1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Thesis Statement
Lars von Trier, a Danish writer, director and film maverick. He dissects modern cinema only to revive it with refined aesthetics. His cinema speaks not one language, but many. Director of 14 feature films, 10 short films, 1 documentary and 8 other video accomplishments (IMDB, 2016). No two films are alike, yet you can identify a von Trier film by one main keyword: provocation.
While venturing the essence of the human’s psych, he manages to explicitly weave his films with his confident philosophy through unconventional stylization; his portrayal is raw. He does not mask or beautify the dimensions of the human being, to many people this is revolting and inadmissible. To me, this is cinema. And this is what earns him the title of a film extremist.
1.2 Background
Let us pause and identify provocation. Provocation is a form of expression that questions all that is known by putting one’s awareness at stake, judging it, deconstructing it, defying it and proving it. There is no doubt that it can become very personal, it acquires tolerance and a broad spectrum of rationale, no placements of absolutes. Cinema is a personal art platform. It is an audio-visual experience that resembles reality. No other art form has the fulfillment of the dimensional experience that cinema has. That is why I believe that cinema – especially nowadays with its accessibility – is a cultural and a political weapon, and von Trier exhibits a loaded one. In a Cannes press conference, actor Willem Dafoe defines him best “he [von Trier] abhors a comfortable political correctness” (LarsVonTrierChannel, 2015).
Lars von Trier leads a rather unusual life; he was brought up as a Jew only to learn from his dying mother at the age of 33 that his actual biological father is a non-Jewish German (Lumholdt, 2003, p.138) This, and depression (The Guardian, 2007) super-ego, multiple phobias (Lumholdt, 2003, p.x), alcoholism and many more issues all brand von Trier and make his persona idiosyncratic. Other people would delve in and treat these complexities in an introspective manner, but von Trier reflects his truest in his films, which allows him to project an unpolished story with more transparent storytelling techniques, which breaks all barriers between the artist and the audience, enabling us to be part of the piece rather than being absented and dictated like most mainstream films today attain.
His eccentric character did not stop with his films, von Trier is known for being open to the media about his complex life. In 2011 at his film MELANCHOLIA press conference in Cannes Film Festival, von Trier responded to a question about his German roots in a way that caused him a great controversy, granted him a “persona non-grata” and banned him from the festival for one year (BBC, 2011) “I thought I was a Jew for a long time and I was very happy being a Jew… But then I found out I was actually a Nazi. My family were German which also gave me some pleasure. What can I say? I understand Hitler…I sympathize with him a little bit.” (BBC, 2011).
2. BODY
Those films that I first hated lingered most, they oftentimes challenge my comprehension of the tools of cinema, my ideals or even my tolerance. Having watched most of von Trier’s films, each time it is an experience and each film breaks the rules of the one before. Von Trier’s filmography promises change and deprivation of self-indulgence. Just when the story and the style are in harmony, this is when it is time to change and deconstruct.
2.1 The Beginning
Von Trier’s leap to the international independent film scene started with a film trilogy under the title of Europa: THE ELEMENT OF CRIME (1984), EPIDEMIC (1987) and EUROPA (1991). Three stylistically diverse films sharing the same backdrop that depicts Europe in dystopian times. THE ELEMENT OF CRIME is in many considerations von Trier’s directorial debut, however, it highly expresses cinematic maturity. The film takes place during an English investigator’s hypnosis in Cairo who is trying to recall his last investigation of a serial killing. The story becomes explicit upon the insertion of animal abuse, strangling of a child and a sexual intercourse on the background of a call to prayers. This only made it incontrovertible that a ‘provocateur’ is born.
The premise does not stop here as the director portrayed dystopian Europe in an odd setting; shot in English language (with some Arabic insertion) by Danish money in Denmark, with a cacophony of accents and cast, which later in von Trier’s career becomes more evident as he plays against the uniformity of the settings in each of his films.
Aesthetically, THE ELEMENT OF CRIME was completely shot at night in an emphasis to demonizing the setting. The camera and set design have composed beautiful shots, and their harmony managed well to poetize the story “Every shot of THE ELEMENT OF CRIME had been planned drawn and rehearsed, and every location had been reconnoitered beforehand.” (Simons, 2007, p.80). This meticulous process gets completely hammered upon von Trier’s DOGME95 manifesto that restricted such planning and manipulation and bared his later films down to a skeleton work of art, which assured vivid changes in von Trier’s films, dated to now.
2.2 Dogmatic shadows
“If you have some limitations when you work, like these rules [DOGME95’s rules] or like other things, then you are forced to kind of use your imagination… It’s provocative in the sense that you have this idea being an artist as being completely free, and that is the whole idea of DOGME is arguing.” (Jaroslavmilovich, 2011)
Forty-five minutes it took Lars Von Trier and his Danish fellow director Thomas Vinterberg to compose the manifesto of the film movement DOGME95 in the year (1995), thus the name (Krause, 2007, p.5). DOGME95 emerged as a resurrection for cinema, at a time when mainstream films were screening on every household’s televisions and the mass was lining up to watch JURASSIC PARK, THE LION KING, TERMINATOR and such. Hollywood became the familiar. The idea behind this movement is simply to steer filmmakers away from the manipulation of the cinematic gimmicks and the conventional apparatus that high-budget films have exclusively claimed, and support low-budget films through evoking the filmmakers to focus on the artistry of film.
In order for a film to earn the DOGME95 certificate, the manifesto has put together a set of restrictions for directors to fulfill: such as; shooting to be done on location, no props brought on location or change of sets, sound must only be recorded while shooting so no further sound edits, hand-held camera only, no superficial action, genre films are not accepted, director must not be credited (Utterson, 2005, p.88). In the ten years of DOGME95 only thirty-five films earned the certification (dogme95, 2016). One of the most acclaimed films was that of von Trier THE IDIOTS. This film is one of the first films ever shot with a digital camera back in (1998). The film tells the story of a cult group gathered to release their inner idiots by behaving in a mentally retarded manner in a community of normal people. This film pushed many boundaries, and played – yet again – on the line of provocation including a clear societal criticism of stereotyping mentally retarded people as well as having explicit sex scenes. Peter Stack describes von Trier’s portrayal of THE IDIOTS as “fascinating and curiously liberating.” (SFGATE, 2000).
As the hype of DOGME95 started to weight-down, its footprint became evident especially on the work of von Trier. DANCER IN THE DARK (2000) a story of an immigrant woman who makes it to the US to live the American dream (IMDB, 2016) and DOGVILLE (2003) a woman who takes refuge in a small town after running away from the mob (IMDB, 2016), both films rendered and exhibited polished possibilities to von Trier’s next step, he draw intense humane matters that are deemed morbid in the most rhetorical treatment. DOGVILLE was shot in a sound stage with almost no art decoration, simply resembling cinema on stage.
2.3 Depression
Another trilogy von Trier composed The Depression Trilogy; ANTICHRIST (2009), MELANCHOLIA (2011) and NYMPHOMANIAC (2013). In this trilogy von Trier reaches a vibrant extreme as a provocateur, and creates a whole new imagery that challenges his previous aesthetic style. ANTICHRIST a horrific story of a couple grieving the death of their infant, who jumps off the window while they are engaging in sexual intercourse. Their grief takes place in a lodge as nature unwinds its evils to the guilt-ridden parents. The film opens in a beautiful sequence of black and white slow motion shots of the couple having sex, intercutting with the infant walking towards the window to catch the falling snowflakes. The conflicted emotions generated by the artistry and the poeticism of the images versus the horror of the incident leaves everyone on the edge of their seats. You will hate it and you might turn your TV off, but this is only the prologue. The film is loaded with alike controversial scenes such as unsimulated sex scenes, masturbation, genital imputation and even self-mutilation.
Bainbridge, in her book about the cinema of von Trier, explains the aim of the trauma that his films introduce “to induce emotional, ethical, and intellectual distress in audiences, other filmmakers, and himself.”(Bainbridge, 2007).
Stylistically, his choices in ANTICHRIST (and the rest of the trilogy) negate all of DOGME95’s rules, which prove that von Trier never settles for a uniformed stylistic identity.
This trilogy continues with MELANCHOLIA, a story about the end of the world. And NYMPHOMANIAC, a 4 hours story about, well, a Nymphomaniac. His audacity in telling such stories raises many questions about the ethics, as film critic Dana Stevens in criticizing ANTICHRIST blames von Trier in promoting “his most primitive sexual nightmares” only because “he bloody well feels like it” (2009). Only when one comprehends von Trier’s enigma can one savor the intensity he portrays.
2.4 Lars and the real world
Mette Hjort concludes it best; “he is an exceptionally gifted and accomplished artist whose contributions include formal innovations that have helped to develop and refine the cinematic medium’s expressive possibilities.” (KINEMA, 2006). In the same context Hjort confirms that von Trier’s unconventional school of cinema ventured in developing “a kind of gift culture” through his work with fellow artists in the field, which allowed modern Danish cinema to thrive. Von Trier’s influence did not stop in Denmark, KILL BILL director Quentin Tarantino recent films have shown a rather similar narrative and dialogue approach to that of von Trier in DOGVILLE (Considered as one of the 10 greatest films that influenced Tarantino) in an article the BFI released (2016).
Technically, von Trier and DOGME95 were key players in validating digital cinematography internationally, as the first DOGME95 film FESTEN gained recognition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival (Rogers, 2013, p.95).
Through his filmography, von Trier’s films harvested 93 wins and 89 nominations (IMDB, 2016), and countless books and essays about him and his films are published. As Harvard Film Archive defines him “Among the most influential filmmakers of the past decade” (2006).
3. CONCLUSION
The most exceptional filmmakers are those who do not give in for presuppositions, are those who do not permit limitation of their art and reject any compromises in what they project. From his EUROPA Trilogy to DOGME95 to The Depression Trilogy, von Trier refuses stylistic consistency, he will always set new goals and rules, and would never settle for the familiar – for the comfort, thus reminding us of his own words when he resembled the film to be like a pebble in one’s shoe (IMDB, 2016). Time and time again von Trier will continue to draw images of awe that shatter the screen with its gruesome transparency, expand the boundaries and the context of film. The mere fact that each piece of his works has claimed great controversy is alone a reason how he stamped a change in modern independent cinema, no matter how extreme.
LIST OF REFERENCES
IMDB (2016) Lars von Trier, Director. Available at: http://m.imdb.com/name/nm0001885/filmotype/director?ref_=m_nmfm_2 (Accessed: 12 December 2016).
LarsVonTrierChannel (2015) Manderlay in Cannes – Press conference – Isaach De Bankolé,Danny Glover and Willem Dafoe. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klz76vNXVRo (Accessed: 18 December 2016).
Jaroslavmilovich (2011) Lars from 1-10. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxlDm1eWssU (Accessed: 10 December 2016).
SFGATE (2000) FILM CLIPS Also opening this week. Available at: http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/FILM-CLIPS-Also-opening-this-week-2778943.php#idiots (Accessed: 18 December 2016).
IMDB (2016) Dancer in the Dark. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168629/ (Accessed: 20 December 2016).
IMDB (2016) Dogville. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276919/?ref_=nv_sr_1 (Accessed: 20 December 2016).
KINEMA (2006) The problem with provocation: on Lars von Trier, infant terrible of Danish art film. Available at: http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/article.php?id=492&feature (Accessed: 18 December 2016).
BFI (2016) 10 great films that influenced Quentin Tarantino. Available at: http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-great-films-influenced-quentin-tarantino (Accessed: 21 December 2016).
IMDB (2016) Lars von Trier, Awards. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001885/awards?ref_=nm_awd (Accessed: 21 December 2016).
Harvard Film Archive (2006) From Dogme to Dogville: The Films of Lars von Trier. Available at: http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2004spring/vontrier.html (Accessed: 19 December 2016).
Lumholdt, J. (2003) Lars von Trier: Interviews. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi.
The Guardian (2007) Dark days for film-making world as depression lays Von Trier low. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/may/13/film.filmnews (Accessed: 22 December 2016).
BBC (2011) Von Trier ‘persona non grata’ at Cannes after Nazi row. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-13452978 (Accessed: 3 December 2016).
Simons, J. (2007) Playing the waves. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Utterson, A. (2005) Technology and culture, the film reader. London: Routledge.
Dogme95 (2016) Dogme95.dk – A tribute to the official Dogme95. Available at: http://www.dogme95.dk/dogme-films/ (Accessed: 18 December 2016).
Krause, S. (2006) The implementing of the ‘Vow of Chastity’ in Jan Dunn’s “Gypo”. Munich: GRIN Verlag.
Bainbridge, C. (2007) The Cinema of Lars von Trier: Authenticity and Artifice. London: Wallflower Press.
Rogers, A. (2013) Cinematic Appeals : The Experience of New Movie Technologies. New York: Columbia University Press.
IMDB (2016) Lars von Trier, Biography. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001885/bio?ref_=nm_dyk_qt_sm#quotes (Accessed: 12 December 2016).