Antichrist: A Work of Genius or the Sickest Film in History

by Kevin Fed | July 16, 2009 at 03:42 am

1440 views | 60 Recommendations | 12 comments

Truth is stranger than fiction they say. But I say movies are stranger than truth. Some of the movies just take it over the top and some really hit the ground hard. I could not make out which category does "Antichrist" fit into.

Some might label it to be extremely explicit, graphic and exaggerated. While some might say it is a piece of genius by the man behind the story and the camera.

With its explicit sex and scene of female genital mutilation, Lars von Trier's Antichrist scandalised Cannes this year. Samantha Morton, Gillian Wearing and other women artists and academics give their opinion of the Danish director's provocative new film

The opening title arrives as a provocation, a mission statement. "Lars von Trier," it reads. "Antichrist." At the Cannes film festival, where the film was unveiled in May, the audience responded with indulgent laughter.

Over the years the international press has grown accustomed to the antics of the puckish Dane. This, after all, is the man who once dumped his festival prize in a dustbin, who dragged Nicole Kidman through the wringer in Dogville and provoked hoots of outrage when he won the Palme d'Or for his death row musical, Dancer In The Dark. And yet nothing – but nothing – could prepare us for the film that followed.

Antichrist opens, simultaneously, with a blaze of unsimulated sex and the death (simulated, one hopes) of a child, who topples from an upstairs window and cannons into the snow below. Bedevilled by guilt, his unnamed parents – He (Willem Dafoe) and She (Charlotte Gainsbourg) – retreat to a cabin in the woods called Eden. There, matters go from bad to worse.

Oppressive Defoe winds up hobbled and impotent, while Gainsbourg runs clean off the rails and starts hacking at her own genitals with a pair of scissors. Sitting in the dark of the Cannes Palais, the audience yelped and howled and covered their eyes. Legend has it that at least four viewers fainted dead away in their seats.

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Kevin Fed

at 04:24 on July 16th, 2009

Thanks for the videos "thomps"!

thomps

at 04:38 on July 16th, 2009

No Prob.. Stay Well

Nice Story....

Jarrett Martineau

at 07:13 on July 16th, 2009

Thanks for this. Lars von Trier is always up for controversy and it sounds like he's going to get a lot of it with this film.

See additional NowPublic coverage here: Lars Von Trier's 'Antichrist' Shocks Audiences at Cannes

Kevin Fed

at 10:41 on July 16th, 2009

You are welcome Jarret. Yes I have known him for stirring up controversies and this is second to none.

Amy Judd

at 07:53 on July 16th, 2009

I don't know if I'll see it but I think many will because of the curiosity factor.

Kevin Fed

at 04:52 on July 17th, 2009

Right on the money Amy...

Barry ORegan

at 10:45 on July 16th, 2009

Quite the film I agree, would I see it? Perhaps when it comes on PayTV. As one who has witnessed a daily theoretical genital mutilation of my best friend by his wife, I can attest if ain't pretty. The poor bastard. If anyone has seen the Britcom "Keeping up Appearances", that is my best friend in a "Nut(less) Shell"!

His wife states Bob is not P***y Whipped, and I responded, I totally agree, Whipped is what one does to a dog or criminal, what she does is surgically emasculate his gentialia with words. HA, Hell even my boy when he was 8 years old witnessed it and recognized it and said Wow Dad, I'm never getting married!

duo

at 11:17 on July 16th, 2009

Thanks for the info about the film. I won't even play the videos, it looks so scary. Horrible title for the movie. Jesus Christ is LORD! We won't worry about such things.

Mary

Kevin Fed

at 04:55 on July 17th, 2009

Yes Mary, the videos are a bit over the top but the director is presenting his point of view in a totally different manner. It may seem bit exaggerated or too graphic as it seemed to me too but who can stop 'creative minds' from strutting their stuff.

Nate King

at 11:55 on July 16th, 2009

I don't know about the sickest film in history...anybody see Cannibal Holocaust? It was banned in Italy, the UK, Australia, and several other countries

archita

at 16:25 on July 16th, 2009

i read about it on wikipedia....GOD...completely grossed out...i for sure cannot watch the trailer forget watching the movie..... but then was reminded about a movie named 'Salo' made in the 1970s' ...which was horrid......which again i have not seen but have read about.....lets see how it compares to that movie..... But i fail to understand how is this connected to Jesus Christ?? maybe in the movie they show something...so in case anyone does see that please do update....