FILM STUDIES L a Lars von Trier LLLiiinnndddaaa BBBaaadddllleeeyyy iiss aa r Linda Badley professor of English at s Middle Tennessee State v “A thoughtful, thorough, and crisply written study University. She is the o of Lars von Trier’s feature fi lm production. Linda Badley deftly combines criticism on von Trier’s fi lms author of Film, Horror, n with close reading, historical analysis, genre theory, and the Body Fantastic T gender studies, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies.” and Writing Horror and r —Andrew Nestingen, author of Crime and Fantasy i the Body: The Fiction of e in Scandinavia: Fiction, Film, and Social Change Stephen King, Anne Rice, r Scandinavia’s foremost living auteur and the catalyst aaannnddd CCCllliiivvveee BBBaaarrrkkkeeerrr aanndd tthhee of the Dogme95 movement, Lars von Trier is arguably coeditor of Traditions in world cinema’s most confrontational and polarizing World Cinema. fi gure. Willfully devastating audiences, he takes risks few fi lmmakers would conceive, mounting projects that somehow transcend the grand follies they C O N T E M P O R A R Y F I L M D I R E C T O R S narrowly miss becoming. Challenging conventional A volume in the series limitations and imposing his own rules, he restlessly reinvents the fi lm language. The Danish director has Contemporary Film therefore cultivated an insistently transnational cin- Directors, edited by B a ema, taking inspiration from sources that range from James Naremore d the European avant-garde to American genre fi lms. le y This volume provides a stimulating overview of Cover photo: Antichrist. Trier’s career while focusing on his more recent © 2009, Zentropa work, including the controversial Gold Heart Trilogy Entertainments ApS. (Breaking the Waves, The Idiots, and Dancer in the Cover design: Paula Newcomb Dark), the as-yet unfi nished USA Trilogy (Dogville and Manderlay), and individual projects such as the comedy The Boss of It All and the incendiary horror University of Illinois Press Lars von Trier psychodrama Antichrist. Closely analyzing the fi lms Urbana, Chicago, and Springfi eld and their contexts, Linda Badley draws on a range of www.press.uillinois.edu cultural references and critical approaches, including Linda Badley genre, gender, and cultural studies, performance theory, and trauma culture. Two revealing interviews ISBN 978-0-252-07790-6 IL that Trier granted during crucial stages of Antichrist’s L IN development are also included. O IS Lars von Trier i-xiv.1-218.Badl.indd 1 12/8/10 9:05:45 AM i-xiv.1-218.Badl.indd 2 12/8/10 9:05:45 AM Contemporary Film Directors Edited by James Naremore The Contemporary Film Directors series provides concise, well-written introductions to directors from around the world and from every level of the film industry. Its chief aims are to broaden our awareness of important artists, to give serious critical attention to their work, and to il- lustrate the variety and vitality of contemporary cinema. Contributors to the series include an array of internationally respected critics and academics. Each volume contains an incisive critical commentary, an informative interview with the director, and a detailed filmography. A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book. i-xiv.1-218.Badl.indd 3 12/8/10 9:05:46 AM i-xiv.1-218.Badl.indd 4 12/8/10 9:05:46 AM Lars von Trier Linda Badley UniversiTy oF iLLinois Press UrBaNa ChICago SprINgFIELD i-xiv.1-218.Badl.indd 5 12/8/10 9:05:46 AM Frontispiece: Lars von Trier, Antichrist. © 2009, Zentropa Entertainments ApS. © 2010 by Linda Badley All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 c p 5 4 3 2 1 ∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Badley, Linda. Lars von Trier / Linda Badley. p. cm. — (Contemporary film directors) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-252-03591-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-252-03591-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) isbn-13: 978-0-252-07790-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-252-07790-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Trier, Lars von, 1956 – —Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. pn1998.3.t747b34 2011 791.4302'33092—dc22 2010040241 i-xiv.1-218.Badl.indd 6 12/8/10 9:05:46 AM Contents Acknowledgments | ix making the waves: cinema as performance | 1 Prescient Affects: Student Films 16 Hypnotic Virtuosity: The Europe Trilogy 21 Subverting the Kingdom: Television 47 Performative Politics: Dogme95 and The Idiots 54 Performing the Feminine: Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark 69 (Up)staging the American Dream: The USA Trilogy (Minus One) 101 Comedy, Automavision, and The Boss of It All 131 Theatre of Cruelty: Antichrist (An Epilogue) 140 interviews with lars von trier | 155 Interview, September 2006 155 Interview, October 2007 167 Filmography | 181 Bibliography | 193 Index | 207 i-xiv.1-218.Badl.indd 7 12/8/10 9:05:46 AM i-xiv.1-218.Badl.indd 8 12/8/10 9:05:46 AM acknowledgments The manuscript for this project was in its final stages as the controversy over Antichrist broke at Cannes, months before the film was to become available in the United States. Although I managed to see it shortly be- fore submitting the final draft, constraints of time and space required that the book end with a brief, in-the-moment analysis of the film’s ori- gins, inspirations, and critical and popular reception as the story emerged from the surrounding publicity and the two interviews that Trier granted during crucial stages of the film’s development. During those discussions (ostensibly about other subjects), Trier (and I) invariably returned to the film-in-progress, the horror genre, and topics such as fear, cruelty, and depression. Together, the “Epilogue” on Antichrist and the interviews should be understood as a provisional and somewhat risky experiment intended in the spirit in which Trier’s most recent film was made. Spatial constraints also precluded any sustained analysis of Trier and Jørgen Leth’s extraordinary and acclaimed “Dogumentary” film/ provocation/event The Five Obstructions (2003), which adapted the game strategy of Dogme95—the imposition of “arbitrary” rules and limitations—within a more personal and experimental environment. Interested readers should see Mette Hjort’s Dekalog1: On The Five Ob- structions (Wallflower, 2008) for comprehensive coverage from several disciplinary approaches. Like many Americans, I was introduced to Lars von Trier by way of the controversy surrounding Breaking the Waves in 1996. Prepared by my feminism for an onslaught of misogyny, I was instead transfixed, stunned, and moved to see more of his films. I began to think about writ- ing a book on his work only several years later while writing the article “Danish Dogme: ‘Truth’ and Cultural Politics,” for Traditions in World i-xiv.1-218.Badl.indd 9 12/8/10 9:05:46 AM