Review - AntiChrist
Lars Von Trier's psychological horror Antichrist is a strange film. For a horror film it's not all that scary and for an art film it is full of art house moments. Although it does have some shocking moments it does seem a little pointless because in between the shocking scenes the story seems to meander without any real sense of menace.
Willem Defoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg play He and She, there names never mentioned because it's not important. Trying to recover from a horrible accident leaving them childless, the couple try to escape to woods to get away from it all but bad things start to happen.
Whilst the film is divided into areas like grief, pain and gynocide, it is spelt out before each little segment you'll know what to expect. The graphic metaphors in the film are very, very blatant, not that it's a crime to be blatant but it does smack of superiority from the writer/director. Almost as to say - Look this is going to be way to complex for audience so we will dumb this down. Von Trier has written some pretty ugly characters here, which makes the whining (in Gainsbourg's case) and their smug know-it-all-isms (in Defoe's case) all that more annoying, you could only make this pair less likable if you saw them clubbing baby seals.
This isn't to denigrate Defoe and Gainsbourg's acting which is very good, in what would've been a tough shoot. Gainsbourg in particular is fearless in her role.
A superbly shot film that I really didn't like all that much but certainly one that will require a lot more discussion not only for its content but also why some films get graphic scenes left intact whilst other films get banned outright....but that is another topic...
Willem Defoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg play He and She, there names never mentioned because it's not important. Trying to recover from a horrible accident leaving them childless, the couple try to escape to woods to get away from it all but bad things start to happen.
Whilst the film is divided into areas like grief, pain and gynocide, it is spelt out before each little segment you'll know what to expect. The graphic metaphors in the film are very, very blatant, not that it's a crime to be blatant but it does smack of superiority from the writer/director. Almost as to say - Look this is going to be way to complex for audience so we will dumb this down. Von Trier has written some pretty ugly characters here, which makes the whining (in Gainsbourg's case) and their smug know-it-all-isms (in Defoe's case) all that more annoying, you could only make this pair less likable if you saw them clubbing baby seals.
This isn't to denigrate Defoe and Gainsbourg's acting which is very good, in what would've been a tough shoot. Gainsbourg in particular is fearless in her role.
A superbly shot film that I really didn't like all that much but certainly one that will require a lot more discussion not only for its content but also why some films get graphic scenes left intact whilst other films get banned outright....but that is another topic...
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