One man’s horror flick is another man’s chauvinistic exploitation flick. Controversy will always reign when Danish director Lars von Trier is at the helm. His latest film, Antichrist has been enveloped in a media storm since its debut earlier this year at Cannes (where Charlotte Gainsbourg won Best Actress). Made by von Trier after a self-confessed bout of depression, Antichrist is a film which pushes the boundaries of taste. Whatever your feelings on the final product, it is an unforgettable experience with visual images that are hard to erase.
Antichrist is divided into chapters as the film examines loss and all its accompanying emotions. Starring Willem Dafoe (Platoon, Shadow of the Vampire, Spiderman), and Charlotte Gainsbourg (My Wife is an Actress, The Science of Sleep) as grieving parents entering into a therapist and patient relationship. Most of the film’s action is set in the couple’s cabin in a deserted wood called ‘Eden’, where with a rather extreme form of therapy Dafoe’s character, simply titled He, attempts to council his ‘atypically’ grieving wife, She (Gainsbourg) after the death of their young son.
The film considers themes of anxiety, despair, guilt and pain. Encompassing wider debates on the relationship between women and Nature, the film takes some pretty disturbing twists as elements from the traditional horror genre start creeping in. And if you were in any doubt as to von Trier’s intentions, the opening scene should prepare any audience that he is not going to shield the viewers’ gaze. Antichrist is a test of how far he can push his vision, his actors and his audience.
click here to read my full review at Trespass
