aighhhh

[ellen_datlow]

I watched Dogville tonight--what a piece of ugly swill. Von Trier really seems to hate women--not to mention the US. Woman escaping from gangsters arrives in a small American town where she has to "persuade" everyone to like her so she can hide out. Her one ally is the handsome guy who finds her escaping and he gives her advice as to how to win over everyone. She befriends each but as the gangsters seem more and more eager to find her the townspeople start to show their true colors.

This is the first of his movies that I've seen the whole of (although I watched and loved the first year of his tv series The Kingdom and liked (less) the second year of it).

If you'll remember, I started to watch Breaking the Waves a few months and after twenty minutes could not continue--it was just too damp, clingy, depressing. Next to him Bergman's a comedian. Anyway, this is the first I've seen of his "Dogma 95" films: a group of Danish directors who subscribe to the philosophy of paring down the settings to almost bare stages, very plain camera work, and doing everything possible to prevent the viewer from getting totally involved in the movie as another world.

Which I admit I don't "get"--why would I want a movie to seem as if I'm not watching a movie. I'm sure he and his fellow Dogma followers have brilliant philosophical reasons but for me it's the antithesis of cinema. Anyway, I don't really want to see any more of his movies.

To cleanse the palate I watched the mindless, fast-moving Bourne Supremacy with a really neat car chase in the last 20 minutes and Brian Cox, Joan Allen. I probably should have started with the first Bourne movie but I could figure out what was going on. Oh yeah, and Frankie Potenta (who was great in Run, Lola Run looking anorectic in this one was in the first 20 minutes.

Nicely entertaining.

Comments

[voidmonster.livejournal.com]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the remake dies quietly and the whole idea is forgotten.

I am stunned that Netflix has Trouble Every Day. It's even the same edition I got. The description they have up at Netflix is... Um... Amusing.

I would describe it as a vampire movie (and Vincent Gallo even looks exactly like Vlad Dracula in it) with a Tindersticks soundtrack. It's not strongly narrative though, it kind of meanders through a thin veneer of story.
You'll probably want something fun and straight-forward to pair it with.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I don't read the descriptions of the movies on the mailer until afterwards.

Thanks for the warning.