FOOD FOR DEEP THOUGHT FROM "DOGVILLE"

If you follow cinema news even at a most basic level, I am pretty confident you will have heard of Lars von Trier. The man has a bit of a reputation. He started a Scandinavian version of the neo-realist movement (but then was the first to disobey his own rules) and makes films that can be described as “strange” at best, from The Kingdom (whose filming and editing makes it hard to watch for all but those with the strongest stomachs – and I don’t mean blood and gore, I mean jiggling about) to the deeply symbolic and philosophical “Europa” trilogy that will leave you wondering for months if you get carried away… The America trilogy was one of his newest projects and Dogville made quite a lot of noise at the time of its release. Quentin Tarantino (a favorite of mine as you know) called it one of the greatest films ever made. I don’t know enough about films to be able to make such a strong comment but Dogville is without a shadow of a doubt one of the films that has struck me the most. Therefore, I am really excited about sharing it with you this week… Now, what is this two and a half hour long masterpiece about? Well, Lars von Trier claims that the point of the film was that evil can exist in anyone, that anybody is capable of evil… I must say that’s a strong and scary point to make, and von Trier has made a dashed good job of making it…
Dogville is the name of a town. Well, you would hardly call it a town really… It’s just a small street with a small bunch of rag tag people living on it really. The only one with any high moral ideals is Thomas Edison Jr. His father is the doctor of the area, so he has the luxury of being able to pursue a career as a writer. His major project is to “educate” Dogville. And it is just on such a night; Thomas is getting ready to explain to the townsfolk that they don’t know how to “receive gifts”. The self-same night, a young stranger, Grace comes to town. Now, Grace is in a bit of a predicament. There are some dangerous men, gangsters after her so going back to the big city isn’t an option. However, there is no way forward either seeing as Dogville is on a dangerous mountain ledge. So, Grace must stay in Dogville, if she is to survive of course. Now, the good citizens of Dogville are not quite sure what to make of this. She is a fugitive from gangsters, can’t go to the police, and cannot speak about her past for her own safety. She is prepared to work, but what work is there to be done in their humble shacks? For Thomas Edison Jr. this is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate his point and bring some morals to the town. So Grace, ends up staying. And with a little coaxing it turns out that there are some things to be done around Dogville after all, if Grace insists that is… Soon Grace has settled in, even getting wages for her labors… Until WANTED posters with Grace’s face on it begin appearing… The citizens of Dogville will, naturally, hide Grace. But they do not feel comfortable openly lying to the law. The price for Grace’s safety must go up… How far up it will end up, however, is anyone’s guess…
Dogville is a striking film in many ways. Not least because of the setting. Because there is no setting. The entire film takes place in what appears to be a large empty warehouse colored black. The houses, streets, plants and even animals are marked out on the floor with chalk. So, eerily enough, there are no walls. And in any one shot you can clearly see what is going on in the other houses (I found this aspect especially eerie not least because I often imagine or try to anyway, what is going on in other flats and other houses… In this world you can actually see it – we can anyway!) There is some furniture, but only the bare necessities. I mean, there are no doors on a lot of houses – the actors pretend to open and close invisible doors. There is even an invisible dog (you can, funnily enough hear him though). There is also no nature and no natural light. What light there is, is again not openly absent but the bare necessities. So, the one tool Mr. von Trier has to tell his story is his actors’ performances. A strikingly appropriate choice for a film intent on exploring the depths of the human soul…
And as for the exploration… Well, the argument as to whether or not we are all capable of evil or not do come up be it in philosophical contexts or day to day events… This film makes a remarkably clear point of proving this to be the case. I mean, if I told you the end of the film, out of context, you would probably not be able to understand how that happened. However, the slowly climbing tension, the enmity of the citizens of Dogville, an enmity that they themselves were not aware of at first that slowly seeps into the relationships and leads them all slowly, surreptitiously and inexorably to a rather horrible place… It’s that typical “we don’t like strangers round here” kinda small town hostility, so familiar from westerns, but multiplied and made real… More spiteful. At the very end, when the credits start rolling, von Trier makes a second point, superimposing Young Americans by David Bowie with a series of very striking photographs from impoverished American shanty-towns – towns just like Dogville - he makes the film into a commentary on the whole of American society… “Dog” ville, “Dog eat dog”, heartless capitalism and all that jazz… There is a lot more to say about the film but I’ll let you go on ahead and actually watch the film first…