Cinema is in a pretty weird state at the moment - More prominent filmmakers are turning to television, Steven Soderbergh, whose latest and supposedly "last" film couldn’t even get a run in theaters, gave an interesting speech on the current state of cinema, producer Ted Hope is more vocal than ever on social media outletts about his views on the current state of independent film and millionaire actors are turning to kickstarter and other similar sites to get funding from people like you & me so they can direct movies of their own (personally I find that absolutely appalling. Ask your other millionaire actor buddies for money...OR USE YOUR OWN!).
This time of year is always pretty stale yet I'm still remaining optimistic because there's a ton of interesting stuff on the horizon that will hopefully get released in a timely fashion. I wasn’t actually at Cannes (and never have been) but judging from the lineup of filmmakers alone (The Coens, Claire Denis, Jim Jarmusch, Hal Hartley, Abdelatiff Kechiche, Polanski, Refn, etc) I'm not exactly sure why cinephiles & movie forum nerds were so unenthusiastic and disappointed about this year’s festival (at least that’s the vibe I got). And outside of Cannes, 2013 will also more than likely bring us new films from Lars Von Trier, Bruno Dumont & Steve McQueen. Thats enough for me to stay positive for the rest of this movie season...
For a "film critic" I haven’t seen too many new/important/"big" films this year (Ironman 3, Start Trek 2, Superman, The End, World War Z, etc). But getting engaged, exercising and finding a new apartment (along with maintaining consistent content for this site) take precedent over all that. And besides, when it comes to movies of that magnitude I doubt my opinion holds that much weight anyway. You'll all see them regardless.
As far as what I HAVE seen this year -three of my six favorite films of the year so far are technically from 2012 but they didn’t get a wide releases until this year and I missed the first 30-45 minutes of two of the other three films that I liked*. But still, for what it’s worth, here's my quick lil' rundown of 2013 so far...
Favorites/Stuff I Enjoyed...
Upstream Color
Much like Primer, Shane Caruth's first feature film that made a mini-dent on the indie scene 9 years ago, this will require multiple viewings on my part before I can even begin to speak intelligently about it. But what I DO know is that this is a beautiful piece of art with great cinematography, a touching/intimate/ambient score straight outta the school of Brian Eno and overall, this was an attempt at an original story that combined subtle science fiction, romance, hypnosis and the pointlessness of work with non-linear storytelling.
Frances Ha
Just off the strength that I didn’t hate this, which is made up of so many elements I'm not too crazy about (Noah Baumbch, Greta Gerwig, New York City, Upper Class elitism, etc) I have to include it on the list. I genuinely enjoyed this film which drew upon the cinema of old school Jim Jarmusch & Woody Allen. I still have a few lil' conflicting issues with this - I think Greta Gerwig plays up the "awkward girl" thing a little too much and as I stated on twitter; "Frances Ha made me like New York City again, and still dislike it at the same time", but this was still very fun and somewhat relatable on a few levels.
Stories We Tell
At the beginning of this documentary Sarah Polley's sister asks the question; "who the fuck wants to see a movie about our family?" That very same question was also kinda in the back of my mind in regards to Polley's personal documentsry about her family secrets, but she soon put my skepticism to rest. This is easily the best thing I've seen all year so far. Although I didn't really relate to much in this documentary or grow up in a big immediate family, I was still very touched by Sarah Polley's latest film where she dissects her families history and let's us in on some incredibly personal information about her existence.
The Place Beyond The Pines
Im gonna be honest - the more I think about this the more plot holes and flaws I start to discover. So before I come to the realization that this film was actually just "ok" I'm including it on this list before I change my mind.
Behind The Candelabra & The Central Park Five*
As I already stated - I missed the beginning of both of these films but I enjoyed what what I saw
Highly Anticipating...
Only God Forgives
So far Nicholas Winding Refn's latest has gotten mixed reviews at best but judging from the three clips I've seen I still can't wait. Refn seems to be combining the world of noir-ish art house cinema with the world of bad late night cable action movies, scored by a tangerine dream cover band and I think that's nothing short of brilliant. After Valhalla Rising & Drive I'll see anything this man puts out.
Les Salauds
New Claire Denis. Sold. Moving on...
Nymphomaniac
It appears that Lars Von Trier is Remaking Black Snake Moan with a much better cast? Something tells me this will be darker and even more provocative than Antichrist. Von Trier's exploration in to the dark side of sex has poked its little head out in the past (Breaking The Waves, Dogville, Antichrist) and he also hasn't been afraid to show unsimulated sex before either (The Idiots & Antichrist) so I think this will be his moment to really purge. Whether this turns out to be a disaster or a masterpiece it'll still be entertaining and get a rise outta someone.
Blue Is The Warmest Color
It broke my heart when Abdellatif Kechiche's misunderstood masterpiece; Black Venus (2010) got swept under the rug so I'm glad he got his redemption by winning best picture at Cannes last month for his adaptation of the cult french graphic novel about homosexuality and young love.
More radical/unexpected works have been winning the Palme D'or for the last couple of years and this film doesn’t look like any type of exception.
12 Years A Slave
Last year brought us Django and this year we get 12 Years A Slave. Not to put too much pressure on Steve McQueen but I have a feeling this will be his crowning achievement as a filmmaker (a crowning achievement in a short career so far, but still).
Only Lovers Left Alive
Much like Claire Denis' new film, you don’t have to sell me on this one either. This is directed by one of my all time favorite filmmakers (Jim Jarmusch) so I'm in. Even though I really didn’t like Limits Of Control and I am a tad bit weary of Jarmusch playing in to this recent Vampire craze, I'm still optimistic. Vampires are cool. Vampire movies should be cool. Who's cooler than Jim Jarmusch? This is a match made in heaven.
Not exactly anticipating, but I am curious...
Oldboy
Given Spike Lee's recent string of disappointing and/or bad films (especially Red Hook "Bummer") he already has the chips stacked against him. Oldboy is a beloved holy grail-esque film of comicon-type fanboys who don’t want their beloved Asian films remade so I'm sure people already dislike like this adaptation without even seeing it (have you seen the discussions on the IMDB boards?) This also may or may not continue Spike Lee & Quentin Tarantino's almost 20 year long feud as Tarantino is Oldboy/Park-Chan Wok fanboy #1. I imagine someone you have personal issues with (like Tarantino does with Lee) remaking one of your favorite films would really piss someone off. I'm also bracing myself for a possible (one-sided) beef between Spike Lee & Steve McQueen given that they both have films being released around the same time and Spike Lee is notorious for having that "only me" complex among other prominent black filmmakers over the years (Matty Rich, John Singleton, etc).
Nebraska
I've never been an Alexander Payne fan outside of maybe Election and Laura Dern's performance in Citizen Ruth but apparently Bruce Dern, Laura's dad, gave a career performance in Payne's latest film so that’s enough to spark my interest.
Prince Avalanche
David Gordon Green was officially dead to me the minute the credits rolled at the end of The Sitter but there's something about the trailer for his latest film that makes me think he's returning to his All The Real Girls-roots. I'm not expecting a game-changer but it does look like he's making a return to his old style that I'm a fan of.
On the other hand, this could very well be one of those post-2000 sundance comedies that's quirky for the sake of being quirky
On Another note - PINNLAND EMPIRE will be three years old soon! I'd like to thank you guys for reading and sharing.
Thanks to John Cribbs, Chris Funderberg, Doug Frye, Leanne Kubickz, Nathaniel Drake Carlson, Jason Hedrick, Jacob Sanders, Paul Cooney, Matt Reddick, Chris Robosch & Ian Loffill for contributing to the site.
Thanks to Claire Denis, Guy Maddin, Lodge Kerrigan, Marina De Van, Alice Houri, Beans Bertrand Bonello, John Carluccio, Djinn Carrenard & John Lurie for taking the time out to participate in the short interviews we've done in the past and an extra special thanks to Ted Hope, Toronto Film Review, The Pink Smoke, Flud Watches, Warren Wade Anderson & Monte Hellman for bringing traffic to the site over the years.
I know this is the third movie in a row but all of the recent Lars Von Trier press (the nazi comment at Cannes, beef with Drive director and fellow Dane; Nicolas Winding Refn, Shia Lebouf apparently having unsimulated sex in his upcoming film) just so happens to coincide with the phase I'm in at the moment. Between my write-up of Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now and The Cinema Of Lars Von Trier, I think its time we actually get in to this movie and how its grown on me in the last two years. Not to say I disliked the movie when I first saw it or anything but I was more caught up in how disoriented and fucked up it left me feeling that I didn't really pay attention to the acting, imagery and possible messages behind the movie. Trust me, even a movie fanatic like myself rolls my eyes when I hear people talk about how moved or affected they were from a movie or a particular scene (just sounds like they're exaggerating). But Antichrist did kinda mess with me - from demonic talking foxes to the flashback scene when Charlotte Gainsbourg notices sounds coming from the baby monitor yet does nothing to prevent her son's death. Like many other Von Trier films (Europa, The Idiots, Manderlay, etc) Antichrist was also shrouded in controversy before it even reached the general public. To this day I think people are STILL too caught up in scenes of penises ejaculating blood to realize that this is a really good film with great imagery and acting (especially from Gainsbourg). Lets also not forget that Lars was able to keep our attention for two hours with a cast made up of only two people. Not since What Happened Was has there been such an entertaining movie with only two actors. Gainsbourg's performance is both awesome and kinda tough to watch at times. She really goes all out in her performance from masturbating completely naked in the middle of the woods with her legs spread wide open to her ability to display grief & sadness.
As I pointed out in my School Of Tarkovsky series, Antichrist is one of the best dedications to the filmmaking style of Andrei Tarkovsky since Carlos Reygadas' Japon (Von Trier even dedicated Antichrist to him)...
Solaris (1972) Antichrist (2009)
Antichrist isn't exactly a horror movie yet strangely enough its more "scary" than any recent actual horror movie I've seen in years. Besides Tarkovsky, Von Trier draws elements from classic horror films like The Exorcist and The Shining with quick flashes of demonic & horrific images across the screen (for years I've been saying more modern horror films could use more elements like this)...
Top: Images from The Exorcist, Bottom: Images from Antichrist (shout out to Matt Reddick for the two print screens)
Von Trier also subtly distorts the visuals from time to time with a kind of water drop effect on the screen. Additionally, Antichrist draws some similarities to films like Eraserhead & Lost Highway (Lynch) as well as Irreversible & Enter The Void (Noe) with its disorienting, droning & base-heavy soundtrack that just adds an extra level of eeriness (see video clips at the end of the blog)
So lets do a quick tally: unexpected flashes of demonic faces on a distorted screen combined with droning audio, evil talking animals, penises ejaculating blood and an amazingly intense performance (Charlotte Gainsbourg).
It’s hard for me to actually rate this movie with something like a 4 outta 5 stars or a "good" or "bad". Antichrist feels more like an “experience” than just a movie. I don’t mean to sound so dramatic but that’s the best I can do when someone asks if this movie is good or not. In the film Willem Dafoe ("Him") and Charlotte Gainsbourg ("Her") play a married couple trying to get past the loss their son (he fell out of window). Things get complicated when Dafoe’s character tries to play double duty as the supportive husband AND psychiatrist to his wife who seems to be taking the loss much harder than him. So they go off to their cabin in the woods for some progressive new-age psychotherapy. But as the story unfolds Dafoe starts to discover some disturbing things about his wife and what she’s been up to behind his back. As it turns out she was getting in to the world of witchcraft (when she was supposed to be working on her masters). The longer they stay at the cabin, more and more strange occurrence happen - Talking animals, vicious hail storms and Gainsbourg's behavior becomes more and more violent to the point where she's practically possessed. These days people tend to site recent films like Blue Valentine or A Separation as an example of why marriage and relationships can be tough. But in my opinion Antichrist kinda takes the cake as far as stories about a marriage or relationships put to the ultimate test. What the hell was Lars trying to say with Antichrist? To this day I’m still not exactly sure but part of me thinks he might be trying to say something dark & disturbing about women as a whole. I know I may be reaching and some of you may not feel the same way but the final scene where we see Willem Dafoe walking through a sea of ghostly women on their way to the cabin along with the very powerful flashback scene where its implied that Gainsbourg could have done something to prevent the death of her son kinda gave me this strange feeling that Von Trier has a bone to pick with women or he doesn't trust them (and lets not forget the scene where Charlotte Gainsbourg takes a pair of scissors to her genitals). I'd love for any women that've seen Antichrist to chime in on my lil' theory. This movie will do nothing to shake the misogynist label that many people have tagged Von Trier with. Damn near all his films show a female character either; murdered, beaten, raped or all 3 (although in this movie its Willem Dafoe that gets this treatment minus the murder part).
Now there's a lot more to Antichrist than the possible implication that Lars has issues with women (which is a theory that I could be WAY off on). Antichrist is also about depression and how it can be crippling, especially when dealing with the loss of a child (in the first have of the film Gainsbourg pretty much blames herself for her sons death). Anyone who knows anything about Von Trier knows about his battles with depression, phobias and anxiety (something Gainsbourg's character battles with in the film). So while on one hand Gainsbourg's character could be seen as "evil", on the other hand Gainsbourg's character could be an extension of Von Trier himself. Religion also played a heavy part in Von Trier's upbringing (he was raised Jewish but eventually converted to Catholicism). Besides the obvious the title, Antichrist (along with many of his other films like Breaking The Waves) is filled with a ton of religious guilt and symbolism.
I recommend that this not be the last thing you watch before you go to sleep. It’s a good idea to have a “happy” movie on deck right after you’re finished watching this.
Starting off this years Toronto International film festival (for me, at least) was Lars Von Trier's latest; 'Melancholia'. After watching the film and then sleeping on it for a night i realized that i actually do like it (something i wasn't sure of on Thursday when the credits rolled). My favorite thing about 'Melancholia' is that this may be the first film Von Trier has directed since 'Dancer In The Dark' (11 years ago) that wasn't made strictly to piss people off or to push buttons. With 'Dogville' (2003) he set out to piss off Americans. In Manderlay (2005) he set out to piss off white Americans (and ended up pissing them off as well as black people). 'The Boss Of It All' (2007) felt like we'd all been "had" and 'Antichrist' (2009) pissed just about EVERYONE off.
In 'Melancholia', the story of 2 sisters (Kirsten Dunst & Charlotte Gainsbourg) trying to mend their relationship with each other and battle depression before the "end of the world" (a planet known as "melancholia" is headed towards earth to destroy it), it seemed like Von Trier simply set out to make a great film. And for the most part he did. Von Trier didn't go too deep in to Dunst & Gainsbourg's history as sisters or why Dunst is so depressed and unstable, but in the opening wedding sequence when we're introduced to their family (specifically their mother played by Charlotte Rampling) we see why they have so many issues. Through out the film the sisters' roles with each other switch. In the first half, Dunst becomes depressed to the point where she can barely move and its her older sister (Gainsbourg) taking care of her. But by the end of the film, fear takes over Gainsbourg (due to planet earth's inevitable destruction) and its Dunst who takes control.
'Melancholia' DID have a few problems (that some of you may not even find as troublesome as i did).
Lars throws his depression all in our faces (mainly through Kirsten Dunst's character) to the point where we almost cant take it anymore. Its SO drab and depressing at times (although Udo Kier's presences is a great comic relief). When you look at it one way, i guess Von Trier succeeded (i mean, the title of the film IS 'Melancholia'). Its a movie about the end of the world. But the problem is that not everyone wants to sit through a film that's SO depressing and draining. So beware. Also, some of you may find parts of the film a bit boring.
But if you hang in their until the end, everything pays off. In my opinion, the ending of 'Melancholia' is one of the top 3 things Lars Von Trier has ever done. Along with the final sequence, the opening of 'Melancholia' (featuring some very memorable images) and Charlotte Rampling's speech during the wedding were some of my favorite scenes.
Von Trier's last 2 films have a lot more visual effects then his other stuff. In 'Antichrist' we had the talking fox and the ghostly faceless women walking up the hill towards Willem Dafoe at the end. In 'Melancholia' there's even more visual effects.
the planet "melancholia"
the planet "melancholia" next to the moon
scene from the opening sequence where tree branches cling to Dunst
another scene from the opening sequence
Normally Von Trier will throw in a reference to Tarkovsky or Bergman. But in 'Melancholia' it looks like he's referencing shots from his OWN work (specifically 'Antichrist'). Some scenes and shots look identical. There's a scene in 'Melancholia' when Dunst looks directly in to the camera as dead birds are falling from the sky. That shot is directly out of a scene in 'Antichrist' when Willem Dafoe looks in to the camera as acorns fall down in front of him in slow motion. Even the title cards in both films look alike...
Antichrist Opening Credits
Melancholia Opening Credits
Dafoe in 'Antichrist'
similar shot Dunst in 'Melancholia'
'Antichrist'
similar shot in 'Melancholia'
Outside of Lars's controversial statement at Cannes this year, there was a lot of hype about Kirsten Dunst's award winning performance. I was sceptical, but i have to give her credit now that I've seen it. I seriously thought she was way too fragile to work with a guy like Lars but she did a great job. Other standout performance came from Charlotte Gainsbourg, Charlotte Rampling and surprisingly...Keefer Sutherland (especially during the first half).
Lars Von Trier continues to be more and more destructive with each film. Blowing up a train full of people in 'Europa' wasn't enough for him, so he moved on to murdering an entire village of people in 'Dogville'. Apparently that wasn't enough either, so now he wants to blow earth up. In a way, 'Antichrist' feels like an unofficial prequel to 'Melancholia'. Its almost like the talking fox in 'Antichrist' was warning us of things to come when he delivered the famous line: "chaos reigns". Both films have a bleak outlook on life with depressed characters struggling to find meaning.
It looks like Terrance Malick started the movie year off with a film about creation and Von Trier is gonna end it with a film about total destruction.
A still from the creation scene in 'The Tree Of Life'
The Planet "Melancholia" headed for planet earth
'Another Earth'
Between 'The Tree Of Life', 'Another Earth' and 'Melancholia', planets seem to be the "in" thing in cinema this year.
OK, its been a long day. In addition to 'Melancholia', I also got a chance to see the new George Clooney political thriller 'The Ides Of March' (which you'll be reading about soon), Aki Kaurismaki's 'Le Havre' and Lynne Ramsay's 'We Need To Talk About Kevin'.
Forget all the excuses, 'the childish fascination' and 'the all embracing humility', for this is my confession, black on white: I, Lars von Trier, am but a simple masturbator of the silver screen.- Lars Von Trier
With quotes like the one above along with his recent Cannes statement, beefs with fellow directors like Roman Polanski & Nicolas Refn and films like 'Antichrist', I think its safe to say that Lars Von Trier has earned the title of most notorious director of the 21st century. Even people who profess to hate his films still talk about them with passion. I know this sounds a bit ridiculous, but in a way that means Lars Von Trier has succeeded. After all, he's the man who was quoted saying; A movie should be like a pebble in the shoe. And as far as I'm concerned, Bjork hanging lifelessly at the ending of 'Dancer In Dark', the underlying message that 'Antichrist' was trying convey and many elements of his other films ARE in fact a pebble in the shoe (at least in my shoe they are). But outside of the button pushing and prickish tendencies, he's is still a talented director with plenty of technical skill and great imagery which we're gonna look at right now. And although it may seem like I'm criticising him more than the other directors we've looked at before, I am a fan of Von Trier's work...
LARS' EGO:
We all know it isn't uncommon for a director to make a cameo in his/her films (hitchcock, tarantino, john singleton, etc) or even star in them (woody allen, spike lee, john cassavetes). At the beginning of Von Trier's career he was no exception to that, making cameo appearances in 'The Element Of Crime' & 'Europa' and starring in 'Epidemic'. The problem is that over the years he's made sure that his name appear BIGGER and BIGGER than the actual movie title, or the actors starring in the film (like he did recently in 'Antichrist'). At the beginning of the 'The Boss Of It All' he gives an unnecessary introduction which seemed to only serve the purpose of putting himself on camera. I get that these are his films, but sometimes it feels like he wants people to be EXTRA sure that they're his films...
The Element Of Crime
Epidemic
Kingdom
Matt Dillon as a variation of Lars Von Trier in The House That Jack Built
Lars' name appears bigger than the movie title in the opening credits of Breaking The Waves...
and in Dancer In The Dark
Lars Von Trier in The Boss Of It All filming himself in the reflection of a window
Antichrist
WOMEN IN TROUBLE:
I remember reading a friends facebook status just after he saw 'Antichrist' and it simply read; "wow...lars von trier has problems". Whats funny is that nowhere in that status update did it say anything about him actually seeing 'Antichrist'. Its just one of those things I knew. The endings of a lot of his films in the last decade have clearly shown that he's a depressed person: The ending of 'Dogville' where Nicole Kidman and James Caan order an entire village to be murdered, the ending of 'Dancer In The Dark' where we see Bjork just hang there after being executed, and of course the ending of 'Antichrist' which clearly shows that he's got issues with women. Lars has always been very open about his depression, Prozac use and other phobias. Maybe its just me, but i think he likes to take his aggression out on his female characters. With the exception of 'The Boss Of It All (which i almost don't even count as one of his movies because it wasn't very good), all of his films show a woman being beaten, raped, murdered, dominated sexually or suffering from some kind of loss or depression. And most times its a combination of at least 2 of those things. In 'Breaking The Waves', Emily Watson is raped, beaten and murdered. In 'The Idiots', Karen is not only suffering from the loss of her son (much like Charlotte Gainsbourg in 'Antichrist'), but her husband punches her in the face at the end of the film. Nicole Kidman is raped and used as a sex doll by the end of 'Dogville' and the 'Element Of Crime' is about a killer brutally murdering woman. Don't get me wrong, both male and female characters suffer in his films, but its pretty obvious that women catch it much worse...
Medea
Breaking The Waves
The Idiots
Dancer In The Dark
Dogville
Antichrist
Meancholia
Nymphomaniac
The House That Jack Built
LARS' OBSTRUCTIONS:
Lars Von Trier my be a "rule breaker" or a "radical", but all of his films still follow some strict guideline either in the way they're made or in the plot of the film. Much of his films are broken up by chapters (breaking the waves, dogville, manderlay and antichrist). 'The Idiots' follows the strict dogma guidelines (a style of film making that lars von trier co-created involving minimal post-production, natural lighting and other strict rules), 'Epidemic' was made strictly to prove the point that he could make a film with only a $100,000 budget and the plot of 'Element Of Crime' involves a cop trying to find a killer using a strict set of guidelines taught to him by his mentor...
Breaking The Waves
Dogma certificate for The Idiots
Dogville opening credits
Manderlay opening credits
Antichrist
REFERENCES TO OTHER DIRECTORS:
Lars has made it very clear in plenty of interviews and Q&A's that he looks up to directors like Fassbinder, Tarkovsky and Bergman. Just like his peers, Von Trier makes references to his favorite films and filmmakers all the time...
Ingmar Bergman
Persona (Bergman)
Europa (Von Trier)
Europa
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Fassbinder was another big influence. The use of Fassbinder's "regulars" in 'Europa' (along with Ingmar Bergman Regular Max Von Sydow as the narrator) was kind of an homage...
Eddie Constantine in Fassbinder's 'Warnung'
Barbara Sukowa in Fassbinder's 'Lola'
Udo Kier in Fassbinder's 'The 3rd Generation'
Eddie Constantine (far left), Barbara Sukowa (center) and Udo Kier (far right) together in Von Trier's Europa
Virgin Spring / Sacrifice
Mother & Son / Nymphomaniac
PROVOCATEUR:
We all know that one of Von Trier's main motivations is to fuck with people (sorry, but its true). Sometimes he succeeds like in the end of 'Dogville' or 'Dancer In The Dark' and sometimes it comes off as a juvenile prank like certain elements of 'Antichrist', 'Manderlay' and him showing real sex in 'The Idiots' (a film about a group of anarchists who go around pretending to be retarded to "disrupt the system"). But no matter what, Von Trier has a talent for implanting unsettling images & scenes in your head that stay there for a long time. Look at the end of 'Antichrist'. Sure i said some aspects of that movie are kinda juvenile, but at the same time the beginning of the film where the baby falls out of the window and the ending where all the ghostly woman are walking up the hill towards Willem Dafoe has always stayed with me.
Europa
The Idiots
Antichrist
The House That Jack Built
Kingdom
Dancer In Dark
The House That Jack Built
Dogville
Manderlay
OTHER VARIOUS IMAGES: When you get past Von Trier's ego and the controversy surrounding some of his films, He still does some pretty interesting stuff behind the camera with colors, editing and cinematography...
