Antichrist

First Hit: Started off rather interesting, veered off the highway, fell into a ditch and finally off a cliff.

Two wonderful actors, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe, along with director Lars von Trier teamed up to make a film which started out beautifully, with potential to share a powerful message, but then segued into a poorly done horror film while attempting to make woman suffrage points along the way. The opening “Prologue” is beautiful to watch. In slow motion two people engaged in lovemaking; starting in the shower and moving to different venues, positions shift, things fall in very slow motion and all in black and white. The camera moves to another room and we see their child, slowly getting out of his crib, moving across the floor, and then opening a child security gate. The boy sees his parents making love walks into another room sees an open window with snow coming in, he is entranced as are his parents. The camera continues to move between the couple making love, their expressions and the boy. The boy climbs on top of the desk and into the open window frame. The camera focuses on his face, then on the face of his mother, their looks are nearly the same. The camera goes back to the falling child’s face and then the face of the father. Joy, wonder, the unknown, the boy falling to his death, ecstasy of “the petite death” called orgasm and then the reality; their boy died while they made love. What a setup, but then a story of sorts starts to get in the way. Dafoe is a therapist and attempts to save his wife who feels so guilty about the death of her son that she wants to kill herself. Simply, he’s a bad therapist and obviously incompetent but I don't know whether it is by design or just a bad script. It isn’t long before their dialogue and the tone of the film heads off the highway, onto a side road and then into a ditch. With the introduction of some occult studying Gainsbourg did earlier in their country home in “Eden”, the film falls off the proverbial cliff and in a reactive moment Gainsbourg thinking that Dafoe is leaving her, decides to mutilate him, then herself. At this point this film isn't pretty to view and watching it is very difficult.

Dafoe and his character (I don’t recall any names used) is obviously not a qualified psychologist but really thinks he knows something and knows what Gainsbourg needs. Gainsbourg, who is the main focus of the film, is both bizarre and openly naked (both figuratively and psychologically). But the blame for driving this car off a cliff is Lars von Trier.

Overall: Don’t bother to see this in any venue, there isn’t a point.

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