Denmark is known as the "Fairy Tale Kingdom".
It is not only the hometown of the fairy tale master Hans Christian Andersen, strolling on this land, the humanistic characteristics and natural beauty that can be seen everywhere give people the illusion of being in a fairy tale world.
But in such a country rich in beautiful fairy tales, there is also a director who has been controversial and praised - Russ von Trier.
Russ von Trier (hereinafter referred to as "von Thiel")
While praising his films, people also criticize the darkness and ugliness of his image world.
In the 1980s and 1990s, American films invaded Denmark, dealing a huge blow to domestic film production and markets. In order to resist the onslaught of American cinema, in 1995, Russ von Trier and three other Danish directors jointly published the Dogma 95 Declaration. This is also considered by many to be the last film movement of the 20th century.
A group photo of three directors in the Dogmar 95 Manifesto
"Dogma" means "doctrine, creed" in English.
The Dougmar 95 Manifesto also proposes ten guidelines against the technicalism of Hollywood cinema, advocating the principles of truth and simplicity, and focusing on the originality, authenticity and purity of film.
Although "Dogmar 95" has caused certain waves and attention around the world, most creators have not been able to adhere to these ten doctrines in their future creations. Therefore, many people think that the "Dogma 95" is a failed movement, after all, even the four promoters did not persist to the end.
But in my opinion, "Dougmar 95" is just an indication of self-point of view and claim. This proposition inherited Italian neorealism and rebelled against the Hollywood technocratic film genre of the time. Of course, the demise of this proposition is also due to its exaggerated aesthetics of the film.
In the world of Ras von Trier, morality, ethics, and even all the ugly deeds of human beings are unchecked, death, killing, and hatred. Von Trier does not obscurely avoid showing the ugliest side of people, scorns on the screen, and challenges the audience's psychological bottom line again and again.
In von Trier's work, there are two films that shock me, fall into contemplation, and can't leave his dark adult fairy tale for a long time.
One of them is
Dog town
Dogville
2003
Director: Russ von Thiel
Dogtown is The Most Groundbreaking, Avant-Garde and Best Known by Ras von Trier since the film. By ignoring the set, von Trier used minimalism to carry out his own bold experiments, turning the story into a stage play. The actors perform non-stop, objectless performances on stage, and the audience also breaks through the limitations of the venue and can observe the actions of all the characters at the same moment.
"Dogtown" is the title of the movie and the name of the town where the movie story takes place. To make a distinction here, "Dogtown" refers to the title of the film, and the town in the movie is transliterated as "Dougville".
Structurally, Dogtown is more of a stage play, divided into nine chapters and a prologue. The film takes place in a fictional town, Dogville. The town is located in the Rocky Mountains, where the villagers rarely go out, and the entire town is almost isolated. The calm of the town is shattered by the arrival of the alien Lace.
Like director von Trier himself, evaluations of Dogtown are polarized. Some say that the film is like an onion, unveiling layers of kaleidoscopic humanity. On the other hand, some people think that "Dogtown" is extremely provocative, essentially just finding a gorgeous new outfit in the way the story is expressed.
On the side, various arguments have proven the success of this film. It is up to each viewer to judge right from wrong and likes or dislikes. (I love the movie anyway, otherwise I would have written her)
Hypocritical democracy
Director von Trier attacked and ridiculed American democracy through Dogtown.
In athens throughout history, democracies in which the "minority obeyed the majority" led to many tragedies. The root of democracy is that people have power, although the collective interest is somewhat guaranteed. But democracy also has many drawbacks, such as overall cognitive ability and blindness, resulting in the "tyranny of the majority.". People with real power hold the right to speak in the world, and the interests of a few are not worth mentioning.
In Dogtown, the democracy of the town is influenced by the intellectual experience and inflammatory speeches of its inhabitants. In the case of Dougville, the entire town is almost isolated and in a closed state. Although the residents of the town are self-sufficient in life, their cognitive level develops extremely slowly.
Of all the inhabitants of the small town of Dogville, the most three-dimensional figure is Reverend Tom.
Tom lives in the town with his father and spends all day doing nothing. He thought about proving that human beings have good souls and digging for spiritual sparkles. So Grace's arrival provided him with the opportunity to experiment with human nature. But at the same time, Tom has no autonomy and is cowardly. He considered himself a writer and was planning to write a grand novel, but the substance remained in the idea, and there was no substantial progress. Tom claims to love Grace, but in the face of the small-town man's abuse, he lacks the courage to stop it.
In the beginning, he was Grace's umbrella. This protection does not come entirely from love, but also partly satisfies Tom's sense of presence and dependence. Unlike his role in the town, Tom is indispensable to Grace. He was the reason Grace stayed, and it also prompted her to leave. When Grace punctures his mask, the original escort is replaced by humiliation. For a time, Tom became the one who took the lead in bullying Grace.
Tom is a hypocrite, and this hypocrisy is deeply rooted in his heart, and he does not even realize it. He stole ten dollars from his father on the pretext of "borrowing" and was found to have married Grace. He thought that he was a noble spiritual love for Grace, but after discovering the carnal desires of his body in Grace, his world began to change. Tom's worldview and values are based on what he calls "morality", and when Grace endangers her moral mission, he will ruthlessly obliterate the threats ahead and protect the "purity" in his heart.
Female tragedy with power and sex
In von Trier's world of images, the female character is a symbol of love and tragedy.
In the face of the world, they all have good wishes, but in the process of pursuing happiness, they are persecuted again and again by the ugliness of reality.
"Dogtown" has another translation, "The Night Variations", and the fate of the protagonist Grace has also changed five times here. And the eve, in addition to referring to fate, also alludes to changes in power and value.
From Selma, an immigrant in "Dancer in the Dark," to Jack, the perverted killer in "This Side Is Made by Me." Throughout von Trier's directing work, the "foreigner" is a character he is happy to portray, throughout almost all of his works. In "Dogtown", Grace is also a typical "foreigner". Her arrival shatters the calm of the town and eventually leads to the tragedy of the town.
Grace originally came to town to avoid her father. Her whereabouts required the townspeople to hold what they called a "democratic vote." As a foreigner, she was doomed to have no substantive voice in the town, and in order to stay, she could only gradually become enslaved to the town.
Grace spent her first two weeks in the town working for the town's families, trading her performance for her own worth. The townspeople observe Grace's personality for two months and finally vote to decide her fate. If unanimously approved, Grace can stay in town and become part of "Dogtown".
After a "honeymoon period" in harmony with the inhabitants of Dogville, Grace's fortunes took a turn for the worse on National Day.
The father's visit to the town to find Grace and put up a wanted notice everywhere made the residents of Dogville feel that the danger Grace could pose to them was far greater than the value it could provide. In order to stay, they lowerEd Grace's salary and increased the workload, reducing Grace to a working machine.
The third and fourth transformations are due to the two rape scenes highlighted in Dogtown.
The British writer Wilde once said that everything in the world is related to sex, except for sex itself, which is about power. Although the two bows are due to the asymmetry of power, the former is Grace to stay, the latter is to escape.
In order to satisfy his sexual needs, Chuck, a farmer, verbally claims to need grace and induces Grace step by step. At this time, Chuck threatens to report Grace, holds her safety in his hands, and ruthlessly vents his sexual desire on Grace. Gradually, Grace could not stand the town and planned to escape. The truck driver Ben collected Grace's money and raised the price halfway through, charging an extra fee on Grace's body. And Grace brought her back to Dougville.
Both Chuck and Ben stand on the top of power, pressuring Grace and sexually exploiting them.
After that, Grace was completely reduced to the livestock of the inhabitants of Dogville, or rather, a dog.
They locked Grace in bed and locked her in the house, and restricted her freedom with chains. At night, the men of Dogville would come to her room and squander their lusts at will, while the women would insult her and spurn her, even smashing the seven ceramic statues of Grace's last hope ———.
When the film is pushed to a climax, Grace completes the final transformation in the dialogue with her father.
Religion: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Old Testament and the New Testament
The Canon of Christianity is divided into two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Old Testament is an encyclopedia written by Judaism that documents the early historical development of Judaism. The Jews have historically been a wandering people, and this turbulent history is an intrinsic theme of the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament, God and mankind successively reached the "Covenant of Eden", "Adam's Covenant", "Noah's Covenant", "Abraham's Covenant", "Moses' Covenant", and "David's Covenant", promising punishment, the redemption of descendants, Noah's Ark, infinite descendants and lands, the Ten Commandments of Moses, and the eternal throne, respectively.
Among them, the Ten Commandments of Moses are the most famous. It was the earliest religious law that defined the laws of human life and promoted the evolution of Western law and morality.
The God of the Old Testament is cruel. After witnessing the evil deeds of mankind again and again, God realized the untrustworthiness of mankind and countered violence with violence.
In the New Testament, God became merciful and sent Jesus into the world to save seriously repentant believers.
Back in the film, Grace's conversation with her father in the car alludes to von Trier's views on the Old and New Testaments.
The image of the "father" is the embodiment of God in the Old Testament. God's law in the Old Testament is supreme and holy, and those who break it are severely punished. Although the father's approach is cruel, this cruelty does inhibit human nature. Human nature is never-ending to desire, and only restraint can stabilize order.
The heroine's name "Grace" originally meant "grace, enlightenment; amnesty".
From escaping her father's control, Grace has been helping others in her own way, compassionately forgiving others. But what she did, in her father's eyes, was nothing more than a manifestation of arrogance. Although Grace has always been sympathetic to others, she has not treated them with the standards she treats herself. On the contrary, Grace has always had a sense of moral superiority, looking at the perpetrators from the commanding heights, and always letting them follow the nature of evil.
In Dogtown, Grace and her father are honest in the car, and one of the things they dislike most is arrogance. Grace believed that only God had the power to decide the life and death of the world, and that her father had done so by stripping everyone of the power god had given him. In her father's view, Grace judged herself highly, but there was no moral bottom line for the people in the town. When the town becomes more and more oppressive to Grace, Grace will only find problems from herself, and her kindness invisibly promotes the evil of the town.
"Arrogance" is the first of the seven deadly sins, which fundamentally negates the doctrine of self-humility and is a complete blasphemy against God.
Dante, the pioneer of the Renaissance, arranged the order of the seven deadly sins in the Divine Comedy according to the severity of the evil deeds. In Christianity, there is also a saying that the seven deadly sins are instincts that people are born with and will accompany them throughout their lives.
In the film, in addition to the arrogance of the father and daughter, the residents of the town also embody the other six deadly sins. Male lust, female Christ,
Going back to the previous part, Grace chose TuZhen after a conversation with her father about "arrogance". This is also where the film is controversial and discussed. Many people believe that what happened in the town gave birth to the flower of evil in Grace's heart
Finally, what exactly does "dogtown" mean?
In the film, Grace asks her father, "If dogs are only obedient to their own nature, then why can't we forgive them?" ”
Director Ras von Trier borrowed his father's words to make his point: Dogs can learn many useful things, but we do not forgive them when they are submissive to their own nature.
Regarding the saying that "nature is inherently evil," in addition to the "theory of sexual evil" of Xun Zi, a famous thinker in China, there is also a saying called "original sin theory" in the West.
Original sin theory holds that human sin was left over from Eve and Adam's theft of the forbidden fruit. This view was developed by the theologian Osgoodin: born with sins, only faith in Christ can be saved, otherwise it will only fall into the abyss.
Grace in Dogtown is the image of Christ. When the inhabitants of Dogville have long been swallowed up by the evil in their hearts, the final destruction of the town is not killing, but a kind of redemption.
After all, Grace left behind a dog named Moses.
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The End
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