Have any of you seen this? I thought that after The Idiots and Dancer in the Dark, von Trier couldn’t get more experimental, but Dogville makes those movies look mainstream. If you haven’t heard of it, the movie was shot on a soundstage using very few props and most of the rooms have no walls (characters entering or exiting just mime the act of turning a doorknob). Even the dog in the film is just an outline painted on the floor with “dog” written next to it. You can also see actors who aren’t in the scene standing in the background.
The first ten or fifteen minutes are a little weird, getting used to seeing the other actors in the background and everything looking like a big theater stage, but then I started to get used to it and when Nicole Kidman appeared, I was hooked and forgot about the lack of props, walls and real animals or vegetation. She is really outstanding in it and I’m looking forward to seeing her in the next two installments of von Trier’s “U.S.A. Trilogy”.
The movie is long–2 hours and 58 minutes–but moves along quickly thanks in part to John Hurt’s narration, although the last third of the movie is tough to stomach at times because of how badly Grace is abused.
I’ve read a lot about the movie being so strongly anti-American that it will never get released here, but I didn’t notice anything like that except for the end credits David Bowie’s “Young Americans” plays while the credits roll over a montage of depressing images.. The inhabitants of the town of Dogville are unbelievably cruel and sadistic, but nowhere in the film is it implied that they are that way because they’re Americans. I think that whole angle was built up by the media.
I’ll keep the ending wrapped in spoiler tags to not ruin it for those who haven’t seen the movie, but it’s a real shocker–just not in the way you might expect. People who aren’t von Trier fans will probably hate the movie, but if you’ve enjoyed his past work, I think you’ll be impressed.
I loved the ending when Kidman says “There’s a family with children. Kill them first but tell the mother that if she can supress her tears, you’ll spare them. I owe her that.” I really thought von Trier was going to end the movie with Grace getting raped again and killed and after seeing her endure so much abuse, I really needed to see her get some revenge.