ANTICHRIST (2009)
Life is full of challenges; physical, mental, emotional. It is rare that an artist can give us a comprehensive package to view, contemplate and ultimately struggle with. Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist” is such a film, an open portal into the territory of pain, guilt, denial, anger, despair and the eventual explosion of the soul that such unrelenting tensions guarantee. There is a scene at the very end of the film (I will not give spoilers) that literally moved me to tears. This is saying a lot, considering that by the time most viewers have reached this point in the movie, they will most likely have been battered senseless, numbed and will probably feel relieved that the draining intensity of the story has somewhat subsided.
A couple (they are never named) played brilliantly by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg are making love as the film opens. This black and white sequence is masterfully shot (as is the entire movie) by cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle. One of the first images is of actual sexual penetration. Thus, at the beginning, we are given notice that this is not a work in which certain images will be proscribed. As their passion grows, their child, a toddler, climbs from his crib and onto a desk to get a better view through an open window, of snow falling to the ground far below. The little boy’s fall to death is intercut in slow motion with the sex in a nearby (or is it?) room.
How this tragedy is dealt with is the remainder of the story. The performances are harrowing. Except for a few shots of the child, Dafoe and Gainsbourg are the only two actors in the film. He is a psychologist who decides that he is the person best suited to deal with her inability to come to terms with the loss. This incredibly wrong-headed choice reveals not only his arrogance, but his denial as well. He is the last one who should be offering her therapy in this matter. His cross examination reveals that the location she finds most frightening is the forest. Naturally, that is where he takes her for some extended confrontation and one-on-one psychodrama.
Of course, it all goes horribly wrong. We find out just how deep pain and guilt can go; how it can not only blind us to the reality of past events but can actually change our perception of them. Out of this suffering emerges a kind of compulsively joyless desire that simultaneously consumes and repels everything and everybody it touches. Nature becomes, not a healing agent, but the chaotic expression of the madness that pulls at our ankles as we dance along the edge of the abyss. We are only one toe tap away from the tipping point.
Not all is despair, however. Many viewers will see no upside in this downward spiral. After the increasing imagery of sexual compulsion, brutality and eventual mutilation, finding acts of compassion, realization and reconciliation will be difficult, if not impossible, for most. Von Trier has crafted a small world, speeding through a wide and very dark universe. It is a strong journey, put together with a delicate touch. Challenged by a reporter at a Cannes Film Festival press conference, that he was obligated to state what his purpose was in making such a polarizing work, the director’s response was simply that “no”, he had to do no such thing. I agree. The film is the answer.
