A grieving couple retreat to their cabin in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage, but nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.
The continuation of Joe's sexually dictated life delves into the darker aspects of her adulthood, obsessions and what led to her being in Seligman's care.
Director:
Lars von Trier
Stars:
Charlotte Gainsbourg,
Stellan Skarsgård,
Willem Dafoe
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 the town, she finds out that their support has a price. Yet her dangerous secret is never far away.
The story follows Jack, a highly intelligent serial killer, over the course of twelve years, and depicts the murders that really develop his inner madman.
Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in the underpass.
Director:
Gaspar Noé
Stars:
Monica Bellucci,
Vincent Cassel,
Albert Dupontel
A French drug dealer living in Tokyo is betrayed by his best friend and killed in a drug deal. His soul, observing the repercussions of his death, seeks resurrection.
Director:
Gaspar Noé
Stars:
Nathaniel Brown,
Paz de la Huerta,
Cyril Roy
A grieving couple retreat to their cabin in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage, but nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.
'Antichrist' was originally scheduled for production in 2005, but its executive producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen accidentally revealed the planned ending. Lars von Trier was furious and decided to delay the shoot so he could rewrite the script. See more »
Goofs
I'm going call it a continuity 'goof' even though it doesn't 'break the spell' of this movie (as if anything could!). When we first see the articulate, autophagic fox face to face it is wearing a collar with a bell hanging from it. See more »
Quotes
She:
A crying woman is a scheming woman.
See more »
This is one of those movies that is obviously designed to generate polarizing controversy. And not only because it's an offering from Lars von Trier, a director well-known for producing stimulating polemics on film. In short, von Trier loves to shock everybody, it seems.
On the surface, this is not a complex story, however: a married couple loses their young son who falls out of an upstairs window to die upon impact with concrete below. To overcome their grief – especially that of the wife – they seclude themselves in a cabin in the deep woods so that the unnamed husband (Willem Dafoe), a psychologist or psychiatrist, attempts to heal his unnamed wife's psyche (Charlotte Gainsbourg). One, of course, can argue about the wisdom of such an arrangement.
The subtext, though, concerns the nature of – in short – the dichotomy between humanity and animalism. Or, perhaps between what is good and what is evil. Or, maybe between the essential nature of man and woman. Or, all three. Given the varying interpretations available at IMDb, I'd suggest there are those and other ways of assessing von Trier's intent with this story, in a similar way that David Lynch inspires divergent views about his work.
From my own perspective, this film shows what true horror means: the extent to which a person will go to exert their dominance over another, to satisfy their craving for security, sustenance and salvation; and in a horrifically twisted manner, the need for self-redemption. That creepy, shocking thriller Audition (1999) comes to mind, having an antagonist with a similar homicidal bent as She in this movie.
The two actors are simply stunning, going way beyond what you would expect, perhaps: from the most graphic sex scenes I've witnessed in mainstream cinema, to physical torture that has been called (unjustly) 'torture porn', and to an act of self-preservation that becomes an act of murder and perhaps a blessing for the one murdered.
On the torture aspect, I've noted that the human leg has five different arteries within, two of which are not relevant (being in the ankle and foot). The remaining three, however, would be difficult to miss given the type and size of tool used so viciously and methodically. Hence, He should have died in short order from loss of arterial blood; for dramatic effect, I guess She got lucky.
This is not story or film for most people, I think. It's not entertainment at all: it's simply a visually interesting and thought-provoking dissertation about how von Trier sees the human condition. It's up to viewers to make a judgment and thereby find out for themselves a bit more about themselves, if they dare.
Like I said, von Trier likes to be polemical. In doing so, however, he should beware: familiarity often breeds contempt. And boredom. So, I'm looking forward to seeing what he's done with Melancholia.
Highly recommended for adults only.
November 2011.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
This is one of those movies that is obviously designed to generate polarizing controversy. And not only because it's an offering from Lars von Trier, a director well-known for producing stimulating polemics on film. In short, von Trier loves to shock everybody, it seems.
On the surface, this is not a complex story, however: a married couple loses their young son who falls out of an upstairs window to die upon impact with concrete below. To overcome their grief – especially that of the wife – they seclude themselves in a cabin in the deep woods so that the unnamed husband (Willem Dafoe), a psychologist or psychiatrist, attempts to heal his unnamed wife's psyche (Charlotte Gainsbourg). One, of course, can argue about the wisdom of such an arrangement.
The subtext, though, concerns the nature of – in short – the dichotomy between humanity and animalism. Or, perhaps between what is good and what is evil. Or, maybe between the essential nature of man and woman. Or, all three. Given the varying interpretations available at IMDb, I'd suggest there are those and other ways of assessing von Trier's intent with this story, in a similar way that David Lynch inspires divergent views about his work.
From my own perspective, this film shows what true horror means: the extent to which a person will go to exert their dominance over another, to satisfy their craving for security, sustenance and salvation; and in a horrifically twisted manner, the need for self-redemption. That creepy, shocking thriller Audition (1999) comes to mind, having an antagonist with a similar homicidal bent as She in this movie.
The two actors are simply stunning, going way beyond what you would expect, perhaps: from the most graphic sex scenes I've witnessed in mainstream cinema, to physical torture that has been called (unjustly) 'torture porn', and to an act of self-preservation that becomes an act of murder and perhaps a blessing for the one murdered.
On the torture aspect, I've noted that the human leg has five different arteries within, two of which are not relevant (being in the ankle and foot). The remaining three, however, would be difficult to miss given the type and size of tool used so viciously and methodically. Hence, He should have died in short order from loss of arterial blood; for dramatic effect, I guess She got lucky.
This is not story or film for most people, I think. It's not entertainment at all: it's simply a visually interesting and thought-provoking dissertation about how von Trier sees the human condition. It's up to viewers to make a judgment and thereby find out for themselves a bit more about themselves, if they dare.
Like I said, von Trier likes to be polemical. In doing so, however, he should beware: familiarity often breeds contempt. And boredom. So, I'm looking forward to seeing what he's done with Melancholia.
Highly recommended for adults only.
November 2011.