Wait, Lars Von Trier was the Walrus, what? Misogyny harangue or is his new movie “Antichrist,” actually self-loathing cathartic therapy for the filmmaker who went through a crippling depression before making his controversial new film?
The infamy buzz on his new film, which premiered at Cannes seems to have died down, but obviously the film scandalized filmgoers and critics at the festival — many of whom, uhh, interpreted its second-half, which is replete with scenes of unhinged female madness, female-inflicted penis bashing and female self-inflicted genital mutilation as more than a little misogynist and gynophobic (a misogyny consultant is actually credited in the film so it’s not like Von Trier is trying to hide it). Who wouldn’t see it like that? We sure did (however, there’s also that strange and vague “women will inherit the earth” scene near the end which possibly contradicts it all in typically infuriatingly vague LVT manner).
The director seemed to mock the baffled press at Cannes, with jesting delusions of grandeur, but now that the ire has died down, the Danish enfante terrible is opening up a little bit more of his artistic intentions and motivations.
And apparently, he sees himself as the female in the film?
“‘He’ is an idiot.” Von Trier told the Independent about the male, Willem Dafoe character in the film. “We are all idiots. I think I’ve always been the female characters in all my films, you know, the men tend to just be stupid… to have theories about things and destroy things.”
Even “Antichrist” actress Charlotte Gainsbourg agreed with this assessment in a separate video interview with The Guardian and says she felt like much of his depression pangs were being manifested through her character.
“I really trusted him, and that’s also a thing that I find unjust when people say that he hates women. Because I really had the impression that I was portraying him. That he was the woman. That he was going through that misery of physical condition and panic attacks and I related to him completely, and I had the impression that he related to me, in that he was understanding my feelings.”
Ok, so maybe dude hates himself and not women and this is just his “artistic process”? Who knows, but perhaps it softens the blow a little bit and gives you a bit more understanding of his motivations beyond just trying to provoke. Still no word on when “Antichrist” hits North America, but presumably later this fall. Surely, TIFF and the New York Film Festival would love to screen it before it goes into wide release [some of this via InContention]