Dancer in the Dark
Maybe it's the Scandinavian connection, but I have long been a big fan of both this film's writer/director Lars von Trier and its composer/star Björk, so I was really looking forward to their first (and no doubt last) collaboration. I'm also one of the first to say that neither artist is for everyone. Trier warns you enough by describing this… read more!
Dogville
You've gotta hand it to Lars von Trier: possibly the only contemporary filmmaker who can actually raise a ruckus among cineastes, he championed digital filmmaking, revitalized Scandinavian cinema, made stars out of Emily Watson and Björk, and spearheaded the sole new film movement of the last 30 years (Dogme). And even so, he manages to take major artistic risks with… read more!
The Five Obstructions
A truly one-of-a-kind motion picture. In 2001, famed director Lars von Trier (Dancer in the Dark, Dogville) decided to submit his cinematic hero, Danish documentarian/experimental filmmaker Jørgen Leth, to a rather sadistic series of tests: Over the following two years, Leth was to take his own 1967 short The Perfect Human (which Trier loves so much that he calls it… read more!
Melancholia
Melancholia's first 8 minutes are filled with a series of astoundingly beautiful, surreal tableaux of Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and child actor Cameron Spurr, filmed in super-slow-motion. They are among the most arresting images you will see on a screen in this or any year. But the film that follows is more typical polarizing filmmaking from Danish provocateur Lars von… read more!