This isn't much of a surprise to some people, but i don't think everyone really realizes how much of a sellout this guy has turned in to. Has anyone seen the trailer for David Gordon Green's latest movie? Apparently Jonah Hill is playing a young slacker living at his mom's house (surprise, surprise) who, for whatever reason, has to babysit a bunch of bad kids for one CRAZY night. Is this all one big elaborate prank? Is DGG doing these movies (pineapple express, your highness, the sitter) to fund a project that no one else will finance? Has he just said "fuck it" and decided to make some money? I DON'T GET IT! Judd Apatow is becoming a virus. He's pretty much become the white Tyler Perry (this may be one of the greatest things I've ever said). More and more filmmakers are slowly starting to turn in to him. He's like the emperor in the Star Wars movies, turning people over to the darkisde. And whats funny is that he apparently has NOTHING to do with 'The Sitter', yet it totally looks like it could be one of his movies.
I also find it interesting that years ago David Gordon Green had THIS to say about Kevin Smith...
He kind of created a Special Olympics for film. They just kind of lowered the standard. I’m sure their parents are proud; it’s just nothing I care to buy a ticket for
Oh really, David? So can anyone tell me the difference between 'Mallrats' or 'Zack & Miri' versus 'Your Higness' or 'The Sitter'? And I'm very aware that The Sitter isn't out yet, and i shouldn't be judging it until i see it, but lets be real...we can all judge this adventures in babysitting bullshit by the trailer. But seriously tho...is there a HUGE difference between Kevin Smith's comedies and David Gordon Green's last 3 films? I wonder if he even remembers saying that. I don't wanna repeat myself too much so you should probably read my review of 'Your Highness' on the flud site. DGG no longer deserves the Terrance Malick comparison that he's been getting for all these years.
Basically, I wanna know how you can go from this...
To This...
I know. Its hard to believe that all of those movie came from the same person. Maybe there's something I'm just not getting. Someone help me out. I don't wanna sound all dramatic, but i feel a little betrayed.
Anyway, I think we're gonna make this a regular thing. I've got about 6 more sellout directors that need to be called out, ranging from John Singleton (from 'Boyz N The Hood' to directing a 'Fast & The Furious' Sequel?) to Mathieu Kassovitz (from 'La Haine' to 'Gothika'???).
Stay Tuned...
Anyone familiar with Chantal Akerman should know that she isn't a fan of saying "cut". There isn't much editing in her films and she's not concerned with what the average movie go-er wants to see. Her name first popped up on my radar while reading up on Jim Jarmusch back in college. I guess the comparison of Jarmusch's early work to Akerman's films kind of makes sense (both directors' early work usually took place in small spaces, with very little cutting and were shot in black & white). Her name popped up again on the criterion commentary track for Richard Linklater's 'It's Impossible To Learn How To Plow...', where he mentions her a few times as an influence on his first film which, in my opinion, is straight out of the "school of chantal akerman": a minimal dialogue road movie/documentary where Linklater films himself on a cross country trek with a 16mm camera (a plot very similar to Akerman's 'Rendezvous D'Anna'). Some people consider Akerman's work great minimalist and/or femenist cinema (jeanne dielman, a couch in new york, and je tu il elle), while to others, her films are a sleep aid (which is an understanable statement). Akerman's work may not be that "watchable", but that still hasn't stopped prominent filmmakers like Richard Linklater, Jim Jarmusch, Michael Haneke, Sofia Coppola, Todd Haynes, Claire Denis, Aki Kaurismaki and Marina De Van from either mentioning her in interviews or some kind of commentary track on a DVD, or borrowing shots from her films...
je tu il elle (chantal akerman)
shadows in paradise (aki kaurismaki)
rendezvous d'anna (akerman)
the piano teacher (michael haneke)
rendezvous d'anna
the 7th continent (haneke)
Jeanne Dielman...(Akerman)
Safe (Todd Haynes)
"Boring Masterpiece" (a term i picked up from the on-going series of film screenings at Anthology Film Archives) best describes 'Rendezvous D'Anna' (which has become one of my new favorites). In this semi-road movie/character study, which i cant help but think is somewhat autobiographical, the beautiful Aurore Clement plays a movie director traveling around the European festival circuit with her latest film. At each stop she makes on her trip Anna encounters a different lover, family member or stranger. Much like the main character in Bette Gordon's 'Variety' (a woman working at a porn theater who becomes fascinated with pornography and starts to stalk a man) or Marina De Van's 'In My Skin' (a cronenberg-esque body horror film with a woman in the lead role that would have typically been for a man), the lead role of a director isn't often associated with a woman. There's even a moment at the beginning where a hotel clerk (positioned off camera) asks Anna a somewhat patronizing question...
Lets be honest, had Anna been a man, that statement would have never been made. Additionally, in your typical "road movie" (which almost ALWAYS shows a male lead), we see our main character having various sexual encounters with all the different women they meet on their journey and we look at that as something "cool"...and it is (two lane blacktop, roadside prophets, wild at heart, easy rider, etc). The same thing happens in 'Rendezvous D'Anna' but the roles are reversed. Its Anna who appears to be the dominate one in these relationships. She's the one who makes the "booty calls", and its the men who come back to her room yet we don't place that "double standard" or look down on her as being a promiscuous woman.
ANNA'S TRAVELS:
Anna goes from one European train station to the next to promote her film. And what's interesting is that we never see any scenes of the movie she made or any scenes of a press conference or her promoting the film at all for that matter.
ANNA'S DETACHMENT:
As you watch this film, you may start asking yourself; "whats the point of all this? when will something happen?" But by the end it should all be pretty obvious that Anna is detached from the world. She's not necessarily depressed, but she's pretty lonely and shows little to no emotion (i think Akerman does a much better job with this than she does with Jeanne Dielman...). Through most of the film she has this blank look on her face. Furthermore, the fact that she travels alone promoting her film is pretty odd. She doesn't travel with an agent, assistant or other cast members. She even wears the same clothes through he majority of the film. My favorite scene that really shows her loneliness and detachment is towards the end when Anna is riding in a taxi and she starts to tear up. As she's looking out the window, everything looks pointless and dreary (the people walking on the street, the buildings, all the signs and blinking lights, etc) Its such a helpless, heartbreaking and vulnerable moment.
At the beginning of the film, Anna checks in to her hotel and just kinda hangs by herself for a while...
The film ends with Akerman essentially using the same shot from the opening of the film (above)
This film isn't for everyone, especially with short attention spans, but if you're a fan of early Wim Wenders, late Bresson, Claire Denis, Peter Handke (specifically 'The Left Handed Woman'...another "boring masterpiece") or any of the other directors mentioned earlier, you'll love this. If you don't want to purchase the criterion eclipse set that this movie comes in, you can check it out on hulu+.
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...
