A Shady Piece of Provocation

I have a soft spot for Lars von Trier. He's a Danish director, and I absolutely love every one of his films that I've had the pleasure of viewing. I watched Dogville on Saturday. At first, I was a bit put off by the way in which the film is presented. This photo is actually the entire stage and contains every set you see in the movie, like this. The props are few and far between and there are no walls to denote different houses or rooms, just white lines on the ground. Therefore, you can always see all of the characters going about their business, even if they are not in the scene and cannot hear what the characters talking are saying. The film is told in a prologue and nine chapters with a narrator. The prologue was a bit shaky for me, but by the time I had gotten into the second chapter, I was sucked in and had forgotten about the odd sets and sparse atmosphere.

The emotional impact of the movie was incredible. Some scenes made me feel physically sick, and I was slightly taken aback with how vicious and wrathful I felt by the ninth chapter, which proves the point of von Trier. I'm not particularly a fan of Nicole Kidman, but she was so fantastic in this film. I can't even explain to you how beautifully tragic her performance is.

Maryann Johanson, a reviewer of the film, said this:
"Damn if I didn't completely forget to hate Dogville, and if I wasn't, three hours later, completely blown out of my little mind and right into the screening room next door.... You wanna see what our town is like? Here it is, in all its mean, petty, horrible smallness. It's not particularly about American meanness or pettiness or smallness, though some have accused von Trier of being anti-American — it's about human meanness, etc. The only thing "anti" about Dogville is that it might be called an anti-epic — an ambitious movie with a big cast and a marathon runtime that's about how small and insular and selfish people can be, about the miserable depths to which human beings can sink in their cruelty to others. Nationality's got nothing to do with it, though the ability to wield power over other human beings might, and so there might be some pertinent application to America as a whole right now. But everyone will — or should — recognize the universality of this, the worst side of humanity."

And that sums up my feelings on the film as well. I would post the trailer here, but I don't believe the US trailer accurately portrays the movie. You can find it by searching YouTube, but I think it is somewhat misleading. And the international trailer gives away far too much. If you're going to watch the movie, then I think it would be most enjoyable and shocking if you went into it without much knowledge about the plot.