Hello everyone,
I already knew about the Tarkovsky reference, but I am particularly interested in some of the images that seem to depict some blacksmiths building a rather large set of wings that seem to be made of black metal. This image has haunted me for years. Is it taken from a previous, earlier and/or obscure movie? Could anyone help me to track that reference?
Thank you in advance for your help : )
Rewatching a few Lars Von Trier films these months (Antichrist being my favorite, but I like most of them), I've come to realize what I find really special and unique about his output is, aside from his great ability to evoke emotions, his particular method of blending classic tragedy and modern provocations. On one hand, he's deeply influenced by filmmakers like Dreyer, Bergman and even some classic theater, and his stories usually unfold in a similar way (with a couple exceptions); on the other hand, he's obviously an iconoclast who not only has a rebellious attitude towards standard filmmaking in favor of alternative means like handheld camera and shooting digital, but he also often employs some strong forms of sex and violence that are usually associated with exploitation films rather than classic arthouse.
Now, I know filmmakers who take from classic tragedies and create something in that vein; I also know filmmakers who have a penchant for extreme content and modern stylistic choices. However, I feel like Lars Von Trier's output might be a perfect midpoint between the two approaches, and I can't think of any other director quite like that.
As the cherry on top, the fact that most of his movies (especially the more extreme ones) are a sort of therapy session for him make them feel more authentic and emotionally powerful. Mind you, I'm quite the big exploitation film defender and I can certainly appreciate some sex and violence for the sake of it, but the realness just adds a certain something to the whole sensory experience.
Aside from that though, I'm just interested to see if you can point to any other filmmaker who blends classic tragedy and modern provocations to quite the same degree, not obviously with the same exact style of course (some of Lars Von Trier's stylistic choices are very much rooted in 90s Danish cinema), just the general idea of it.
I’ve been turning over Poor Things in my head for a while and I keep getting more bothered by it, especially after seeing The Bride!.
Poor Things is widely discussed as feminist, but to me it feels like a very male version of feminism: Bella’s “freedom” is almost entirely sexual, routed through sex, sex work, and a kind of quirky, consequence free nudity. The film claims to be about a woman’s experience but avoids most of the thresholds and banal horrors of womanhood. The camera and narrative return obsessively to her as a sexual object, and the brothel arc in particular sits strangely close to a fantasy of exploitation as empowerment.
Then I watched The Bride! and it felt like I’d been handed the inside of a woman’s head instead of an idea of womanhood curated for male pleasure. Even in the experiment scenes, the way her body is framed is different: they cover her chest, the surface level SA is treated as horrifying rather than sexy, and nudity is not used as part of these two scenes. The movie felt like it was made for me as a woman: it’s about chaos; about what it’s like to be assembled out of other people’s expectations and then told to be grateful for it.
The Bride! leans into the contradiction of these expectations. The world wants her to be creation and abomination, monster and angel, innocent and seducer, muse and threat, fragile and indestructible, an object and an author of her own story. That’s how womanhood has often felt to me: a constant demand to embody opposing roles at once (Madonna/whore, victim/criminal, too much/not enough, desirable but pure, loud but obedient, confident but not 'too much, sexual but not 'slutty,' a victim but never inconvennient), and then be punished for whichever side you land on in the moment. The film lets that female rage spill out rather than smoothing it into something palatable.
Side by side, I keep wondering: when a “female liberation” story by male creators is so focused on a woman’s sexual availability, is that feminism or a refined male fantasy? Is Poor Things evenreally critiquing the male gaze, or mostly indulging it under the shield of “she’s choosing it”? And does The Bride!’s chaotic rage actually feel more feminist to you, or does it ever feel like the film is confusing female rage with depth?
