Antichrist about The Evil Nature/The Evil Woman/Women, Mother Earth taking revenge on her male antagonists, bringing out the evil within both man and woman in a paradisiacal environment?
'He' (Adam?) - a therapist - and 'She' (Eve?) (they have no names) lose their son when making love in the apartment, not observing that the boy is climbing a chair, falling out of a window.
'She' is taken to a hospital for psychiatric treatment but 'He' takes her out of their, as he thinks she will heal better in their cabin in the woods.
The cabin holds some secrets from last summer, secrets that might have and do have consequences for the (un)blessed couple.
Violence, emotional eruptions, nightmares, paranoia, fear, love and hatred are some of the ingredients in this final 'showdown' between the two and nature is, as often, both the refuge and something horror-filled, framing the two lovers/combattants.
Past summer 'She' studied the nature of female evilness as depicted in historical material, a work intended to display how patriarchal structures always have tried to degrade and diminish the influence of female power. Gradually 'She' seems to be convinced of the fact that women are evil and that nature and women stand in a cooperative relationship spreading this evil over the world or should one understand her in another way?
Was the son a result of a reciprocal amorous relationship and what really happened that day when the boy fell out of the window? Were they really unaware of his doings - both of them?
If von Trier's film is misogynistic or not was a question hotly debated when it was released but as all kind of artistery, an œuvre can be interpreted in many ways and we are not going to discuss that issue here.
The film was made in honor of Andrey (Andrei) Tarkovskiy (Tarkovskij) and the (two?) first of the different episodes in the film (a prologue, four chapters and an epilogue) are strongly imitating the water filled world of the gret Russian director.
The more we got into the 'wooden parts', the less interesting became the film and the different allusions to mythical, historical and filmic material tended to lose its contures as if von Trier lost the narrational thread somwhere on the road to Hell.
The result was mediocre.
Charlotte Gainsbourg did her best to get rid of herself in this role and to some degree she succeeded. Willem Dafoe's acting was quite good and I most often like the roles he creates, even if I can't say that von Trier helped his actors in the last scenes, more and more becoming a pure and simple violent horror film without any refinement.
'He' (Adam?) - a therapist - and 'She' (Eve?) (they have no names) lose their son when making love in the apartment, not observing that the boy is climbing a chair, falling out of a window.
'She' is taken to a hospital for psychiatric treatment but 'He' takes her out of their, as he thinks she will heal better in their cabin in the woods.
The cabin holds some secrets from last summer, secrets that might have and do have consequences for the (un)blessed couple.
Violence, emotional eruptions, nightmares, paranoia, fear, love and hatred are some of the ingredients in this final 'showdown' between the two and nature is, as often, both the refuge and something horror-filled, framing the two lovers/combattants.
Past summer 'She' studied the nature of female evilness as depicted in historical material, a work intended to display how patriarchal structures always have tried to degrade and diminish the influence of female power. Gradually 'She' seems to be convinced of the fact that women are evil and that nature and women stand in a cooperative relationship spreading this evil over the world or should one understand her in another way?
Was the son a result of a reciprocal amorous relationship and what really happened that day when the boy fell out of the window? Were they really unaware of his doings - both of them?
If von Trier's film is misogynistic or not was a question hotly debated when it was released but as all kind of artistery, an œuvre can be interpreted in many ways and we are not going to discuss that issue here.
The film was made in honor of Andrey (Andrei) Tarkovskiy (Tarkovskij) and the (two?) first of the different episodes in the film (a prologue, four chapters and an epilogue) are strongly imitating the water filled world of the gret Russian director.
The more we got into the 'wooden parts', the less interesting became the film and the different allusions to mythical, historical and filmic material tended to lose its contures as if von Trier lost the narrational thread somwhere on the road to Hell.
The result was mediocre.
Charlotte Gainsbourg did her best to get rid of herself in this role and to some degree she succeeded. Willem Dafoe's acting was quite good and I most often like the roles he creates, even if I can't say that von Trier helped his actors in the last scenes, more and more becoming a pure and simple violent horror film without any refinement.
No comments:
Post a Comment