To original poster: I sort of share your opinion. I love a lot of Von Trier movies and TV projects, like Epidemic, Europa, Element of Crime, The Kingdom TV series that Stephen King ended up ripping off, The Idiots, the Boss of It All...the last two are comedies...and he goes great at comedies.
But the movies I don't like are the one that seem horribly misogynistic. Breaking the Waves was like this, but it passed for me. It was ok. Dancer in the Dark, the same, made a bit better with Bjork singing and Dogville...which had an experimental set idea going. I ignored it for the most part...but this seems just more of the same. Like Lars just does not like women...why, I have no idea? What did we ever do to him?
So with this one and another one in the works called Nymphomaniac (oh holy Lord), I just don't see myself viewing Von Trier unless he jumps into comedy or even comedy horror again. I love his style of filming and the whole fairy tale gone bad Disney forest style of Antichrist, from what I read, should be right up my alley, what a bad pun.
I also know that Von Trier has expressed his "nature is evil" thoughts in other films. I've never felt nature to be evil and I grew up in the country, where I would see a mix of natural beauty and also dead bodies of animals half eaten. I have never thought to morally judge this, since animals aren't people and they need to eat and kill their prey, like we slaughter cows. It's very off putting to a girl who grew up revering nature and seems a very Christian viewpoint, that the world itself is evil...then I always thought why would God create a world that was evil...well, then people say Satan did it...but didn't God create Satan. I gave up on the weird contradictions of the Bible a long time ago. But what I didn't give up on was the balance and beauty of nature.
But maybe I am the type of woman Von Trier would hate. I don't play into nature being evil or women being bad. I think men have been repressors and Von Trier is doing a good job of pushing the hate around, when he could be doing more beautiful or even more interesting, if not gorey, ideas. Maybe all this idol ideology is from his depression, he is from that Scandinavia depression belt, but does he really have to take it out on us women?
I mean, if I could watch this from the point of view I have read about the child being the Antichrist and his death puts all this hate into motion...maybe I can get through it. The poster and other stills look good and I am curious about the "chaos reigns" fox. It's on Netflix screening, so I guess I could just fast-forward to that...I am very torn about it.
I am curious about seeing Melancholia too, which looks like a much better movie in terms of plot line and meaning.
Don't get me wrong, I love odd movies, love David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, The Panic Movement, Fernando Arrabal, etc. Or ones that have graphic sex or violence in them...if that has a point, as it does with Jodorowsky. Von Trier just puts me off a lot and it's sad because Europa is one of my favorite movies of all time and The (original) Kingdom one of the best TV shows I've seen...I was so anxious to see more...but some of his films I just don't want to see, because either I've seen the same metaphors being used to death or it is just a rehash of old woman-hating themes.
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pathxe
12 years ago
Well if you have seen even a decent horror movie this will have nothing that shocks you. I was actually expecting way more that what was in it.
Though what someone considers gruesome is up to the individual.
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felicitas_michele
12 years ago
wait. this isn't a statement about women in general. IE: whenever She initiated sex, She was using it to distract herself from feeling guilt about her son's death. that changes everything, I think. and He distracted himself by playing the Hero Shrink. for both parents, it's all too human (which opens up a whole new converation about human nature generally & so many other things in the movie).
it's not even a hundred per cent that events transpired as She recalls them. there's too much metaphor to take that for granted, and guilt has a way with messing with people: grieving parents usually go through a phase where they're unduly harsh on themselves. (this bit's a ??, I'll probably be back and forth on this point)
I'm not sure She was into witchcraft, but the point about the shoes is something new & really interesting.
I can't stand gore, so that's the only thing that initially put me off the film. the violence is so incredibly ugly that yes, it's disturbing, but scary? not in a ghastly ghostie kind of way.
fever built a bridge, reason tore it down.
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RealDuality
12 years ago
You should see the movie, and you should definitely never call a work of art an awful name like misogynistic without having viewed it. That is true PREJUDICE. Lars von Trier is actually more sympathetic to the female gender than the male. The male in this movie does appear to be a repressor. The woman commits the evil acts, but the male represents the source, and is a more disdainful person. This is felt at the very powerful end of the movie, with the voice of generations of women. Lars isn't "misogynistic" because he hates women, he's "misogynistic" because he refuses to leave this evil unexplored.
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