Freud is dead, isn't he?

Laura's Half-Arsed Film Review #5

Last night I watched Lars Von Trier's Antichrist (2009) which was admittedly long overdue for a looksee from moi. You may know Lars Von Trier from films such as The Idiots (1998) Dancer in the Dark (2000, incredibly sad with a fantastic performance by Bjork) or Dogville (2003). I know him best for his mini-series The Kingdom (1994, TV) which is set in a strange and freaky hospital. Antichrist IS strange and freaky but anyone looking forward to a unique mix of black humour and intense tragedy with a false sunny edge will be disappointed.

Antichrist shows a couple who lose their kid because they were too pre-occupied with a particularly steamy sex session. She goes mad, he draws a pyramid, a fox talks, and acorns fall to the ground. It would be futile to attempt to explain it any more as the film is an unalleviated barrage of symbols and representations that, in spite of Charlotte Gainsbourg's prediction (see title of blog), will undoubtedly be subjected at some point to a reading influenced by one of the strands of psychoanalytical film theory. I predict that I will get far more enjoyment reading up on interpretations of this film than I did watching it, which even for me as a student of film is not what film is about. Each to their own.