Without a doubt, Antichrist is as controversial as it claims to be, and is certainly not a film to watch when you are feeling let down by life, lest it cause mass-suicide.
As a fan of Lars Von Trier I am familiar with his other works of a similar nature; Dancer in the Dark, although displaying a message of hope and childlike imagination throughout, ends with an unhappy conclusion, whilst Dogville dedicates itself to showing how rotten human beings can become when threatened by beauty, innocence and youth. Both films deal with the vulnerability of women against men.
Antichrist deals with quite the opposite and has even been accused of being misogynistic, due to the theme of Witchcraft. I myself study Witchcraft and feminism, and found this to be just a paranoid comment by politically correct moron, whether male or female. Just because a film has a female villain, does not mean it is sexist.
I wont go into great detail, because trying to describe this movie in a few paragraphs is remarkably difficult, and I want to leave some surprises for you to find yourself. But if you do decide to watch it, be warned that it requires something of a strong will and gut. It also requires one to be open-minded, as the film is very “art-school”, with outdoor shots of nothingness to convey a sense of loneliness, and close-ups body parts to emphasize the effects of stress on the person.
It is filmed in four parts, or chapters, “Grief”, “Pain”, “Despair” and “The Three Beggars”, as well as a prologue and an epilogue. Although it isn’t that long (about an hour and forty) it feels much longer because of the airiness of the beginning and middle, and the action doesn’t really happen until the last twenty minutes or so. Unfortunately, this makes for a film that can only be watched every now and again.
The first five minutes or so is filmed in lustrous HD and scored beautifully, using the aria “Lascia Ch’io Pianga” (click here for Sarah Brightman’s version). The tragedy of the whole scene mixed with the operatic tones makes for a hear-wrenching opening scene.
It tells the story of a couple (known only as He and She) who lose their child in a freak accident. The mother blames herself and is unable to cope with his loss. She only finds comfort in quick bursts of passionate sex with her husband (which, would you believe, he is dead against!) and this serves to explain the amount of sex and nudity in the film.
In order to cure her, the psychiatrist husband takes her on a remote healing vacation to a cabin in the middle of some vast woods, ironically known as Eden, where she once stayed alone with her young son, and where the rest of the film is set. It is the place she fears most.
The trailer and the name of the film seem to hint at some supernatural tale, but that is far from the case. Everything is very real, and deals with the impact of grief, sexuality and insanity rather than ghosts or back-from-the-dead murderers. There is also an eerie twist, where you discover why their child died.
It’s a shocking movie, in more ways than one. Whether it’s the death of a child in the first few minutes, the graphic masturbation or constant scenes of sex, or the twisted abuse that She inflicts upon He in the final half hour, there is something that will disturb you when you watch Antichrist. And I do recommend it to the over-18s and the film-people out there. Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg are excellent as the tortured couple, and it is fair to say that you really pity them for what they go through…
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