Lars von Trier

234 Pages·2011·2.69 MB·English

by  Linda Badley

FILM STUDIES
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Linda Badley professor of English at s
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“A thoughtful, thorough, and crisply written study
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of Lars von Trier’s feature fi lm production. Linda
Badley deftly combines criticism on von Trier’s fi lms author of Film, Horror, n
with close reading, historical analysis, genre theory, and the Body Fantastic
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gender studies, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies.”
and Writing Horror and r
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Scandinavia’s foremost living auteur and the catalyst aaannnddd CCCllliiivvveee BBBaaarrrkkkeeerrr aanndd tthhee
of the Dogme95 movement, Lars von Trier is arguably
coeditor of Traditions in
world cinema’s most confrontational and polarizing
World Cinema.
fi gure. Willfully devastating audiences, he takes risks
few fi lmmakers would conceive, mounting projects
that somehow transcend the grand follies they
C O N T E M P O R A R Y F I L M D I R E C T O R S
narrowly miss becoming. Challenging conventional
A volume in the series
limitations and imposing his own rules, he restlessly
reinvents the fi lm language. The Danish director has Contemporary Film
therefore cultivated an insistently transnational cin- Directors, edited by B
a
ema, taking inspiration from sources that range from James Naremore d
the European avant-garde to American genre fi lms. le
y
This volume provides a stimulating overview of
Cover photo: Antichrist.
Trier’s career while focusing on his more recent
© 2009, Zentropa
work, including the controversial Gold Heart Trilogy Entertainments ApS.
(Breaking the Waves, The Idiots, and Dancer in the Cover design: Paula Newcomb
Dark), the as-yet unfi nished USA Trilogy (Dogville
and Manderlay), and individual projects such as the
comedy The Boss of It All and the incendiary horror
University of Illinois Press Lars von Trier
psychodrama Antichrist. Closely analyzing the fi lms
Urbana, Chicago, and Springfi eld
and their contexts, Linda Badley draws on a range of www.press.uillinois.edu
cultural references and critical approaches, including
Linda Badley
genre, gender, and cultural studies, performance
theory, and trauma culture. Two revealing interviews
ISBN 978-0-252-07790-6 IL
that Trier granted during crucial stages of Antichrist’s L
IN
development are also included. O
IS
Lars von Trier
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Contemporary Film Directors
Edited by James Naremore
The Contemporary Film Directors series provides concise,
well-written introductions to directors from around the
world and from every level of the film industry. Its chief
aims are to broaden our awareness of important artists,
to give serious critical attention to their work, and to il-
lustrate the variety and vitality of contemporary cinema.
Contributors to the series include an array of internationally
respected critics and academics. Each volume contains
an incisive critical commentary, an informative interview
with the director, and a detailed filmography.
A list of books in the series appears
at the end of this book.
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Lars von Trier
Linda Badley
UniversiTy
oF
iLLinois
Press
UrBaNa
ChICago
SprINgFIELD
i-xiv.1-218.Badl.indd 5 12/8/10 9:05:46 AM
Frontispiece: Lars von Trier, Antichrist.
© 2009, Zentropa Entertainments ApS.
© 2010 by Linda Badley
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 c p 5 4 3 2 1
∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Badley, Linda.
Lars von Trier / Linda Badley.
p. cm. — (Contemporary film directors)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-252-03591-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-252-03591-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn-13: 978-0-252-07790-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-252-07790-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Trier, Lars von, 1956 –
—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
pn1998.3.t747b34 2011
791.4302'33092—dc22 2010040241
i-xiv.1-218.Badl.indd 6 12/8/10 9:05:46 AM
Contents
Acknowledgments | ix
making the waves:
cinema as performance | 1
Prescient Affects: Student Films 16
Hypnotic Virtuosity: The Europe Trilogy 21
Subverting the Kingdom: Television 47
Performative Politics: Dogme95 and The Idiots 54
Performing the Feminine:
Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark 69
(Up)staging the American Dream:
The USA Trilogy (Minus One) 101
Comedy, Automavision, and The Boss of It All 131
Theatre of Cruelty: Antichrist (An Epilogue) 140
interviews with lars von trier | 155
Interview, September 2006 155
Interview, October 2007 167
Filmography | 181
Bibliography | 193
Index | 207
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acknowledgments
The manuscript for this project was in its final stages as the controversy
over Antichrist broke at Cannes, months before the film was to become
available in the United States. Although I managed to see it shortly be-
fore submitting the final draft, constraints of time and space required
that the book end with a brief, in-the-moment analysis of the film’s ori-
gins, inspirations, and critical and popular reception as the story emerged
from the surrounding publicity and the two interviews that Trier granted
during crucial stages of the film’s development. During those discussions
(ostensibly about other subjects), Trier (and I) invariably returned to the
film-in-progress, the horror genre, and topics such as fear, cruelty, and
depression. Together, the “Epilogue” on Antichrist and the interviews
should be understood as a provisional and somewhat risky experiment
intended in the spirit in which Trier’s most recent film was made.
Spatial constraints also precluded any sustained analysis of Trier
and Jørgen Leth’s extraordinary and acclaimed “Dogumentary” film/
provocation/event The Five Obstructions (2003), which adapted the
game strategy of Dogme95—the imposition of “arbitrary” rules and
limitations—within a more personal and experimental environment.
Interested readers should see Mette Hjort’s Dekalog1: On The Five Ob-
structions (Wallflower, 2008) for comprehensive coverage from several
disciplinary approaches.
Like many Americans, I was introduced to Lars von Trier by way
of the controversy surrounding Breaking the Waves in 1996. Prepared
by my feminism for an onslaught of misogyny, I was instead transfixed,
stunned, and moved to see more of his films. I began to think about writ-
ing a book on his work only several years later while writing the article
“Danish Dogme: ‘Truth’ and Cultural Politics,” for Traditions in World
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