As you might have surmised from our Film Issue interview with Lars von Trier, his new movie Antichrist is partially an exercise in the unthinkably graphic and disturbing. Yes, it features a talking, possibly demonic fox and a closeup of Serge Gainsbourg’s daughter shearing off her clit with a pair of rusty scissors, but those are the last two things people should be squawking about.
For those who haven’t been keeping up, the movie features a cast of just four: He (Willem Dafoe as a self-assured psychotherapist), She (Charlotte Gainsbourg as his wife), their young son (some baby actor), and Satan. You never see the fourth guy, or know for sure if he’s behind all the horrible shit that happens throughout the story, but just the same he’s there.
The prologue consists of He and She vigorously fucking in slow-motion black-and-white while an operatic score blares. While his parents are distracted by orgasms, their toddler makes his way up onto a table and falls to his death out of a two-story window. She gets sad, He tries to console her with psychobabble (against his own advice that he should not be treating his wife), they realize her greatest fear is a wooded area called Eden where She retreated last summer with the baby to work on her thesis about gynocide, and so they go to conquer her inner-demons.
Under the pretense of shock therapy, He directs She to roll in the grass, cross a scary bridge, sleep in a cabin that is constantly pelted by acorns, and generally succumb to the revolting baseness of nature. After a few unsettling incidents with weird, slime-covered animals and other foreshadowing spookiness, He receives their son’s autopsy report, which reveals that the child’s feet were strangely deformed. He then digs up some Polaroids from the previous summer that show his son wearing his shoes on the wrong feet. I won’t spoil the rest, but will say that this is where the bitch goes completely psycho after a overly drawn-out build-up.
My dream scenario for watching Antichrist is a first date–it would immediately determine if the girl I was with had the mettle to deal with me on a larger scale. If she balked or was offended, I’d sneak off “to the bathroom” ten minutes before the end of the movie and go home. Which brings me to the main dilemma critics and audiences have with Antichrist and Lars von Trier in general: misogyny. You know what? If you think this movie is misogynistic in any way you are the epitome of a daft cunt.
I’ve known many women who were completely fucking out of their minds–to the point that I’ve questioned if they were possessed. And I’ve known many men who are so smug and self-centered that it would take a beaker of acid to the face to make them think otherwise. This movie uses generalized gender roles as a vehicle of terror. And try as you might to subvert them, they will still exist whether or not we are presented with a third type of restroom. What’s more, I’m pretty sure von Trier isn’t trying to push people’s sexist-sensitive buttons (at least in this particular instance). He is just presenting dark thoughts and observations from deep within his mind as honestly and naturally as he can. If you can’t keep up, stay at home and watch My Little Pony with a bucket of Hägen-Daz strapped to your face. You don’t have to like this movie or even be sure one way or the other, but if you’re calling foul because of who directed it and its subject matter, just know that people talk behind your back about how desperately you need to get laid.
All that crap aside, I was invited to a prescreening of Antichrist about a month and a half ago, and I still can’t decide if I liked what I saw. But one thing is for sure: If you’re looking for a truly scary Halloween-time movie, you might want to skip Saw VI and give this a whirl. It is the first movie I’ve seen since I was 11 that made me turn away and cover my eyes. (If you’re wondering, the last one was the original Halloween, and the demented uncle who made me watch it while he was babysitting me showed up later that night outside the living room sliding-glass door dressed in a Michael Myers mask and blue coveralls, tapping on the window with a butcher knife.) It is a film worth seeing, especially if you are of the opinion that good cinema must contain imagery that has never been seen before.
Tags: Antichrist, Film, first date, Lars von Trier, psychobable, rusty shears
I have watched Antichrist 4 times now, and I sill cannot pluck it from my consciousness. This is one of the most beautiful, complex, and brilliant movies of my generation. I’m thrilled to see how much deserved attention Vice has been giving it!
i want to see this but i’m worried it’s going to fuck me up forever.
This is supposed to be the most out there LVT film yet and I’ve heard that Bjork and Kidman have said they’d never work with him again because of the way he gets his actors where they need to be for their roles. Wow.
sounds incredibly disturbing. But I am drawn to it, I too do not know what to do.
sounds incredibly disturbing. But I am drawn to it, I too do not know what to do.
Sorry… forgot to say great post - can’t wait to read your next one!
charlotte is strangely attrtactive!
When I watched it I thought Defoe’s character was the Antichrist character. He’s totally unaffected by his son’s death and his treatment pushes Gainsbourg way over the edge. She’s obviously deranged to, but she’s more of a fucked up Mary when she digs Defoe up from the mound.
Also that last scene seemed to confirm my thoughts. Hope I’m not giving to much away, but I’ve only seen it once so I don’t think I’m ruining anything too much.
best antichrist review i’ve read.
THE ANTI-CHRIST CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS BACONIAN CULTURE, AND AL-SAMARI’S RESEMBLANCE TO THE SCIENTISTS.
By Allama Muhammad Yousuf Gabriel
Yousuf_gabriel21@yahoo.com
The Gospel has used the term Anti-Christ, and no doubt the Baconian philosophy is an exact antithesis to not only the teachings of Christ but every revealed religion of God. But the term used by the Gospel is simple. The Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) has a prophecy about Anti-Christ and he has named the Anti-Christ as Massih-id-Dajjal, that is a lying, swindling, simulating Christ, to mean that he will appear in the garb and guise of Christ, yet he will be opposed to Christ. This is very interesting as well as instructive. But remember, I say not to you that this is the same Massih-id-Dajjal as was predicted by the Holy Prophet of Islam. But I cannot desist from telling, that this Baconian culture has the characteristics so deceptively Anti-religious as well as so manifestly destructive that in itself it deserves its destruction by this mankind if this mankind has to be saved. Now I will cite every characteristic feature in this Baconian culture which the Holy Prophet of Islam has attributed to the Massih-id-Dajjal.
(a) This Baconian culture, this Baconian philosophy, this Baconian science are one and all one-eyed, left-eyed , while on their right eye there is a growth like the grape. All these are based on materialism, and have to do nothing with spiritualism or the resurrection or the next life in heaven. This science is actually blind outside the sphere of five senses and can see nothing in the field of the spiritual.
(b) The Baconian culture is the culture of loaves, of bread and may be seen distributing food all over the world. They who follow this Baconian culture of the world, they receive loaves of bread in abundance, but they who decline its teachings are refused the loaves of bread.
(c) Canals of water accompany this culture. Crops are grown with wonderful rapidity and in amazing magnitude. Artificial rain is caused in the clouds.
(d) This culture moved on its tour of the world and ultimately occupied the entire earth.
(e) This culture presents its teachings on the lines of Prophet-hood, and then occupying all the resources of the world raises itself to the place of God-head. Today the confidence and trust of this mankind is not so much in God as is in this science and this culture.
(f) It has its own paradise and its own hell. It actually has made this earth its material paradise. They who believe in it and follow it are entered in its material paradise. But they who decline its teachings are cast into the hell of poverty, misery and disgrace. Its paradise, however, now is visibly in the range of the atomic hell as a result of appropriate retribution.
(g) The letter K.F.R. that is Kefir (infidel) are written on its forehead. A believer though illiterate can read these letters, while a Non-believer even if literate fails to see this mark.
(h) This culture is basically the Jewish culture, based on the love of this world, its wealth, greed, a world in the skin of sheep. The Christendom and the rest of the world have come to a compromise with the Jewish spirit and are reconciled to it and have followed it. The Jew is the Creator, Master and Guide of this Baconian culture.
(i) Its most radical sign against every pre-modern age is its mode of conveyance and transport. Donkey has been the symbol of conveyance and transport in the world. But this Baconian culture has devised its own mechanical mode. There is simply a mechanical donkey against the biological donkey. Only a man completely devoid of understanding and imagination could fail to observe this very manifest resemblance.
(j) So fascinating and magnetic is this culture that none can escape its fascination except him who turns from it and takes refuge in the mosque. Today inside the mosque is the hold of faith, but outside everywhere this Baconian culture has its sway. How this culture—- had fared if it had appeared during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet of Islam, is the question that deserves speculation. The Massih-id-Dajjal means simulating Christ and we will now see that all that was done by Christ has been taken up by this Baconian culture to affect resemblance:-
(a) Like Christ it gives health to the sick, sight to the blind and makes the lame people sound in hospitals.
(b) It shows miracles like Christ, see its science.
(c) Christ fed huge crowds, so does this Baconian culture. Its policy rather is based on supplying food to mankind.
(d) Christ made forms out of clay like birds and breathed in them, so that they went flying. This culture has caused aircraft to fly.
(e) Christ could hear mysterious voices. This culture has devised radio.
(f) Christ had conversed with Satan in a dialogue. This culture has developed its television.
And despite this resemblance, the opposition therein is, that whereas Christ had achieved these things spiritually, this culture has employed the material agency. And also, that the eye of Christ was lifted upward toward heaven and resurrection, while the eye of this Baconian culture is revitted to earth. Also that this culture could be destroyed only by the spirit of the otherworldliness which is generally associated with the name of Christ. No other power could destroy this Baconian culture. When the Muslims shall have discovered the spirit of otherworldliness in the Quran, a spirit which abounds in the Quran, then this Baconian progress will be done away with, and done away with will be the atomic threat to this mankind.
Samari was a character in the time of Moses and was the maker of the golden lowing calf for the worship of the children of Israel. Real resemblance exists between the mind of and work of Samari and this modern scientist. Some of the commentators of the Quran have been of the opinion that the Anti-Christ will rise among the Jews to complete the work of Al-Samari. This character, that is Al-Samari and his queer workmanship has been mentioned by the Quran only, and no allusion thereto could be found in the Bible.
Allama Muhammad Yousaf Garbriel
Gabriel House Idara Ufqar e Gabriel Quaid e Azam Street Nawababad Wah Cantt Taxila District Rawalpindi Pakistan.
oqasaorg@gmail.com
http://www.oqasa.org