Antichrist
Antichrist is the latest horror flick directed by Lars Von Trier. A must see film for the fans of Von Trier. The main character of the film is an ordinary man but the film has horrifying elements of theological-psychological horror with provocative images.
If on one hand the film repels, on the other hand its sheer honesty attracts you as well. Von Trier is always on the prowl to make films where power rises, stays and perverts in a way that leaves the audience to gather, assimilate and understand either as emotion or provocation.
The film has simply two characters in a married American couple. He played by Willem Dafoe and She portrayed by Charlotte Gainsbourg. In the opening shot of the film, the audience watches a passionate love making scene between the couple and this moment of utter happiness, bliss and good gets marred when they found that their little son on the other room fell to death as he started crawling to explore the world around him. This one incident sets the pace of the movie and the horror begins. It has three stages of Grief, Pain and Despair.
It is the event of death of their only son that sets the first stage of grief amongst the two. He is a counselor who is in a process to take his wife out of the feeling of guilt. But what happens in reality is that She slips further into the dark abyss that finally leads to homicidal attitude.
Being guilty of their action, the woman feels that she needs punishment as because guilt requires punishment. She begins to punish her mentally and that gives the pain. The two then agrees to retreat to their idyllic home in the forest named Eden to get together the loose ends of their life. But to know what happens there one needs to watch the true Von Trier styled movie.
Instead of being in the cabin, both of them are seen more out in the wilderness and begin to inflict pain upon them. The woods are possessed and seemed unnatural. There were strange animals that resembled ordinary ones such as the fox, deer and a crow. Death is what they wanted but that constantly gets eluded. At some point the scenes evoke feeling of deep feminism while at other times it seems misogynistic.
Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg in Antichrist
The movie has many diversions that will take the audiences in and out of surrealism as well as horror scenes. It is the opposite of hope that is Despair that forms the last stage of the film. The title of the film AntiChrist means in Greek Opposed to Christ and here Von Trier makes the perfect shot and scenes with pain, boredom, theology and sex.
There exists terrible conflict of ideas and images in the film, still, worth mentioning is the performance of the two lead actors. They simply played the roles with conviction. I believe that this film can be best enjoyed with reason switched off.
Is there any take away from the film? It’s quite troubling but at the same time refreshing. I leave it to the viewers to interpret and carry on with their understandings.
| Film | Antichrist |
|---|---|
| Cast | Willem Dafoe as He Charlotte Gainsbourg as She |
| Director | Lars von Trier |
| Writers | Lars von Trier |
| Producers | Bettina Brokemper Madeleine Ekman Meta Louise Foldager Peter Garde Peter Aalbæk Jensen Lars Jönsson Andrea Occhipinti Ole Østergaard Marianne Slot Malgorzata Szumowska |
| Runtime | 1 Hour 44 Minutes |
| Rating | 3.5/5 |
Posted on Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at 5:30 pm