During the hike, he encounters a doe that shows no fear of him and has a stillborn fawn hanging halfway out of her.ĭuring sessions of psychotherapy, she becomes increasingly grief-stricken and manic, often demanding forceful sex. They hike to their isolated cabin in a woods called Eden, where she spent time with Nic the previous summer while writing a thesis on gynocide. She reveals that her second greatest fear is nature, prompting him to try exposure therapy.
The father, a therapist, is skeptical of the psychiatric care she is receiving and takes it upon himself to treat her personally with psychotherapy. The mother collapses at the funeral, and spends the next month in the hospital crippled with atypical grief. Ī couple has sex in their Seattle apartment while their toddler son, Nic, climbs up to the bedroom window and falls to his death. It was followed in 2011 by Melancholia and then by Nymphomaniac in 2013. The film is dedicated to the Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–86).Īntichrist is the first film in von Trier's unofficially titled Depression Trilogy. Other awards won by the film include the Bodil Award for Best Danish Film, the Robert Award for Best Danish Film, The Nordic Council Film Prize for best Nordic film and the European Film Award for best cinematography. Filming began in the late summer of 2008, primarily in Germany, and was a Danish production co-produced by several other film production companies from six different European countries.Īfter its premiere at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, where Gainsbourg won the festival's award for Best Actress, the film immediately caused controversy, with critics generally praising its artistic execution but remaining strongly divided regarding its substantive merit. Written in 2006 while von Trier had been hospitalised due to a significant depressive episode, the film was largely influenced by his own struggles with depression and anxiety. The narrative is divided into a prologue, four chapters and an epilogue. It tells the story of a couple who, after the death of their child, retreat to a cabin in the woods where the man experiences strange visions and the woman manifests increasingly violent sexual behaviour and sadomasochism. But if that's a dumb reading of the movie, its just doesn't hold up anyway.Antichrist (stylized as ANTICHRIS♀) is a 2009 experimental psychological horror film written and directed by Lars von Trier and starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Like a message of how men just reppress those emotions and results in anger against women, explaining misogyny (or whatever). I felt that a good theme of the movie was how men deal with painful emotions by just abusing women and taking advantage in the more emotional female to let them charge with all the guilt in a given situation of shared guilt (like in this case). Its like it touches so many dark human emotions that it ends in kind of a contradiction. But what Im not so sure is: What's the point of all this? The themes (self hatred, deppression, guilt) are all there, but I feel they lose coherence. The themes (self hatred, deppression, I admit the movie is great at making you feel bad, deppressed (and oppressed) with imagery and visuals, incredible acting from both leads, and graphic and painful scenes. So that's great.īut what Im not so sure is: What's the point of all this? I admit the movie is great at making you feel bad, deppressed (and oppressed) with imagery and visuals, incredible acting from both leads, and graphic and painful scenes. If intellect is your thing, this is for you. If you're looking for a film for sexual or violent gratification don't bother with this.
The acting is incredible from both characters. Although graphic in it's adult content, it's not really a film for entertainment, it's deeply thought provoking, shocking and artistic in the most absurd way. I defy anyone not to be moved by the opening images, however, I also think you need to understand depression, anxiety and panic attacks, even have personal experience, to fully appreciate what this film is all about. The first few scenes, in extra slow motion, are incredibly powerful. Yes, there are gruesome images and scenes of a sexual nature but in my opinion it is all within the context of the story.
I defy I'm not a film person and generally can't sit through them but this one is the exception. I'm not a film person and generally can't sit through them but this one is the exception.