Running time: 109 minutes
Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe
Rating 5 out of 10
The self-styled world's greatest director is back - but judging on the merits of this and his last effort (the little seen Boss of It All), Lars Von Trier is unlikely to even be the best director in his native Denmark. This is preposterous, overblown and juvenile stuff that possibly reveals signs of Von Trier as desperately attempting to shock in order to remain relevant.
Written by Von Trier when he was bedridden suffering from depression, Antichrist opens promisingly enough. In a beautifully shot sequence (British cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle shows why many consider him to be the best at his craft in the world), Von Trier mixes passion and irony and introduces us to the central protagonists of He and She, the nameless couple played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. It's a stunning start and promises much - maybe this is why the disappointment of what happens next is so great.
An awful incident besets the couple and they leave for a remote cabin in the woods to try and recuperate. This is where things go seriously wrong for the film: it becomes unnecessarily boring and wordy, not to mention pretentious as Dafoe's therapist tries to coax his wife out of her grief.
There are bizarre scenes: a talking fox, many strange shots of animals, and then there are the patently absurd: notably the graphic shots of genital mutilation. It may all mean something to Von Trier, but to the spectator it's laughable stuff. Arguments of misogyny are unfounded: there's nothing clever enough here to be taken seriously.
Gainsbourg won best actress at Cannes and certainly gives her all, but both her and Dafoe are stuck with a meandering script. It's as if Von Trier is jumping up and down to get attention: but the best thing to do with Antichrist is to ignore it.
Paul Hurley
Written by Von Trier when he was bedridden suffering from depression, Antichrist opens promisingly enough. In a beautifully shot sequence (British cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle shows why many consider him to be the best at his craft in the world), Von Trier mixes passion and irony and introduces us to the central protagonists of He and She, the nameless couple played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. It's a stunning start and promises much - maybe this is why the disappointment of what happens next is so great.
An awful incident besets the couple and they leave for a remote cabin in the woods to try and recuperate. This is where things go seriously wrong for the film: it becomes unnecessarily boring and wordy, not to mention pretentious as Dafoe's therapist tries to coax his wife out of her grief.
There are bizarre scenes: a talking fox, many strange shots of animals, and then there are the patently absurd: notably the graphic shots of genital mutilation. It may all mean something to Von Trier, but to the spectator it's laughable stuff. Arguments of misogyny are unfounded: there's nothing clever enough here to be taken seriously.
Gainsbourg won best actress at Cannes and certainly gives her all, but both her and Dafoe are stuck with a meandering script. It's as if Von Trier is jumping up and down to get attention: but the best thing to do with Antichrist is to ignore it.
Paul Hurley
