to confront their fears. Willem Dafoe will reportedly reprise his role in voice-over, though the game will not replicate the film, picking up afterward instead. (Not having seen Antichrist, I can’t surmise what that means for Dafoe’s performance.) Iversen says the experience will be “strong and very personal,” “controversial” and that it “…must be your own personal hell - a bit like a nightmare version of ‘Mystere’.” First one to help I.D. exactly what ‘Mystere’ he means there (the Cirque de Soleil show? seems weird) gets a no-prize. Iversen evidently was interviewed on Danish radio this week; if you heard that broadcast and have more details, let us know.

The game actually sounds quite ambitious. In addition to challenging your fears, staying true to the spirit of the film and potentially referencing other Trier films (as menioned here) there will possibly be some real-world interaction via the Internet. This is from the Google translation of the Politiken source:

Then the game will adjust its action according to similar responses including know that via the Internet news media downloads bizarre news clips and videos from the real world into the game universe.

Eden will be a PC title, and while early in development is planned for a release within a year, potentially either on the Antichrist DVD or as a download. A throwaway line in the Politiken article also mentions a graphic novel, which I would almost assume to be a joke if I didn’t imagine that was the source of the Willem Dafoe image above. Seriously, what the hell is going on here? (OK, according to a couple emails, the article doesn’t mention a separate graphic novel, but graphic novel-like cutscenes. Which makes more sense.)

EDITS: That should likely be ‘Myst’, not ‘Mystere’, making this a nightmare version of Myst, which sounds about right. And bjaelke, the NeoGAF poster who mentioned this in the first place, offers clarification about the material pulled from the ‘net: “They are based on what fears you have (part of the questions you answer before starting the game). So if you suffer from arachnophobia the articles are likely to contain something about spiders and what not.”

Cannes Film Festival 2009 Award Winners!!

Gainsbourg for Best Actress? "Basterd"'s Waltz for Best Actor? Wow. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised about the former, seeing as there were no other female performances generating massive amounts of buzz, and Von Trier does know how to get great performances out of his leading ladies (Watson in "Breaking the Waves", Bjork in "Dancer in the Dark", Kidman in "Dogville"). But after all the wild reactions to the movie as a whole, it's interesting to see that the jury still gave her an award. Of course, the really interesting thing will be to see if any of these major wins carry over to Oscar glory. Remember Benicio Del Toro for "Che" last year? Probably not what most of these winners want to happen to them, unless they enjoy swimming in obscurity....

Source: The New York Times

By Manohla Dargis

CANNES, France — “The White Ribbon,” a meticulous examination of patriarchal domination, won the Palme d’Or at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival on Sunday. Directed by the Austrian-born Michael Haneke and shot in black and white, the much-admired film — a foundation story about National Socialism set in a rural pre-World War I German community — turns on a series of violent events that appear to be the work of some children. In 2001 Mr. Haneke won the Grand Prix (effectively second place) for his harrowing drama “The Piano Teacher,” which starred Isabelle Huppert, president of this year’s competition jury.

The Grand Prix, also announced on Sunday, went to “A Prophet,” a pitch-perfect film from the French director Jacques Audiard about a young inmate who becomes a master criminal during a prison stretch. The film was the critical favorite throughout the festival, and Mr. Audiard received a standing ovation from the audience when he mounted the stage. Far more surprising was the Jury Prize (third place), which was split between “Fish Tank,” a slice of Brit-grit realism from Andrea Arnold, and the neo-exploitation vampire flick “Thirst,”from the South Korean director Park Chan-Wook. Both were booed by the press watching the show via live broadcast.

The director Terry Gilliam, here with the noncompetition film “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” delivered some funny onstage shtick by pretending to accept the directing prize, which he was meant to bestow. (“Terry, you don’t receive, you give,” the host explained, promising that Mr. Gilliam could have something next year if he didn’t create a scandal.) The actual winner of the director award was Brillante Mendoza, from the Philippines, whose grisly, widely loathed shocker, “Kinatay” (“Slaughter”), hinges on a man who doesn’t prevent a murder. The screenwriting award went to Mei Feng for“Spring Fever,” a rather baggy if underappreciated drama about young Chinese malaise.

Ms. Huppert handed the prize for best actress to Charlotte Gainsbourg, who delivers a wild, fearless performance as a grieving mother in “Antichrist,” an English-language film from the Danish director Lars von Trier. It’s easy to imagine that Ms. Huppert and her fellow juror, the actress Asia Argento, both ferocious screen performers, were impressed with the intensity of Ms. Gainsbourg’s performance, which involves a fair amount of nudity and some frantic (and graphic) backwoods masturbation.

The best-actor award for the Austrian Christoph Waltz, who plays a Nazi officer inQuentin Tarantino’s World War II movie, “Inglourious Basterds,” made everyone happy. Speaking in French, English and German, Mr. Waltz called the film an “unbelievable experience,” thanked his co-star Brad Pitt, along with the creator of Mr. Waltz’s “unique and inimitable” character, Colonel Landa. His voice colored with emotion, he addressed Mr. Tarantino directly: “You gave me my vocation back.”

Ms. Huppert presented the director Alain Resnais — who turns 87 next month — with a “lifetime achievement award for his work and his exceptional contribution to the history of cinema.” He should have won something as well for his dazzling competition entry, “Wild Grass.” Wearing sunglasses (bright lights bother him), a dark suit, a red shirt and a magnificent swirl of white hair, Mr. Resnais took the stage and was greeted with a sustained standing ovation. He expressed his gratitude to the jury and the festival and asked his cast to stand and receive applause before he was cut short by the music.

The Caméra d’Or for best first feature, awarded by another jury, went to an Australian film by Warwick Thornton that was largely below the critical radar, “Samson and Delilah,” a teenage love story set in the Outback.

Despite the on-screen carnage that was amply rewarded by Ms. Huppert and her jury, the festival put on its usual glittering show that for 12 days made cinema seem as if it mattered to the world. News media attendance and spirits might have been down, but the sun came out as did the jostling crowds, red-carpet stars and distributor wallets.

“This is the center of independent films from around the world,” Michael Barker, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, said on Saturday. Unlike many Americans he stays until the end because one never knows what might turn up: last year his company bought the Palme winner, “The Class,” which was screened on the last day. This year it bought “The White Ribbon” and “A Prophet.”

Although big Hollywood still turns up at Cannes (the Pixar movie “Up” opened the festival), the studios don’t show much work here unless Clint Eastwood has a new one. All too often quality is now the province of their specialty divisions, some of which were recently shut down. That makes older, established companies like Sony Classics and newcomers like Oscilloscope Laboratories even more important. IFC Films, for one, has made a nice habit of buying some of the best movies here, and this year grabbed “Antichrist” and Ken Loach’s “Looking for Eric,” a crowd-pleaser about a postman who, in the midst of a meltdown, conjures the philosophizing form of his favorite soccer star. It’s no wonder that IFC Entertainment’s president, Jonathan Sehring, characterized the festival as “very, very good.”

But while Hollywood movies are not much in abundance, the stars still come out, if somewhat fewer this year. Most of the American headliners (“Brad!” “Angelina!”) turned up at the premiere of “Inglourious Basterds.” They soon disappeared, but Mr. Tarantino was everywhere. He danced on the red carpet, chatted in English on French television and praised Mr. Mendoza’s “Kinatay.” Mr. Mendoza, a rising talent who was at Cannes last year with the rowdy “Serbis,” could use all the help he could get with this movie. A morality tale that he wields like a blunt instrument, “Kinatay” hinges on the inaction of a police-academy student while a prostitute is murdered and dismembered. The movie had its respectful fans, but many others fled the theater.

By closing night a lot was still in play, which may portend good news for American movie lovers. Oscilloscope, the company founded by the Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, bought“Wendy and Lucy” last year, and this year picked up another film, but has not announced its title. This was Mr. Yauch’s first time at Cannes.

“I was glad to see everyone in tuxes and ball gowns going up the red carpet,” he said in an e-mail message from New York on Sunday. “I was afraid that the photos I’ve seen ofGrace Kelly and Cary Grant would have faded into history like everything else, and that people would be walking into premieres in shorts, T-shirts and Crocs. So I was impressed when I saw a man in a suit turned away because he was wearing sneakers. Perhaps Cannes is the last bastion of dignified decadence.”

I am officially TERRIFIED of Lars Von Trier's "Antichrist", and here's why

I'm not kidding when I say that the man has finally crossed the line between genius and insanity that he was always resting on. I feel disturbed just reading some of these suggestive descriptions from the reviews. Obviously a film titled "Antichrist" wasn't going to be filled with rainbows and spontaneous songs about happiness, but HOLY SH*T...my fascination with this movie is actually starting to wane a little. Oy...

Sources: Roger Ebert, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, all from the Cannes screening

"After the woman is pushed to confess that she's most afraid of their property deep in the forest -- where the she spent part of the previous summer alone with her son -- that's where hubby take her. This chapter on "Pain" actually charts the woman's self-proclaimed recovery, but ends unpromisingly with a disemboweled fox rising out of the ferns to announce, "Chaos Reigns." 

The ante is upped, and a climax of sorts is achieved, in "Despair," reassuringly subtitled "Gynocide," and if one is uncertain as to what the latter means, rest certain von Trier will graphically illustrate it. Suffice to say the woman's mental health takes a turn for the worse, she vividly pleasures her man in a conspicuously unwelcome manner and then, apparently inspired by images of medieval torture inflicted upon women, finds a way to impale him that Hollywood's leading torture-porn experts will kick themselves over not having dreamed up first. 

But the woman generously saves the most gruesome, preferably unwatched act for herself in the final chapter, the title of which, "The Three Beggars," provides no revelations worth waiting for. "

FULL REVIEW - VARIETY

"In discussing this self-styled "most important film of my career," von Trier has referred to the forbidding Swedish playwright August Strindberg. Clearly, or rather not so clearly, von Trier is working in a full-out symbolic vein here, as did Strindberg late in his career, but alas the film medium inevitably carries with it, like an albatross, a heavy charge of realism. Hence, many of von Trier's more outrageous, ultra-serious symbolic moments (such as a talking fox, its guts half ripped out, muttering "chaos reigns" in an "Exorcist" voice) will -- and did, in the press screening -- undoubtedly provoke unintended laughter. Or horror, as when genitals are scissored off, masturbation produces blood rather than semen and holes are drilled into legs."

FULL REVIEW - HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

"He subjects her to probing questions and the discussion of the Meaning of it All, which must affect her like a needle stab to an inflamed tooth. He is quite intelligent and insightful, and brings passive aggression to a brutally intimate level. Then she wounds him, and while he's unconscious she drills a hole through his leg and bolts a grindstone to it. He drags himself into the forest and tries to hide in an animal burrow. She finds him, and pounds him with a shovel to force him deeper. Then she tries to bury him alive. I won't mention two gruesome scenes involving the genital areas."

FULL REVIEW - ROGER EBERT/CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

Cannes Update: "Antichrist" shakes up audiences and critics

As much as I'm a Von Trier fan (Dancer in the Dark and Dogville being two of my favorite movies EVER), I think I'm putting this film on my danger-of-imploding-list. I just saw a snippet from Jeffrey Wells' review, and he absolutely RAPES the movie. For those already making Oscar predictions, I think we can scratch this one off the list of candidates. Von Trier's just going to have to settle for that Honorary Oscar (and I'm doubtful they'll ever give him that much).

Source: Reuters/Yahoo

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Danish director Lars von Trier elicited derisive laughter, gasps of disbelief, a smattering of applause and loud boos on Sunday as the credits rolled on his drama "Antichrist" at the Cannes film festival.

The film, starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a couple seeking to overcome the grief of losing their only child, has quickly become the most talked-about at this year's festival, which ends on May 24.

Cannes' notoriously picky critics and press often react audibly to films during screenings, but Sunday evening's viewing was unusually demonstrative.

Jeers and laughter broke out during scenes ranging from a talking fox to graphically-portrayed sexual mutilation.

Many viewers in the large Debussy cinema also appeared to take objection to von Trier's decision to dedicate his film to the revered Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky. Applause from a handful of viewers was drowned out by booing at the end.

Antichrist opens with a heavily stylized, black-and-white, slow-motion portrayal of the child's accidental death set to soaring music by Handel.

Dafoe's character, who is a therapist, tries to help his wife deal with her grief and encourages her to come off heavy medication that sedates her for weeks after the death.

They decide to go to an isolated wooden cabin in an unspecified forest to recover, but the woman Gainsbourg portrays loses control of her senses.

The abuse she submits herself and her husband to drew shocked gasps from the audience.

The reaction suggested that von Trier, who won the top prize in Cannes with "Dancer in the Dark" in 2000, could be in for a rough ride from reviewers and journalists on Monday.

One U.S. critic said he and others found the film "offensive," and questioned why it was included in the main competition of 20 films in Cannes.

In production notes for Antichrist, the 53-year-old director said that the movie was a "kind of therapy" for depression he was suffering from two years ago.

"I can offer no excuse for 'Antichrist' ... other than my absolute belief in the film -- the most important film of my entire career!"

Trailer for "Julie and Julia" and a new "Antichrist" trailer!

"Antichrist" trailer!!!

First picture from Lars Von Trier's "Antichrist"!!!

I'm not really sure what to make of the picture, but it sure as hell is intriguing.


Starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, the English language pic is set in nature and based on the theory that it was Satan, not God, who created the world. In the psychological thriller that evolves into a horror film, Dafoe and Gainsbourg will play a couple who retreat to an isolated cabin in the woods following the death of their child. The first official image was posted online (albeit a bit cropped) and can be viewed inside.