The trust factor on the set between the four key collaborators - von Trier, Gainsbourg, Dafoe and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle - was, in Dafoe”s estimation, “very high. His theatrical training and experience served him well on “Antichrist,” which required both emotional fearlessness and rigorous technique, along with a fair bit of nudity. And sometimes, you know, I”m more with the fox.”ĭafoe, 54, hails from Appleton, Wis. “Each time I see it,” Dafoe said, smiling, “my interest shifts to different parts. There are things in it that are very beautiful, and there are things I can”t explain.”įor example: Right around the time the unruly natural world begins to bend Gainsbourg”s character to its unholy will, a fox appears and turns its head to the camera and utters the line: “Chaos reigns.”
The movie is pretty unrelenting, and it”s really not about ”how it”s going to end,” or where the story”s leading. They”re little slaps in the face to wake you up. The film has some very extreme moments, and I think they are important. That wasn”t so bad.” Fail to warn them properly, they”re like ”Why didn”t someone tell me I was going to see that?” “Warn them too much, people are like, ”Well, I survived that. When it comes to warning an audience about what they”re in for with von Trier”s feverish creation, you really can”t win on that score, Dafoe said last month during the Toronto International Film Festival. Then things start getting difficult, and if unblinking genital mutilation constitutes an automatic “no” in your movie-going life, then you probably won”t be taking a chance on “Antichrist.” Dafoe”s character is a therapist, and as bad as the idea seems, he takes charge of her recovery, as the couple retreats to their woodland cabin. The rest of the film, which is unrated but ventures fully into NC-17 territory, finds Gainsbourg”s character trying to claw her way out of a well of grief. In the prologue, which von Trier shoots in deceptively beautiful black and white and in extreme slow motion, Dafoe and Gainsbourg make love in the shower while their son in the next room, no longer sleeping, totters up to the window - it is snowing outside - and plummets to his death. “Antichrist” stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as characters known only as He and She. “I don’t think I breathed for the last half - out of shock, out of stress, out of disbelief.Strange timing: With hordes of moviegoers turning out this month for the minimalist, gore-free “Paranormal Activity,” along comes Danish provocateur Lars von Trier, delivering unto the art-house and video-on-demand marketplace a film that is maximalist, not minimalist laced with images of outlandish cruelty and violence and a cinematic “scream” (the writer-director”s word) produced by an artist in the grip of a crippling depression, whose nightmarish scenes from a marriage would make Freud, Jung and August Strindberg weep. “The most shocking film in the history of the Cannes Film Festival!” – The Sunday Telegraph “The most talked about film of the year!” – Village Voice Warning: ANTICHRIST contains scenes of extremely graphic sexual and violent content and is not suitable for children. But in the hands of von Trier, the visionary behind Dogville, Dancer in the Dark and Breaking the Waves, the tale of a relationship in crisis takes a turn toward the twisted, dark and primeval, and it’s clear this couple won’t be out of the woods anytime soon. The most scandalous work at this year’s Cannes stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a bereaved couple who retreat to their remote cabin - ominously named Eden - to repair their broken marriage and confront their deepest fears. Friday, March 5 - Saturday, March 6, 2010