On Lars von Trier’s Anti-Christ
Anti-Christ: A Movie Review
by John David Ebert
Though this film was released in Denmark in May of 2009 and is therefore not technically recent, I just watched it for the first time on Netflix streaming video on demand and must say that it requires discourse. In an age of Hollywood formulas and computer generated celluloid video games, watching this film actually surprised me by reminding me that film, in the hands of a real artist, actually is a real art form. I had forgotten that. The film is made with the same sensibilities which attend European avant-garde art: the paintings of Gottfried Helnwein, let’s say, or the blackboard drawings of Rudolf Steiner; the photography of Gerhard Richter or the installations of Joseph Beuys. If the world of Euro-avant-garde art repels you, you might as well forget about the movie and also skip this review. This film wasn’t made for the little old lady in Dubuque. Its imagery is frank, and often brutal, and sometimes gives us scenes that thus far we are only accustomed to seeing in porn. Charlotte Gainsbourg, for instance, is shown, in one scene, masturbating: not pretending to, like Natalie Portman in Black Swan, but actually doing so on camera. And Willem Defoe’s penis is a sight you may as well get accustomed to here. Read the rest of this entry »
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