![]() Director: Lars Von Trier Year Of Release: 2000 Plot: Selma is a Czechoslovakian immigrant, a single mother working in a factory in rural America. Her salvation is her passion for music, specifically, the all-singing, all-dancing numbers found in classic Hollywood musicals. Selma harbours a sad secret: she is losing her eyesight and her son Gene stands to suffer the same fate if she can’t put away enough money to secure him an operation. When a desperate neighbour falsely accuses Selma of stealing his savings, the drama of her life escalates to a tragic finale. |
I cant decide whether I hate Lars Von Trier or not. Im not the sort of person who normally hates things or people, but Im considering making a special case for the Danish director, who seems to be on a mission to make the entire world suicidal. That would be fair enough if his films told the truth, but theyre amongst the most contrived, manipulative pieces of cinema around.
Hollywood often gets blamed for being emotionally manipulative, with James Cameron and his ilk often accused of wringing feelings out of the audience that their movies dont really deserve, however most of these Tinsel Town directors are like kids drawing stickmen compared to Lars Von Trier when it comes to emotional manipulation. Dancer In The Dark, for example, is little more than a series of terrible things happening to a woman, yet no matter what occurs she stays naive, hopeful, sweet and innocent. That would be fine if it was shown as resilience in the face of adversity, but it isnt. Its basically that Bjorks Selma is too stupid to ever actually get involved in her own story and so is merely at the whim of those who would seek to manipulate her.
Its for this reason that many have accused the director of being a misogynist. On the surface it seems the other way around, as the likes of Breaking The Waves, Dancer In The Dark and Dogville to a large extent seem to be about men abusing and destroying women. However when you actually look at the women being destroyed, they are absolute doormats, who allow themselves to be abused, never learn anything, do anything or act like a genuine human beings they simply believe everything theyre told by anyone, and then seem surprised if someone tries to take advantage.
While they are incredibly sympathetic characters due to their naivety, they are also the virtually opposite of the modern empowered woman. Sure there are gullible people out there, but this takes things to the extreme, suggesting these people live in a vacuum outside of modern society and are merely the puppets of a population that largely seems to consist on evil people. Take Bess in Breaking The Waves, who goes off to have sex with strange men because her hospitalised husband tells her to. She never questions it, even though from the start it leads her into trouble and its clear she doesnt want to. However a man has told her to do something, so she does.
Again it would be fine if these women were beaten down by a realistic series of events, but they arent. Von Trier creates the most over the top series of tragedies he can find. If they tried to present what Von Trier does in a Hollywood film, it would be considered the most ridiculous, extreme soap opera imaginable, but because hes arty, European and very good at telling a story, few seem to comment on how farcical it all is. The doormat characters are quite important to this, because half the emotional manipulation comes from these innocents being continually knocked down, but if they actually reacted to or commented on what was happening to them, it would quickly become apparent how OTT it really all is.
Von Trier might be able to get away with this is he didnt have to make his films so depressing. Ive being trying to think what the point is of making films where by the end you feel life is pointless and everything about it is awful, but I cant. Well, I could if the movie reflected what real life is like, but I genuinely dont think Von Triers movies do.
Watching Dancer In The Dark for the first time was one of the most depressing experiences of my life. I went to the cinema alone, spent two hours basically watching a woman getting constantly abused, crapped on and destroyed (while she occasionally breaks into song, just to make the shit happening to her seem even worse), and it ends with one of the most stunningly downbeat endings ever conceived. By the end I was utterly desolate. In fact I was quite glad I went alone, as I dont think I could have ever looked at anyone Id gone with again without assuming they were trying to heartlessly destroy my life, because according to Dancer In The Dark thats all anyone ever does.
I then had to walk home alone, and just to add to the gloomy mood, I had to wander along on a lonely path through a wood. It nearly got to the point where I was wondering whether there was any point actually going back to my house, as I might as well just stay in the forest by myself, where it would be less likely the evil people (AKA pretty much everybody according to Von Trier) could find me. However as I really started to think about what Id just seen, the more annoyed I became. What was the point?
What had I genuinely learned about the world? Nothing. Was it a realistic look at the bad side of the society? No. Were the characters like real people? No. It struck me that it was essentially an utterly nihilistic, depressive bit of cinema, which is essentially meaningless and pointless. It is a movie that sets out to destroy purely for the sake of it, while giving the veneer of being something more than that in fact its almost sociopathic cinema. And thats essentially what Von Trier has done for the last 15 years, even winning the Palm DOr at Cannes for it with Dancer In The Dark (Bjork also got a well deserved Best Actress award at Cannes, as she is sensational, despite the annoyances of the film around her).
It noticeable that when the director talks about making films, he does so almost in the context of it being his own personal therapy. He doesnt seem to make movie for audiences. Instead he just works through his own demons on a movie set, so that in an oddly narcissistic way he can make the rest of the world suffer from them when he releases the movie. However its not even like were understanding his mind through his film, other than it probably isnt a particularly jolly place to live.
It really does annoy me, as I cant see the point in making these movies. Even more frustrating is that he is obviously an extremely good director. His movies are incredibly powerful and effecting and I do normally say that if a film provokes an emotional reaction, even in a negative way, it must be doing something right but they are at the same time meaningless. What is the point of making a film that purely seems designed to depress the viewer and does little more than that? Why bother creating something that suggests everything about the world is shit, if youre not even going to say why or offer any solution (indeed, much of the infamous bust-up between Bjork and Von Trier on the set of Dancer In The Dark is said to be down to him ignoring her when she suggested there needed to be at least a glimmer of hope or possibility at the end of the film)? In fact it borders on reckless.
I still dont know whether I hate Lars Von Trier. Half of me wants to applaud him for making movies that are emotionally involving, but the other half is angry that he seems to delight (thats not the right word, as I dont think the director takes delight in anything) in trying depress people just because he can. Why do that? Its almost cruel, especially when its obvious that he has the thought and power to do so much more.
In the end I would be more than satisfied to be depressed by Lars Von Trier if there was a point to it, but most of his movies (The Idiots excepted, which is pretty smart) are just pretty unpleasant and pointless.
TIM ISAAC
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