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Lars von Trier.
"I had lamb chops, French fries, a yoghurt, and a Kronenberg beer," says Lars von Trier, relaying the details of his lunch at Cannes Film Festival. "Actually, I ordered two Kronenbergs, but I skipped the second to come as fast as I could - that is a sacrifice if you know Kronenberg."
The director's sacrifice in missing out on some light refreshment is small change compared to what his film's protagonists have had to endure in recent years. In 'Breaking The Waves', 'The Idiots', and 'Dancer In The Dark' - his Golden Hearts trilogy - his lead female characters have suffered some of the most self-deprecating abuse and emotional torture ever to be committed to a cinema screen. So intense was 'Dancer In The Dark' that Bjork, who declared she'd never act again after it, hasn't spoken to Lars since. She was so upset that Lar's subsequent attempt at reconciliation in sending her a present, was met with the parcel coming back to him, marked "Return to Sender".
'Dogville', the start of von Trier's new trilogy that is to be set in America, begins very much on the same footing as his Golden Hearts trilogy. Grace, played by Nicole Kidman, is a beautiful and mysterious stranger on the run from a mob of gangsters, who seeks a hideout in the small and humble town of Dogville. The initial innocence of the townfolk is soon overrun by their greed and desire as Grace's presence upsets the town's simple equalibrium. Soon Grace befalls the traditional fate of all von Trier female protagonists - martyrdom and seemingly endless humiliation.
Labelled by some critics as a misogynist, this continuation of a theme begs the question, has he got something against the fairer sex?
"Well, I don't think it's that exciting when it's men that are tortured," deadpans von Trier. "But it's a personal thing. I don't think it's that important, to whether it is a male or female. I think that's a kind of superficial way of looking at the films - it's not how I look at the films. I know I'm telling the same story, but so does a lot of other directors. A journalist does the same, you just change the names and it's a new story."
So why not change the story?
"Yes, I think I do have a very limited range of characters and stories, " says von Trier self-mockingly. "I'm just doing it in different ways. I hate verités, because I need a little more flesh and blood you know. I start with something that you would call a verité, then I try somehow to defend it by giving it a style."
In reference to 'Dogville's novel style, von Trier informs me that an Italian journalist he spoke to earlier in the day told him they fell asleep 20 minutes into the film and slept through the rest of it. "I think there is a critical point around 15 - 20 minutes when you accept it, or you don't," he laughs in conclusion.
The journalist's reaction came from failing to accept the concept of the film being shot on a single stage with white chalk outlines as buildings. The idea for the concept came after writing the first script, inspired in part by traditional 70's TV theatre. There are invisible doors that creak as the actors open them; invisible streets and mountainous skylines; not to mention an invisible dog and gooseberry bush. While some of the overhead shots offer a startling a cluedo board-like perceptive of life in Dogville, von Trier felt it was important not to over use the concept.
"The concept could have been used a lot more in this way," he stresses. "The rape scene for example: you pan out and you see everybody is going about their business, they can't see what's going on, but some how they know what's going on. It could have been used a lot more, but some how I'm happy that it isn't - then it's not just a gimmick for this film."
On the audience's potential difficulty in accepting the idea, he points out that cinemagoers make an agreement just by sitting in the cinema, whatever the film. "Even if you go and see a normal film, you have to have an agreement," says von Trier. "You sit there with a lot of chairs and then something is going to happen up there on the screen. There"s always an abstract thing going on when youíre watching a film, and this technique demands acceptance, but I think it's a joyful acceptance if it works. I think as a spectator you can enjoy that it works."
Working with Lars, for the actors, also demanded acceptance, and the actors found that difficult. Nicole thought she knew what she was letting herself in for.
"I had seen 'Breaking The Waves', and I responded to it in such a strong, strong way," Kidman declared at the 'Dogville' Cannes press conference. "Because of that film, I said in an interview, I wanted to work with Lars von Trier. Lars heard about that, and years later that's how the script arrived."
She was taken off guard though when she turned up to shoot the film, underestimating what her character had to go through, and being uncomfortable with his methods that involved reshooting scenes in different styles: "a tenth of the speed"; "like a romantic comedy"; "as if you've had no sleep".
"The first week was tricky," Kidman said in Cannes. "But that was two people getting to know each other. Lars had preconceptions of me and I probably did about him, then we had a heart to heart one afternoon; it was a really difficult few hours, but we came out of it with the very same pure commitment to each other. Which I think you can offer as an actor to a director you believe in."
While the male actors weren't so open, when it came to trusting their director and giving up control - a fact that led to minor creative conflict between actor Paul Bettany and von Trier - the director has nothing but praise for his actress.
"I must say they are all very brave people to come and work with this crazy director,"laughs von Trier. "Nicole was very trusting, she was improvising a lot and she was very brave. I think she really liked the technique."
Of his filmmaking technique, von Trier offers further explanation.
"I sample when I film," says the director, who ultimately puts the film together in the editing suite. "At first we don't start with any rehearsals, the actors go out and they all do what they think the part needs, and from there we start. Then I go on closer to what I had in mind, but I film everything, and then after that I rip it apart. I know then what material I have and what potential the characters have.
"It is pretty much going into a supermarket to shop for a meal," says von Trier, as his earlier dinner inspires an analogy. "Oh, okay, we're going to have lamb; so that's buy some mint, and hmmm, maybe some of this and a tiny bit of that. So I was asking for different things, but as a task for the actors to do, not as something like, "Please do it like this!"
The result of both his sampling methods and the chalk line aesthetic experimentalism makes for an astonishing experience for the senses, allowing the viewer to piece together the film in their head.
"I've fallen in love with this theatre thing - people living there on stage with just a table and a bottle. I really mean it," gushes the director. "It's not like when you make a commercial and adopt a style - it's not picking a style - this is really where I am right now in film. It's a big pleasure to find something smart I can use, but it is honest. It was not planned as something that looked good - it was the only solution."
Von Trier will repeat the technique in the forthcoming two films in the trilogy, in which Lars promises to get to grips with both slavery and Abraham Lincoln, respectively. While the films promise to attract fresh press uproar, accusing him of being anti-American, he insists the whole trilogy carries universal themes.
"It’s not uniquely American," says von Trier. "My idea was to make some films that took place in America. I liked the idea of setting them in a country where I had not been. I’m not saying it has anything to do with America - only that it has to do with a feeling I have and of course, the knowledge that I have of America."
As for painting Americans in a bad light, von Trier is at odds with the suggestion mooted by various American press. "I don't see it so negative," von Trier concludes.
"I see them all as good normal people," he adds, in appraisal of the inhabitants of Dogville. "But I think everyone can have a situation were we all of a sudden become beasts. Society has to try to create circumstances so we do not become beasts. I don't think there are evil or non-evil people. I think we should do the best to fight something like revenge for instance [acknowledging 9/11], because that's not practical and not a good thing in a society - it doesn't lead anywhere. The reason society has survived is actually forgiveness. If there is a moral to 'Dogville', it's that, good and evil exist in everybody, and circumstances can bring it out."
Harper Sloane
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