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4X4: Lars von Trier #3
Breaking our own arbitrary rules just like Lars von Trier, the enfant terrible final director of Season 13’s 4x4, the TGTPTU crew for our final pairing breaks with release date order to review the later paired film earlier, giving you this week ANTICHRIST (2009).
From the throes of depression, LVT emerged to sink the world into his vision of grief, anxiety, and madness with the horror story of a couple (played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg), their gendered power dynamics, and a totally normal depiction of married sex life. Not only are these two main husband-wife characters unnamed (something host Jack hates), with the exception their child who won’t survive the movie’s Prologue, all other characters are extras who appear with faces blurred, maintaining the isolation and focus on the archetypes of a controlling male and a woman who cannot find herself in the narratives of motherhood. Or, that’s one interpretation of many readings Antichrist allows as it questions, potentially: whether human nature is good or evil, if there is a different nature for women than men, how nature influences nurture, and if nature itself can be framed in terms of good or evil. Also left to questioning: the crew on this film as to whether LVT would finish the movie as his struggle with depression persisted.
But what is not open to question is how visually arresting the film is. In combination with the Dogme 95-inspired handheld camerawork complemented by the time-cut style discussed last episode with Dancer in the Dark (also with no preproduction rehearsals for actors), LVT introduces two visual styles new to his filmography. The first, shot in a repetitive extreme close-ups, is a sequence reminiscent of Aronofsky’s hip-hop montage (see Season 11) and 2024’s Cuckoo (see future Season 19 Singer vs. Singer) that captures the feelings of anxiety experienced, initially, by the wife. The second stylist tone, and the one that opens the tragedy of their neglected child falling from a window while they are having black-and-white penetrative sex, uses high resolution slow motion for gorgeously crisp imagery that later is repeated but spectrally layered as if in a dream.
From the hosts this week: Thomas demonstrates effectively totally knows what sex is; Ryan goes Cartesian; Jack receives a visit from the Sight and Sound people about putting Audition on his list; and Ken is a grump who wants LA to burn to the ground. Join one pair of hosts in praising the film or perhaps pose the question as a reporter for the Daily Mail did at Cannes (available on the Blu-ray) to LVT: “Would you please, for my benefit, explain and justify why you made this movie?”
What does it really matter? Chaos reigns.
Content Note: While a forest retreat where Dafoe’s character discovers a mommy deer, a helpful crow, and a talking fox might sound like a family-friend animated film, the genital mutilation in the film definitely veers toward adult content. So CONTENT WARNING: while you might enjoy this film as two TGTPTU hosts did, you’re not going to leave this film content.
Final Note: At the release of this episode (late-January 2025), Bob’s Big Boy in LA has been booked solid and the front of the building covered with flowers, but at the time of this episode’s recording David Lynch had yet to slip into the ether.
THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.
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Ken: Ken Koral
Ryan: Rya
