Dogville (2003)

A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado town. In exchange, she agrees to work for them. As a search visits town, she finds out that their support has a price. Yet her dangerous secret is never far away...

Director:

Lars von Trier

Writer:

Lars von Trier

Stars:

Nicole Kidman, Harriet Andersson, Lauren Bacall

13 wins & 20 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nicole Kidman	...	Grace Margaret Mulligan
Harriet Andersson	...	Gloria
Lauren Bacall	...	Ma Ginger
Jean-Marc Barr	...	The Man with the Big Hat
Paul Bettany	...	Tom Edison
Blair Brown	...	Mrs. Henson
James Caan	...	The Big Man
Patricia Clarkson	...	Vera
Jeremy Davies	...	Bill Henson
Ben Gazzara	...	Jack McKay
Philip Baker Hall	...	Tom Edison Sr.
Thom Hoffman	...	Gangster
Siobhan Fallon	...	Martha (as Siobhan Fallon Hogan)
John Hurt	...	Narrator (voice)
Zeljko Ivanek	...	Ben

Storyline

Late one night, a beautiful and well-dressed young woman, Grace, arrives in the mountainous old mining town of Dogville as a fugitive; following the sound of gunshots in the distance which have been heard by Tom, the self-appointed moral spokesman for the town. Persuaded by Tom, the town agree to hide Grace, and in return she freely helps the locals. However, when the Sheriff from a neighbouring town posts a Missing notice, advertising a reward for revealing her whereabouts, the townsfolk require a better deal from Grace, in return for their silence; and when the Sheriff returns some weeks later with a Wanted poster, even though the citizens know her to be innocent of the false charges against her, the town's sense of goodness takes a sinister turn and the price of Grace's freedom becomes a workload and treatment akin to that of a slave. But Grace has a deadly secret that the townsfolk will eventually encounter.

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Plot Keywords:

town | secret | fugitive | sheriff | gangster | 

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Taglines:

A quiet little town not far from here.

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [dk] Official site [es]

Country:

Denmark Sweden UK France Germany Netherlands Norway Finland Italy

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 May 2003 (France)

Also Known As:

The Film 'Dogville' as Told in Nine Chapters and a Prologue

Filming Locations:

Film i Väst, Nohab Industrial Estate, Trollhättan, Västra Götalands län, Sweden

Box Office

Budget:

DKK 83,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$88,855 (USA) (26 March 2004)

Gross:

$1,530,386 (USA) (11 June 2004)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Zentropa Entertainments, Isabella Films B.V., Something Else B.V.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

178 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jeremy Davies originally intended to be von Trier's apprentice, not to act in the film. He wrote a letter to the director stating that he plans on being a filmmaker and wanted to learn from him. von Trier invited him to the set, mentored Davies, and gave him a small role in the film.

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Goofs

When Jack McKay admits that he is blind, he says "In Switzerland they call it the Alpengulen." It's in fact called Alpenglühen.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: This is the sad tale of the township of Dogville. Dogville was in the Rocky Mountains in the US of A, up here where the road came to its definitive end, near the entrance to the old abandoned silver mine. The residents of Dogville were good honest folks, and they liked their township. And while a sentimental soul from the East Coast had once dubbed their main street Elm Street, though no elm had ever cast its shadow in Dogville, they saw no reason to change anything. Most of the ...

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Crazy Credits

An official Danish, Swedish, British, French, German and Dutch co-production in accordance with the 1992 European Convention on Cinematographic Co-Production.

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Connections

Featured in Dogville Confessions (2003)

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Soundtracks

"Young Americans"
Written and Performed by David Bowie
Courtesy of RZO Music, Inc.
Published by Chrysalis Music Limited / EMI Music Publishing Limited / RZO Music Limited

User Reviews

One of the bravest observations on the truth of humanity

I started watching Dogsville and felt like turning it off.. after all, what kind of movie could occur with no scenery? No doors.. it seemed like some sort of play/movie hybrid but after a shortwhile all those things faded away until I realized how much I would have missed if I had turned it off - it is now one of my favourite movies of all time.

Why? It is so brave to criticse humanity like this and admit just how 'dark' a race we truly are - not matter how much each of us profess to being 'good', we all know that most of us are anything but. Through this movie you see a woman who learns the cold harsh truth in a place where she expected to find the goodness that her faith told her existed. And then on not finding it, discovered that even within her lay a wrath that echoed the darkness that she herself wished did not feature so dominant in our race. And the biggest test of this is to observe your own emotions throughout this movie until what you feel at the end as perfect evidence...

I honestly believe those people that don't believe what this movie is expressing needs to take a cold hard look around them. And if they still don't believe, they are just like the people in this movie - unwilling to see the truth and coming up with excuses and reasons when nothing justifies the horrible world we live in.

A true masterpiece - one of the few pure pieces of art in cinema with amazing acting from Nicole Kidman especially, and the lack of a set causes you to be immersed in the characters like no other movie. And its 'them' and human nature that is the focus. Will leave you thinking and astounded (unless you don't like to think and can't watch a movie that isn't afraid to do something unique, in which case there a countless movies for 'you').