Lars Von Trier

Started by Adam0199, March 19, 2003, 10:41:39 PM

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You Never Got Me Down Ray

Quote from: themodernage02
Quote from: The Gold TrumpetI've only seen his last two films, but I wish he would get away from the Dogme 95 influence and understand that it is doing him no good at all. Realism and emotion can be shown in a much better way than just have a shaky camera and bad lighting all the time. Dogme 95 has no understanding at all of how to show realistic emotion in a movie.
yeah i have to agree with GT.  i really just dont like this guy at all.  just watched Breaking the Waves, (had previously only seen DiD), and i'm really just not interested in what he's doing.  his idiot female leads are just agonizing to watch for 2 1/2 hours.

I agree with both of you, except that the Dogme 95 influence IS helping him because a lot of people find something great in his films that we just don't get. His style just seems so sloppy, not that it isn't supposed to be to some extent because he tries to portray "real" life, but it just seems like lazy filmmaking to me. I know it's not really, with the 100 cameras and all that, but if the final product looks lazy, well then you might as well make it that way because the audience (or at least me) doesn't know the fucking difference if you have 100 angles of one take or those same 100 angles on 100 different takes. The editing also kills me at times. If it looks like shit, and it sounds like shit, then it must be shit! And to be honest I've only seen DItD and parts of BTW.
My life has taken another turn again. The days move along with regularity, over and over. One day indistinguishable from the next. A long, continuous chain. Then suddenly, there is change.

Pubrick

i think he's a bit of an asshole, but his films are awesome.

breaking the waves in particular, is among the best things that ever happened to me.
under the paving stones.

rustinglass

You should all go see europa.
Personally, I think he never made a bad film, and I've seen all his features. Some are masterpieces.
I understand why people hate him and I do admit that he is an asshole sometimes (but who isn't?). He is crazy, he does have some serious mental issues.
"In Serbia a lot of people hate me because they want to westernise, not understanding that the western world is bipolar, with very good things and very bad things. Since they don't have experience of the west, they even believe that western shit is pie."
-Emir Kusturica

The Perineum Falcon

I recently rented Dancer in the Dark since I had heard some good things about it (read: PTA liked it!), but I never finished it. It was just so goddamn depressing. Maybe that was a mistake on my part, and it's rare for me to never finish a movie (I think that might've been the first one, in a long while at least).
Even though I never finished DiD, I still want to give his other movies a shot whether I can finish them or not.
We often went to the cinema, the screen would light up and we would tremble, but also, increasingly often, Madeleine and I were disappointed. The images had dated, they jittered, and Marilyn Monroe had gotten terribly old. We were sad, this wasn't the film we had dreamed of, this wasn't the total film that we all carried around inside us, this film that we would have wanted to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, that we would have wanted to live.

Weak2ndAct

Personally, I like the influence Dogma 95 has had on his career, though you could really trace that style back to 'The Kingdom,' where it really all started.

Lars got his start making very technical, cold films (Element and Europa are anything but free-wheeling).  Once he got around around to Breaking the Waves, all that shit went right out the window, and thank God he did.  Lars discovered his characters and kept the camera focused straight on them.  I honestly don't care if the camera's shaky or there's mad jump-cuts, just as long as I'm wrapped up in the story and the people.  I think once the process shots and cranes were gone, LVT has done his best work.  He's gotten more to the heart of his stories (or lack thereof I suppose).   There's an argument that the screenplays are contrived, whether the lambs are being led to the slaughter for shock's sake and manipulation, or there's a conscious, overt attack on the archetypes and structure of moviemaking.  I guess I'm of the mentality that 99% of screenplays are contrived anyway, so I don't mind.  

I personally enjoy the 'women-bashing' films, if you can call them that (Dogville certainly mixes up the trend).  Does LVT hate women?  I dunno, but if you were in his shoes, would you rather spend 3 months working on a film w/ Michael Elphick and Jean-Marc Barr, or 3 months w/ Emily Watson, Bjork, and Nicole Kidman :wink:

SoNowThen

Quote from: Weak2ndActI dunno, but if you were in his shoes, would you rather spend 3 months working on a film w/ Michael Elphick and Jean-Marc Barr, or 3 months w/ Emily Watson, Bjork, and Nicole Kidman :wink:

Well, since Watson and Bjork look worse than most men, I can't really make an easy choice...


Good post, though, w2a (about the screenplay stuff).
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Pubrick

Quote from: SoNowThenWell, since Watson and Bjork look worse than most men,.
hahah...... this is coming from a she-male lover, folks.
under the paving stones.

SoNowThen

Line up Swank, and the above two, and tell me you honestly think she's not waaaaaaay hotter.
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Pubrick

Quote from: SoNowThenLine up Swank, and the above two, and tell me you honestly think she's not waaaaaaay hotter.

 


honestly.
under the paving stones.

SoNowThen

Exactly. My point proven.


Swank looks like a runway model.
Watson looks like a muppet who hasn't slept in days.
Bjork can't decide if she wants to be asian, nordic, or an elf.
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Pubrick

i see..

well i'm done, good luck with ur life/wife.
under the paving stones.

analogzombie

Quote from: phlmrlwe"but [dogville] is not about america. i wrote it to be in america, but that doesn't mean it's about america."

- lars von trier, empire march 2004


"I am an American. I am already there taking part in American life... I spoke to Thomas Winterberg [about dogville], and we were talking about concentration camps, and then it became America straight away."
- lars von trier, Blackbook winter 2004

so in short LVT can go phuck himself with his outlandish and ridiculous philosophies. he makes amazing movies which i love but i take what he says with a grain of salt. He started out to break down the conventions of cinema, but in doing so he became very rigid. Perhaps too rigid, now, to effectively tell a story w/o infusing it with too much jibber jabber and beating you over the head with his 'message'. Subtlety is an art. Paul Thomas Anderson turns cliche melodrama into real life, Von Trier does the opposite, and it's wearing a bit thin on me.

Quote from: SoNowThen
Bjork can't decide if she wants to be asian, nordic, or an elf.
you sir, are out opf your freaking mind.
"I have love to give, I just don't know where to put it."

phil marlowe

i think alot of what von trier says in interview is for the sake of provocation only and that it amuses him to see how the americans react to such.

the bowie song during the credits is pretty much the only indication that dogville should be about usa, and again i say that it's just a joke. he's crazy like that, he just is.

Chest Rockwell

Quote from: SoNowThenExactly. My point proven.


Swank looks like a runway model.
Watson looks like a muppet who hasn't slept in days.
Bjork can't decide if she wants to be asian, nordic, or an elf.

Watson is much cuter than either of the other two. Hilary Swank is not hot because she could honestly kick my ass. Bjork is just wierd.

molly

SoNowThen is under influence of gay fashion designers