Katey and Nathaniel Talk Antichrist

Katey moved far far away

She didn't leave New York exactly but I'm being dramatic about it because we used to live mere blocks away. She's too far away. Getting together has been more difficult so we're experimenting this week with a remote discussion of Antichrist. I was not alone in my difficulty connecting with it... though we both recommend in that 'we're film fanatics and you have to see certain films' kind of way.



It was good to chat movies with Katey again. Have you seen this particular controversy magnet yet, now that it's in theaters and VOD?
*

A Couple of Notes on ANTICHRIST

I had intended to open this post with an image of Lars von Trier's head almost floating in the space of a giant gray screen. It was a real image that I had snapped from my camera while attending the Skyped press conference at the NYFF weeks ago (von Trier, as you know, doesn't fly so cross-Atlantic festival appearances are out of the question). While Von Trier gazed down impishly at the crowd from the screen that had just shown his latest firebomb Antichrist, my thoughts jumped to Shosanna's "Giant Face" in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. It wouldn't have surprised me at all to find that the doors had been locked and von Trier was planning to burn down the theater. Figuratively! Though Lars is kind of a sick puppy, he's more of a prankster than a true nihilist.

...I lost that image and also lost my notes. Very ill the day of the screening, you see. Also missed random minutes of the movie thrice. Thus, no proper review and an indecisive grade. Maybe those of you who brave it this weekend can help me decide what to make of it.

"Eden" production design by Karl Júlíusson, art direction by Tim Pannen
and cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle

In the movie Charlotte Gainsbourg as She and Willem Dafoe as He play doctor both figuratively and connotatively after the death of their only children. That is to say: He's a psychiatrist who decides to treat his own wife (taboo), they fuck (a lot), they fuck each other up even more (mentally at first but then...). "She" and "He" do all of this in a place called "Eden". Von Trier's giant face mentioned the title of this country home and shook his head at the heavy handedness. "Yeah, sorry about that" He told the crowd unprompted.

At some point in the press conference he asked if anyone had walked out of his movie, and seemed delighted when someone yelled out that they did in fact see someone leave. People, especially jaded critics, like the idea of people fleeing a movie. I like it too. It helps us feel superior to people who can't handle audacious cinema. But, um, that was me. I was just going to the bathroom. Thrice (didn't return to the same seat). It's not like I'd walk out of a von Trier picture. I love that Mad Dane.

Antichrist has a few of terrific moments, some decidedly vile ones and several arresting images. And, yes, those categories overlap as the couple descends further into violence (that already infamous scissor poster is not the half of it), psychotic breaks and demonic hallucinations in Eden, nature being "the church of satan" according to She. But in the end this psycho-horror film felt -- to sick me remember (I'm willing to try again) -- like a 45 minute story that kept repeating itself as the director dragged his actors sadistically through their grotesque marks. The praise for the twin performances seems excessive. Dafoe and Gainsbourg bravely render He and She, sure, but these aren't characters so much as blue puppets for the auteur. Not that every film needs full characterisations (this one didn't).


I suspect that von Trier is having a chuckle at all the “masterpiece” talk since the film often feels like an increasingly sick comic conversation he’s having with himself. The topic is his own perceived misogyny, recent confessed depression and general cinematic nihilism. Antichrist plays like a movie about von Trier for von Trier starring von Trier. Perhaps that's why my very favorite moment came first. I loved the loudly scored cut from the title card "LARS VON TRIER" to the title card "ANTICHRIST", both hand-scrawled in bold colorful colors. I'm not sure if the former is the latter, owns the latter or merely feels a special kinship but it was hilariously juxtaposed all the same.

update: Katey and I talk about the movie

*
for previous takes on Antichrist (everyone will have an opinion and some guests have already weighed in) just click the label below

He-Man.

Jose here with a bit of an awards doubt. After watching Antichrist (Read my review here) where the hell is Willem Dafoe's Best Actor buzz?

While it's true that Lars von Trier is a notorious actresses director (see Emily Watson, Nicole Kidman and Björk among others) he also has gotten some brilliant performances from his leading men (Paul Bettany was spectacular in Dogville).

His leading lady Charlotte Gainsbourg got the Best Actress award in Cannes but he gives the film's best performance (although being one of only two actors in the movie this might be a bit hyperbolic). Once again he goes for extreme subtlety and commands the screen as he tries to deal with his wife's condition while coping with his own grief. Any actor who can subject himself to tortures which von Trier had previously reserved for the ladies should be getting more attention.

Because of Dafoe Antichrist goes beyond being the arthouse horror film most think it is/want it to be and actually grows a heart of sorts.

TIFF Day One: Antichrist and Jennifer's Body

Lev Lewis reporting from the Toronto International Film Festival

My first day at the festival yielded two opposing ends of the horror spectrum. On one end: Antichrist, the latest piece of controversy from Danish provocateur Lars von Trier; on the other: Jennifer's Body, the horror-comedy written by Diablo Cody. It's not difficult to say which one I prefer although words such as "prefer" or "enjoy" are not words that one should ever use to describe Antichrist.

Antichrist is everything you have heard and then some. I came into my screening moderately prepared for what von Trier had in store for me. I'd seen his previous work, read numerous articles detailing the controversy surrounding the film, thought I knew what I was in for. But, without trying to sound hyperbolic, nothing can prepare you for this. Perhaps, there will be people out there who will find themselves unaffected by the film, but I simply cannot imagine who they would be. Antichrist is the most audacious, disturbing, gut-wrenching, terrifying film I have ever encountered. At this point I'm still having difficulty applying any sort of critical sensibility to a work this powerful. Honestly, I'm unsure if a film has ever affected me quite as much as von Triers' has. Three quarters through I was literally shaking.

Charlotte in Eden

I need a bit more than an evening's perspective to really dissect the film, but needless to say Lars von Trier, along with Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg (who give astonishing performances as the grieving couple) have created what will likely be one of the seminal works of our time.

Willem Dafoe watched the whole film with us and then did a Q&A. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from him, but he was extremely suave, intelligent and funny.

Megan and Amanda: They know what boys want. They know what boys like.

Jennifer's Body, Diablo Cody's second foray into film, yields dull results. It's difficult to say whether Jennifer's Body feels inferior to Juno* due to a less able director (Karyn Kusama in the place of Jason Reitman), a lesser cast, or whether it is simply due to a poor script on Cody's part. So while it is certainly true that director Kusama is a) unable to combine horror and comedy in any sort of resonant way, and b) build the mood or tension very much needed for horror, blame must also be attributed to Cody who insufficiently blends her already-dated, stylized pop-culture laden dialogue with 80's camp-horror. Sadly, this is the one distinguishing element of Jennifer's Body and the only aspect that separates it from every horror film of late. Like the rest, scares are derived from characters walking slowly through dark spaces until something jumps out, which is of course complimented by appallingly loud thumps on the soundtrack. As well, the numerous flashbacks, which always begin with the obligatory dissolve to white and the contrast pumped to the max, do little to set Jennifer's Body apart from its modern-day peers.

<-- Seyfried & Fox in blood red heels at the premiere.

The film's Midnight Madness premiere was packed and the audience was eating out of the hands of Cody, Kusama, Fox and even Seyfried. However I can't imagine many people getting worked up about Jennifer's Body outside of the late-night festival atmosphere. Or perhaps I'm giving moviegoers too much credit. It is also possible that people will devour the audience-baiting of Jennifer's Body. For instance, at one point Amanda Seyfried, from out of nowhere and with no motivation, sucker-kicks a nurse who has done nothing to warrant such violence. The nurse flies through the air (accompanied by mind-numbing sound editing) and falls bloody and battered into an array of tables. This lurid act of violence received huge rounds of applause from an apparently blood-thirsty audience. Grade: D+

More fun than the film itself were the proceedings. The whole cast and crew were in attendance and up on the stage were: Karyn Kusama, Megan Fox, Johnny Simmons, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody, Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman. The rowdy crowd was quite thrilled at the appearance of Fox, and asked numerous questions about the kiss between her and Seyfried. However, Diablo Cody stole the show announcing that her greatest contribution to cinema has been the words "Stick it in".

*Not that I am, by any means, Juno's biggest fan.

related posts: "Places Willem Dafoe's Ass Has Been" / Jennifer's Body trailer

True Bite

While some people were enjoying the sunshine last weekend I was holed up with Joe having a True Blood marathon (I'm not much for sunshine). Now, that it's on DVD have you caught up with it yet?


Art of the Title Sequence investigated its NSFW opening titles last year which I still can't get enough of. I couldn't ever fast forward. I love how the credits shove religiosity, carnality and base nature into a crammed pot, boil them down to their base essences (remarkably similar as it turns out!) and mix them into a trashy stew... just like the show. ♫ "I wanna do bad things to you" I'd only seen the first few episodes before and the show never got any less obvious about what some saw as its awkward / obvious political sexual metaphors but as it turns out it didn't need to. Good trash is good trash. Trash that has campy knowing fun with its awkward flailing at message and meaning? I'll take it. The second season starts June 14th.

<--- Robert Pattison on the set of New Moon

The vampire mythology has always readjusted itself to suit current preoccupations and we've definitely moved back into the realm of the romantic vampire. The romantic undead was missing for awhile -- see 2006's vampire blog-a-thon -- but he's returned defanged. The traditional romantic/erotic vampire has been replaced by the romantic/sexless vampire. Twilight bores me stiff, like rigor mortis stiff, but a lot of people of all ages love its weird asexuality... which... though I'm no social theorist, I'm guessing is a natural result of the past decade of purity rings, abstinence fever and attacks against sex-ed. But it's strange (to me at least) that the TeenBeat style sexuality isn't just for tweens and newly hormonal teens anymore.

The recent television upfronts have revealed that we'll be getting more Twilight style PG vampirism with The Vampire Diaries which is also about a beautiful high school girl falling for the mysterious undead classmate who initially resists her. How much do you have to change something to avoid lawsuits?



Not much apparently!

I assume that a lot of this teen vampire craze sprung from the influential and totally brilliant Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy may have also been a high schooler but you know what they say: some people mature faster than others.

Thank god there's True Blood for a randy bloody counterpoint to the wildly popular but anemic teenage vampire craze. For all the dreamy eyed romanticism of the Bill (Stephen Moyer) & Sookie (Anna Paquin) relationship on True Blood, it also feels just as sexually dangerous as it should. I mean loving the undead... that should be a little frightening, not just mushy. That scene late in the first season where Bill emerges from the earth and mounts an initially terrified Sookie? That was dirty... in both senses of the word.

Will True Blood get any cinematic company or will Twilight ripoffs completely take over in the next few years? Surburban Vampire has a huge list of upcoming undead titles and the answer seems to be neither. Most of the new vampire films seem to be horror or action related like...

• High Midnight -a period piece and vampire western which the always welcome Thomas Kretschmann (The Pianist, Valkyrie) was initially rumored to be starring in as a vampire hunter.
  
• Daybreakers a scifi horror take which frankly sounds more like a zombie film. Most of the human race has gone bloodsucker. With Willem Dafoe and Ethan Hawke (who look quite clean and fresh for people fighting for their lives in a horror film.)
• Last Blood epic war between zombies vs. vampires with the vamps out to protect their food source, humans
  
• Dark Shadows in development (previously discussed here)
  

Now if only someone would make Lost Souls into a movie so we'd have a queer entry in the crowded vampiric canon.
*

Von Trier's Punk'd

Lars Von Trier is a sadistic prankster auteur. Think of The Five Obstructions and extrapolate from there. He's probably going to have several laughs about reactions to his upcoming film Antichrist. No matter what the reactions turn out to be, there's probably cause for wicked glee.



Horror freaks will likely hate Von Trier's aesthetic. I suspect Antichrist's trailer might be of the Bug variety, i.e. a horror film of the soul masquerading as traditional horror (the audiences overlap slightly, but not by a lot). Jesus freaks lured by the lurid title will undoubtedly hate whatever angle Von Trier has on religiosity... at least if Breaking the Waves is any indication. Art house patrons who didn't show up for Haneke's Funny Games probably won't venture here either. Movie blogs like this one will end up in all sorts of misleading Google searches. If you've wandered here this afternoon looking for discussions of Christ's second coming and you can't wait for the world to burn so you can experience the Rapture... run away (wrong audience!). Run right to that Knowing movie instead.

Do you like the trailer? I personally can't wait to see what Von Trier does with this concept, with the "He" and "She" (no character names apparently) couple and "Eden" as setting. But you're already feeling for Charlotte Gainsbourgh I bet. If you had to live in a cabin in the woods with Willem Dafoe, wouldn't you lose your marbles?
*

related post: Places Willem Dafoe's Ass Has Been
*

Cheeky Willem Dafoe

In honor of the first still from the new Lars Von Trier picture, subtly titled Antichrist, that was making the blog rounds this week.

Places Willem Dafoe's Ass Has Been

• Between Charlotte Gainsbourg's thighs
  (His thrusting seems to have woken evil naked tree spirits)
• snugly encased in Green Goblin gear
  
• on stage with the Wooster Group
• Between Madonna's thighs
  (His thrusting did not wake any latent acting skill)
• In bed with yellow fever on the set of Platoon

• In Prada
  
• Out of frame in The Life Aquatic
  (Wes Anderson's head-on horizontal tableaus allow for no backsides)
• In New York City
  
• Between Mary Magdalene's thighs
  (albeit only theoretically offscreen in the dream sequence way. For the Religious Right the new Von Trier movie will be the least of Dafoe's offenses)
• In Italy and Tunisia
  
• In Wisconsin
• Inside tuxedos at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Shrine Auditorium
  

• Directly behind Jude Law's new "bio-port"
  (this scene is not about what they're pretending it's about)
• In Hollywood
• In various yoga positions
  
• Between Asia Argento's thighs.
  (A distinction held by many silver screen asses)
  *
  

20:08 (Best Pictures From the Outside In)

screenshots from the 20th minute and 8th second of movies.
I use a VLC but different DVDs do come up with slightly different screenshots. It's an inexact exercize.

It's a very plum... plum

Even Pee Wee Herman would love this redundant statement from The English Patient. 'Mmm, plummy!' But it gets at one of the best things about the movie, the feast it offers the senses.


In this first frame from Gone With the Wind, "Good Morning Scarlett", our heroine is all ablur ready to wreak havoc at the Wilkes Plantation. In the second frame (20:08 if you remove the overture) she's transferring her affections to Charles when she can't find a wedge inbetween Ashley & Melanie, newly betrothed.

Charles Hamilton, I want to eat barbecue with you! And mind you don't go philandering with any other girls because I might be jealous.

Such a troublemaker, that one! Or as her husband hunting rivals call her, "a hornet".

Visit Nick's Flick Picks for the new episode of Best Pictures From the Outside In as Mike, Nick and I tackle these two film giants, two of the longest best picture winners evah. "Fiddle Dee Dee"

And here's a chart of all episodes as per requests
*

Ben. Jeff. Willem. Jesse. Alan.

The Countdown begins again. I don't really mean to drag this out so much but real life is invading my reel life. The new gentlemen to be added to the Top 100 list? M. Cumming, Kingsley, Dafoe, Eisenberg, and Daniels. Read all about it. I'll try to get more up sooner rather than later.

Ben. Jeff. Willem. Jesse. Alan.

The Countdown begins again. I don't really mean to drag this out so much but real life is invading my reel life. The new gentlemen to be added to the Top 100 list? M. Cumming, Kingsley, Dafoe, Eisenberg, and Daniels. Read all about it. I'll try to get more up sooner rather than later.