*Beautiful*Ugliness*

Antichrist (framegrab), originally uploaded by zentropa entertainments.

Last night I braced myself and finally summoned up the courage to go and see the hyped movie Antichrist by Lars von Trier. The images of this movie had grown in my head after I’d read so many reviews and features discussing the film. I’ve always liked Lars von Triers’s movies, like “Breaking the Waves” and “Dancer in the Dark”, but they also affected me emotionally for days after I’d seen them and when I read that a journalist had fainted during an Antichrist showing in Cannes, I felt very reluctant towards subjecting myself to the film. Yet… the symbolically romantic still photos from the film on Flickr were so very beautiful that I decided to go see it anyway.
Wow, I was truly blown away by the alluring images and the overwhelming performance by Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Dafoe. So insane and staggering disturbing on so many levels. I thought the whole film was an allegorical psychoanalytical labyrinth specked with symbolism. I didn’t feel that the film was ethically normative, classifying the actions as good or bad. In my opinion, all the topics in the movie are wide open for interpretation. Lars von Trier succeeded as a provocateur with Antichrist. Well done. We need more of that.