Fans of Lars Von Trier learned a long time ago to approach his films with a specific mindset and very very carefully. In every single one of his projects, the Danish director expects the audience to become personally involved in order to experience them the way that he intended, and such involvement always comes with a heavy price. That's the main reason why practically half of the people who watch Trier's films find them unbearable and are not prepared to become a part of his little experiments. Those that accept the challenge however, get to experience some of the most intense and thought provoking moments that modern cinema has to offer. The difference of opinion between those two categories of people has never been as clear as with Antichrist, a film that instantly generated a massive amount of controversy.
I find the film's title a bit misleading. Antichrist is not really a film about religion, and any references to it are existential and philosophical rather than religious. The Antichrist is the essence of evil, but evil only exists within our own souls. Repressed fantasies, hedonism, fixating dependency on others, guilt, and most importantly fear, fear of the unknown, of the tragedies that may await us in our future, of our fellow man's true intentions, this is the nature of evil that resides in everyone's soul. Our brutal, impure, animalistic subconscious is what makes us human, leads us astray from the "righteous" path and governs our every thought and action. These feelings constantly boil in our subconscious and occasionally erupt with unpredictable results. We are not Gods. We are imperfect. In the end, we are only human. Antichrist examines what happens when those feelings erupt most violently, triggered by loss, grief and desperation.
Von Trier and Anthony Dod Mantle (Slumdog Millionaire) know beauty as well as they know visual poetry. Antichrist's cinematography is nothing short of breathtaking from start to finish, and the more brutal as well as vulnerable and co-dependent the characters get, the prettier the film gets, as if to signify that Nature, the forest, the cabin, the mist, the animals, feed and thrive on the characters's fear and desperation. The film's score is also haunting and drenches each shot with the feeling of a chilling, ancient, passive aggressive malevolence that leaves the viewer insecure and disturbed.
What's even more enchanting than the visuals though is the way the relationship between the calm, patient, over-rationalizing male protagonist and the needy, terrified, guilt-ridden female protagonist evolves from a psychological game of dual support to a brutal homicidal race, as the Dark Side slowly surfaces and starts to poison them both. Several scenes here have been criticized as being overdone and simply present for shock value and have made many people leave the theaters, but I honestly don't believe that is the case. In fact, I'd expect two people that have been completely consumed by their own personal Antichrist to behave much worse, since that is the exact moment when Chaos truly Reigns.
What the film leaves you with in the end is the terrible realization that you have just been forced to take a small peak into your own little dirty soul. Even though this experience is not enough to change a person, it is certainly enough to make you feel content that this most disturbing part of you is safely tucked away, and makes you even more determined to keep it that way. To keep doing your best to contain the guilt, the fear, the loneliness and the realization of your own mortality. After all, you are only human.
I find the film's title a bit misleading. Antichrist is not really a film about religion, and any references to it are existential and philosophical rather than religious. The Antichrist is the essence of evil, but evil only exists within our own souls. Repressed fantasies, hedonism, fixating dependency on others, guilt, and most importantly fear, fear of the unknown, of the tragedies that may await us in our future, of our fellow man's true intentions, this is the nature of evil that resides in everyone's soul. Our brutal, impure, animalistic subconscious is what makes us human, leads us astray from the "righteous" path and governs our every thought and action. These feelings constantly boil in our subconscious and occasionally erupt with unpredictable results. We are not Gods. We are imperfect. In the end, we are only human. Antichrist examines what happens when those feelings erupt most violently, triggered by loss, grief and desperation.
Von Trier and Anthony Dod Mantle (Slumdog Millionaire) know beauty as well as they know visual poetry. Antichrist's cinematography is nothing short of breathtaking from start to finish, and the more brutal as well as vulnerable and co-dependent the characters get, the prettier the film gets, as if to signify that Nature, the forest, the cabin, the mist, the animals, feed and thrive on the characters's fear and desperation. The film's score is also haunting and drenches each shot with the feeling of a chilling, ancient, passive aggressive malevolence that leaves the viewer insecure and disturbed.
What's even more enchanting than the visuals though is the way the relationship between the calm, patient, over-rationalizing male protagonist and the needy, terrified, guilt-ridden female protagonist evolves from a psychological game of dual support to a brutal homicidal race, as the Dark Side slowly surfaces and starts to poison them both. Several scenes here have been criticized as being overdone and simply present for shock value and have made many people leave the theaters, but I honestly don't believe that is the case. In fact, I'd expect two people that have been completely consumed by their own personal Antichrist to behave much worse, since that is the exact moment when Chaos truly Reigns.
What the film leaves you with in the end is the terrible realization that you have just been forced to take a small peak into your own little dirty soul. Even though this experience is not enough to change a person, it is certainly enough to make you feel content that this most disturbing part of you is safely tucked away, and makes you even more determined to keep it that way. To keep doing your best to contain the guilt, the fear, the loneliness and the realization of your own mortality. After all, you are only human.