[Movie] Antichrist

As I’ve been suffering from a minor case of death for the past few days I haven’t been out to enjoy a new film, instead I drew upon my collection of DVDs for some entertainment. This made me realise that last year I was silly enough never to mention Antichrist. Let’s see if we can correct that.

The story is strangely simple whilst maintaining quite complex undertones. Essentially it is a tale of grief. After the baby of a man and woman falls to his death whilst they are locked in, shall we say, a loving embrace, the woman struggles to deal with her grief. The man is a therapist and decides to help his wife by trying to get her over the grief. He finds that the only way to do so is to make her confront what she fears most.

So far, so normal. The thing is, this is a Lars von Trier movie. Lars tends to take nice, simple, film concepts and do something with them which is new and exciting. We have, in this film, something which owes a lot to the horror films that came along thanks to the cheap availability of hand-held cameras. There are elements of the alone-in-a-cabin films, and, as anyone who has heard anything about the film is probably aware, it owes a lot to the torture porn movement

But whilst these are all over-used concepts lately, Lars does something new with this. It could be something with the wonderful way it’s been shot, the constantly changing visual style, with everything from high-contrast black and white to slightly washed-out hand-held and with fantasy scenes mixed in. Perhaps it’s the truly superb performances from Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Whatever it is, this film does something with established conventions, and makes a great film from it.

It is worth noting, before you go out and buy this DVD, that there is material that some people may find somewhat objectionable. In the interest of maintaining a spoiler-free approach to reviewing I won’t give details, but will let the BBFC have their say.

It is clear that ANTICHRIST is not a ’sex work’ but a serious drama exploring issues such as grief, loss, guilt and fear. The brief images of explicit real sex (sight of a penis penetrating a vagina during a consensual sex scene and sight of the man’s penis being masturbated to climax) are exceptionally justified, in this context, by the manner in which they illustrate the film’s themes and the nature of the couple’s relationship.

ANTICHRIST also contains two scenes showing violence towards genitals or genital mutilation. … The shot in question exceeds the BBFC’s Guidelines at ‘15′ … Even at ‘18′ the BBFC recognises that the scene will be shocking and offensive to some viewers. However, the Board is aware of no evidence to suggest that the viewing of this scene is likely to be harmful to adults. The scene is not presented in an eroticised or attractive manner and is not likely to encourage emulation or arousal.

So there you have it. The work is offensive, repulsive, and in some places close to being a “sex work”, but it’s not arousing and not harmful to adults.

All of this is mixed in with a clear sense of misogyny and images of death and the ruthlessness of nature are rife throughout the film, just take the appearance of a talking dead fox (yes, you might laugh at it when you see it) or a mother deer with a still-born fawn hanging from her.

All this is aimed at getting a response, and it worked. Undoubtedly not a film for the squeamish or those easily offended, but if you’re not going to run from something that would have been banned in the 80s as a video nasty, Antichrist is worth a look.

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