When I first heard about Chantal Akerman I thought her work would be much harder to watch than it ended up being. Saw D'est at the Ann Arbor film fest and was captivated the entire time, have found the same level of entrancement in all her other work I've seen.
I know this is really old, but I think the majority of people feel like you. For me I really liked it and would rank it in the middle of his filmography. I can see why the length, setting and subject matter would put people off though. The movie with the William Defoe? If so....man oh man is there some crazy imagery in there that I'll never be able to forget. I agree on everything. American Ultra gets too much hate for a fun action movie. Keanu is under rated, didn't hear anyone talk about it like it came and went. One of my favorites of the whole year and this year gave us Civil War, Jungle Book, Pop Star, Finding Dory and Star Trek.
is that how you feel about the film? curious because I don't think I have ever seen you discuss von Trier's oeuvre before, but I could be wrong. are you not a fan of his?
I hear The Kingdom is really good. I really only enjoy a few of his films, personally. but I like the ones I do like a ton
Manderlay and Antichrist want to provoke the audience without really offering anything beyond a very shallow moral. You can make a long-winded argument about Antichrist being about misogyny and how it is so pervasive that even women internalize that misogyny, but it is just Trier wanting to show someone cutting off their clitoris. Dogville, Dancer in the Dark, and Breaking the Waves provoke as well, but there is more beauty to them.
Throw The Idiots in his obnoxious provocation category, too. Breaking the Waves at least has some substance and a good central performance of an actual character.
To me Antichrist was about the shock moments. If it wasn't the fact that I was "waiting to see what insane thing would come next" I would have clocked out before it was over.
I can't for the life of me force myself to sit down and watch Breaking The Waves. No matter how many people I respect say it's a great film. I just think I'll be sad and bored for two hours. One day...
Dogville and Breaking the Waves are Von Trier at his best. Though I do love Melancholia and I know that's not the most popular opinion. I was just thinking how I need to revisit Dancer in the Dark again just last night.
Dogville is brilliant. I really like The Element of Crime too. Melancholia is probably my least favorite honestly.
agreed. It's probably better than other films whose schtick is shock value. Von Trier actually conjures some images of a sick mind. Definitely better than Irreversible, Revenant to name some that have been talked about around here recently. less misogynistic too than the former. Those have images of hyper violence conjured by those with a 'bro mind'
Dogville is excellent and should be widely viewed. Not Nazi at all, but certainly not kind to America. Loved it. Most of his work is either good or widely misses but Dogville really stands out for me.