Manderlay

MOVIE #1,052 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 07.06.23 RANKING LARS VON TRIER: #13 A direct sequel to Dogville, 2005’s Manderlay is easily von Trier’s most direct work of sociopolitical messaging to date. If you were wondering about his thoughts on race in America, well, big surprise: he doesn’t have a very sunny outlook! Of course, this isn’t a unique stance by any means, but through his warped lens we see things from a different perspective (PERHAPS). It’s a delicate and touchy subject, to say the least. And while I don’t think it ranks anywhere close to his most successful movies, it isn’t necessarily the focus of the attention which is the main issue. Featuring many actors from the cast of Dogville (mostly in different roles), minus Nicole Kidman in the lead role of Grace (here replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard) and James Caan as her father (who bowed out over issues with the politics, and was replaced by Willem Dafoe), Manderlay is filmed in the same soundstage style. Howard does her best in an incredibly difficult spot, but she’s clearly a step down.

There are two main issues which plague this film. First, this is truly an insane and somewhat unbelievable premise on multiple levels. Unrealistic in a bad way, I feel. Grace goes straight from ordering the soulless murder of an entire town (she made a mother watch her children being executed!) to emancipator of slaves: some 70 years after the Civil War she stumbles upon a plantation where the rouse of slavery is still being subjected on a dozen or so in rural Alabama. Using the might of her father’s gangsters, she flips the table, forcing the white family into a life of servitude as she tries to instill the merits of freedom of democracy (albeit with the force of her dad’s men, Jean-Marc Barr and Udo Kier reprising roles, among them). Why the dramatic change of heart after how things ended in Dogville? It’s a stretch, but the idealism buried within her isn’t quite dead yet. New to the production are a slew of fantastic black actors, including Danny Glover and Isaach de Bankolé. There are many twists and turns throughout the movie’s 8 chapters as they follow Grace’s lead before, in true LVT fashion, everything goes to hell.

The second big issue is that this is just not as good cinematically. There are several weird cuts and editing choices. Overall this is sloppier and not as refined. Though it was filmed with the same cinematographer and basically in the same style, the lovely lighting and precision staging from Dogville is missing. It’s still unique and impressive given the constraints, but it lacks the nuance which made its predecessor so striking.

This was a co-production of an outlandish seven countries (Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy). There’s one notable exception to that list. Can you guess? Far be it from me to declare what stories someone should or shouldn’t tell, but it ultimately feels like von Trier is reaching here. Americans know just how fucked the situation is. We don’t necessarily need a Danish weirdo to point it out. By the time we get to the end credits, set once again to Bowie’s “Young Americans” against an even more disparate series of horrifying photos (what does 9/11 have to do with any of this?), it just feels exhausting.

But I admire his gusto, his never-ending desire to ‘go there’ without any hesitation or worry about the consequences or reception. But Dogville is superior because it was simply better executed, felt fresh and new, and tackled the subject matter in a much more universal way. It's no big surprise that von Trier's planned trilogy of films in this style puttered out after Manderlay.

ranking lars von trier cont'd
#14 ↩ • ↪ #12

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Manderlay is a 2005 avant-garde drama film written and directed by Lars von Trier, the second and final part of von Trier's projected USA – Land of Opportunities trilogy. It stars Bryce Dallas Howard, who replaces Nicole Kidman in the role of Grace Mulligan. The film co-stars Willem Dafoe, replacing James Caan. Lauren Bacall, Željko Ivanek, Jeremy Davies, and Chloë Sevigny return portraying different characters from those in Dogville. Only John Hurt, Udo Kier, and Jean-Marc Barr reprise their roles. The film was internationally co-produced with seven different European countries. It was released on April 1, 1988.