|
| • Advanced Search • Help |
Dogville | Year: 2003 Classification: Drama Country: USA Directed: - Lars Von Thrier Actors/Actresses: - Paul Bettany - Nicole Kidman - James Caan - Lars Von Trier - Lauren Bacall Another von Trier masterpiece If you believe that movies should be first and foremost for entertainment, read no further. Why? Because "Dogville" is not an entertaining movie by any stretch of the imagination. It's a disturbing, emotional masterpiece. I know this word is overused but I can not give another definition for this film but a masterpiece. As you probably have read in the other reviews it looks like a play, the houses don't even have walls and are just chalk lines on the ground. Strangely enough, that is actually a plus for the movie as it allows the viewer to concentrate his entire attention to the story and the actors' performances. And the lack of walls intensifies the feeling of community which the Dogville residents have (in a sense that everyone is aware what the others are up to) which is very important for the idea of the movie. And talking about acting, here is where "Dogville" really shines. We have Nicole Kidman who lives up to her great reputation and delivers an awesome performance as Grace, an innocent and seemingly naive woman who hides from some gangsters in the little town of Dogville. Never overacting or taking all the attention upon her (newsflash for some other directors - you can actually show a given character's sorrow and pain WITHOUT making the actor/actress cry all the time, the subtle ways are much better), she totally nails the part. Her face and especially her eyes give a perfect representation of the pure, all-forgiving but at the same time smart woman Grace is meant to be. Kidman is supported by a group of some very talented actors like Paul Bettany, who is nearly perfect as the all-knowing but doing nothing, pseudo-philosopher Tom, Stellan Skarsgard, James Caan etc. The narration is brilliantly done by John Hurt and completes the bleak atmosphere superbly. As usual von Trier manages to make this incredible cast to perform even better than their very high standarts, making watching the movie worthy even if you happen to dislike the story. Anyway, there are a lot of good movies who rely just on the actors brilliance to mask the poor plot. Not the case here. It's a very symbolic and engaging tale, the film is nearly three hours long but I hardly noticed that when I watched it for the first time as it never drags. The ending is very controversial and has kept me thinking about it in the few days since I watched the movie. But not by being unclear and requiring complete attention to details (like "Donnie Darko", for instance) - it's very clear and seemingly easy to understand but it's really open for interpretations from a moral point of view and can inspire a lot of interesting discussions and thoughts. It has also one of the most unforgettable and thought provoking dialogues I have ever seen on screen followed by one of the best scenes I have ever watched. You need to see it to believe me. In some ways, it resembles a very well written book, unlike the majority of blockbusters today who are more like a badly written comics. LONG BUT WORTH IT (AND IT'S NOT ANTI-AMERICAN!) Von Trier has never been to America and has been known to have said that he is afraid to visit the U.S. With this in mind, it seems a little audacious if not viciously self-indulgent to make a film about the ugliness of human nature set in an American village. Critics have pounced on this feature of the movie, accusing von Trier of anti-Americanism. I feel such paranoid jibes completely miss the point: although Dogville is set in a fictional village in the Rockies during the Depression-era, it really could be any place, any time. It is anti-human-ugliness. The tagline reads "A quiet little town not far from here", and the sparse stage set reinforces that point. The viewer's imagination is meant to fill in the gaps, making Dogville their home town for nearly three hours. The theme veers around Grace (Nicole Kidman) arrives, seeking shelter from pursuing gangsters, the natives are reluctant to help. With the assistance of a local 'philosopher' (played by Paul Bettany), she eventually persuades the inhabitants to relent, and they grant her a two week trial period. During the fortnight, she manages to win the villagers over by performing good deeds, but gradually they begin to take advantage of her kindness and the rot sets in. This is an extremely long film, but it is definitely worth the effort. It is an allegory of staggering proportions, it deals with virtually every aspect of humanity and some of the most fundamental questions people can face, whilst maintaining a lightness of touch that makes the mental workout more than bearable. Did it have to be 3 hours? No. But nor did the Matrix or LOTR or the Titanic. So empty the tank, order a pizza and coke, and settle down for 180 minutes of cinematic genius. "Are you for us or against us?" Every so often, a director appears who seems determined to antagonize and challenge his or her audiences. One such filmmaker would be Lars von Trier, the creator of such uncomfortable viewing experiences as "Breaking the Waves" (in which Emily Watson's character had conversations with God and played both roles) and "Dancer in the Dark" (featuring Bjork as a guileless, nearly blind factory worker who winds up on death row, thanks to bad luck and poor communication). His "Dogville," a parable about how community spirit can either elevate or destroy people, is lengthy chronicle of Depression-era America that's played out entirely on a large, sparsely furnished soundstage. Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany, Lauren Bacall and others play their scenes not on actual sets, but inside chalk-drawn rectangles meant to symbolize various locations. While Kidman's character Grace Margaret Mulligan talks about finding herself in "a beautiful little town in the midst of magnificent mountains," all the viewer can see is a bunch of scattered chairs, a few wooden arches and a blank white scrim that serves as the backdrop. Locations with such picturesque names as Raccoon Road and Elm Street have no raccoons and no elms to offer. This is, obviously, at heart a theatrical piece that's heavily dependent on lighting, sound effects and, more than anything else, the passion of the performers to put it over. For many viewers, "Dogville" will be nothing more than a curiosity piece that quickly exhausts the patience; for others, it may be a mind-bending experiment in determining exactly where stagecraft and the art of film can intersect. It could all have been insufferably pretentious -- and at times, it comes perilously close to being exactly that -- yet the movie does have its own bitter humor, a few vividly etched characters and a kind of offbeat flavor that's admittedly an acquired taste. Unfolding in nine chapters (plus a prologue), "Dogville" is the story of Grace, a pale young woman who hides behind her dishwater-blonde hair and tries exceedingly hard to please everyone around her, often to her own disadvantage. She stumbles into Dogville (population: approximately 15) after escaping some gangsters and she hopes to find shelter in the backwoodsy hamlet, even though the inhabitants don't seem to have much of anything to spare. Local philosopher and would-be intellectual Tom Edison (Bettany) takes an immediate interest in the soft-spoken stranger, but most of his fellow Dogvillians (including Patricia Clarkson as a prissy sort, Phillip Baker Hall as a sickly physician, Jeremy Davies as Tom's dopey buddy and Chloe Sevigny as a curly-haired cutie) cast a wary eye in Grace's direction, at least until she volunteers to help out around the place. Suddenly, everyone is quite fond of her -- and why not, when she's willing to work for free? -- and Grace finds herself laboring day and night for mostly thankless bosses. "There's an awful lot to do here in Buy Dogville at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Dogville Search with the Priority Search Engine on Dogville This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
|
