Kirsten Dunst in Lars von Trier’s 2011 Melancholia.Kirsten Dunst in Lars von Trier’s 2011 Melancholia.

The current favourite topic of conversation among film buffs is Lars von Trier’s soon-to-be-released Nymphomaniac. I find it incredibly difficult to discuss Von Trier’s work in a rational manner, mostly for two reasons.

The first one being that, unless careful, any discussion about him risks sinking into the same pretentious nothingness some of his works are accused of being.

The second reason being that he is just so darned unpredictable, creating both movies I’ve hated and loved.

Von Trier might indeed be the creative genius (because yes, the occasional flashes of genius can’t be denied) behind Dogme 95, the Danish movement that revolves around going back to the traditional values of film-making, basing films on plot, acting and theme, rather than relying on special effects to keep the viewer engaged.

And the whole thing might have indeed started with the best of intentions. I mean, seriously, who can quarrel with the idea of pushing storytelling and talent as a main point, instead of a two-hour special effects fest, which is what so many box-office hits boil down to nowadays? Not that the latter aren’t entertainingly escapist on occasion, but the brain does tend to wind up craving something more.

Still, I’ve never been convinced that Von Trier is the best thing ever to hit film. Some of his offerings are wonderful. I can only describe Dogville, for instance, as a psychologically intense cold shower, a wake-up call to the egoism and inhumanity that punctuate most of our action in real life. The stark minimalism of the set, which could almost have been a theatre stage, only served to further highlight the realism.

At the time, when Nicole Kidman had accepted the lead role, many warned her that she was committing professional suicide. Von Trier is considered too much of a gamble by mainstream actors who have everything to lose, should the director pull one of his infamous, politically incorrect tantrums in public – something he is known to do on a regular basis.

But Kidman’s gamble paid off. Dogville was nominated for, and won, a host of awards.

To a lesser extent I enjoyed Melancholia, starring Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg (the latter a favourite with Von Trier). The film’s beauty was mostly in the way von Trier treated the topic of depression in such an off-the-wall, yet somehow psycho-logically believable, manner.

The whole film has a dream-like quality about it and – I’ll be honest – at times it descends into boredom, and nothing much seems to be happening. But, somehow, it pulls you back in.

That’s as far as I will praise Von Trier. I hated his Dancer in the Dark, which is a shame, considering the fact that it stars one of my favourite musicians, Bjork. But even Bjork couldn’t save a film that is so self-indulgently mawkish and so full of forced melodrama as to make me reach for the sickbag a couple of times while watching it. By the end of it, I actually wanted her to die and get it over and done with.

Critics so far all agree that it is extremely unsexy and that it doesn’t care about the viewer

The only other Von Trier movie I’ve watched is The Antichrist, and the least said about that, the better. You can pretend to find the hidden allegories, the references to von Trier’s childhood, the tributes to Andrei Tarkovsky’s (to whom it’s dedicated) distinctively haunting, multi-layered visual style... And you can also indulge in all the lofty, intellectual debates that you please.

But it won’t change the fact that it is a rubbish and emotionally manipulative film. Which is fine, if that’s your thing, but I refuse to play along when von Trier is very obviously taking us all for a ride.

Now, Nymphomaniac. The hype for this one has been beyond belief, kicking off with You Tube banning one of the trailers for the film (like Von Trier had not planned that one out).

The film has already opened in Europe and the US, and critics so far agree that it is extremely unsexy and that it doesn’t care about the viewer. However, the word ‘boring’ has not, as yet, cropped up anywhere. Moreover, the film was awarded four stars by The Guardian critics Peter Bradshaw (a notorious Von Trier ‘hater’) and Xan Brooks.

I’m not holding my breath, but I’m sufficiently intrigued.

rdepares@timesofmalta.com

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