 | MOVIE #1,082 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 07.27.23 For the sake of changing shit up, I decided to watch the Lars von Trier filmography out of order. I formulated the order somewhat randomly, keeping the trilogies intact but otherwise jumping from era to era. Having completed his most recent work, 2018’s The House That Jack Built, I can definitively say that this was a terrible idea. [Ed. Note: In fact, it was such a bad idea that I quickly reverted to a mostly chronological viewing schedule after this.] For starters, similar to Peter Greenaway’s later movies, the director specifically references his own earlier work here, inserting actual clips of films I’ve yet to see in the middle of the chaos. This is self-indulgence in its purest form and I am here for it, but damn if I could do it over again so. |
The House That Jack Built is actually the third major motion picture to have that title. The first, a short silent drama film from England in the year 1900 clocking in at 54 seconds long, and the second, an 8-minute Canadian animated movie, are both direct adaptations of the nursery rhyme “This Is the House That Jack Built.” The House That Jack Built (2018), if you can believe it, is not.
This is a 2.5-hour film about a serial killer played by Matt Dylan recounting his crimes to Roman poet Virgil as he descends the layers of hell. It’s absurd by design, but what’s even more audacious are the sheer amount of themes LVT attempts to hit on here. Art, life, gender, death, just to name a few. Every pathway isn’t a winner, but damn I kind of loved this for the effort alone. For as barebones as Dogma 95 attempted to be, the bulk of his career has been full-on maximalism. I’ve yet to feel bored watching any of his films.
From the opening of the New York Times feature piece, “Is Lars von Trier Trolling Us?”…
Near the end of my interview with Lars von Trier, I asked if he was trolling women in his latest, “The House That Jack Built.” He said he didn’t know what trolling meant, so I explained, even as I wondered if he was feigning ignorance and actually trolling me.As if you couldn’t take a man who looks like this at face value?!
This question is certainly related to the thread in The House That Jack Built about how only men are the ones who are born guilty. And it is 100% a troll move. The troll is that he’s baiting people into wanting to think that this is also, somehow, an idealization of that sentiment. But I don’t know how you could watch this and actually think that men are innocent? Matt Dylan is LITERALLY a serial killer. I never felt a shred of sympathy towards him. That some ideas are offensive does not mean that you need feel offended by their existence.
On some level, I might agree with you that Trier is a master pilot… who can’t land the plane. I think he excels in the ultra longform because he needs the room to try. There are so many big ideas at play and so many different styles, risks and tactics that there’s nearly no chance of it all coming together. The beauty, in my eyes, is in the attempt. And if his films are filled with hate, it seems like a self-hate, for having the audience soldier on in the face of all these miserable thoughts and compulsions which he’s brought to life. I can kinda relate. Life is confusing and weird and full of sadness. That checks out.
CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,081 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,083 ⫸
⫷ MOVIE #1,081 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,083 ⫸
The House That Jack Built is a 2018 psychological horror art film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It stars Matt Dillon, Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Sofie Gråbøl, Riley Keough, and Jeremy Davies. Its plot follows Jack (Dillon), a serial killer who, over a 12-year period from the late 1970s into 1980s, commits numerous murders in the U.S. state of Washington. Utilizing Dante's Inferno as a metatext, the film is structured as a series of flashback vignettes relayed by Jack to the Roman poet Virgil, during which Jack attempts to make an argument for his crimes. It was released on May 14, 2018.
0 comments:
Post a Comment