THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2004 David N. Butterworth
** (out of ****)
In a summer season dominated by the return of "Shrek," "Spider-
Man," and sharks, it's nice to have someone like Lars von Trier around
to provide for some deeper, rear-brain stimulation. With a reputation
for misogyny far preceding him--observe Emily Watson, Bjork, and Nicole
Kidman's emotional bruising in "Breaking the Waves," "Dancer in the
Dark," and last year's "Dogville" respectively--it's otherwise
comforting to know the controversial Danish director treats his male
heroes with similar disrespect. In "The Five Obstructions" ("De Fem
Benspænd") von Trier subjects fellow filmmaker Jørgen Leth to some
cruel and unfathomable punishment by challenging him to reconstruct
(i.e., remake) his 1967 black-and-white short film "The Perfect Human"
("Det Perfekte Menneske") five times, each time with some seemingly
arbitrary set of conditions attached (the five "obstructions" of the
title). For example, the first film should contain edits of no fewer
than twelve frames, be set in a place Leth has never been, and answer
the questions raised in the original. Von Trier, who appears, gloats,
and eats caviar on camera during the documentary portion of the film
("The Conversations"), takes obvious pleasure in giving Leth these
spontaneous and deliberately obtuse assignments, and it's a credit to
his subject that Leth takes each and every task in its stride with good
humor and very creditable results (although we never see "The Perfect
Human" in its entirety and are therefore not in a position to really
judge). Not without its points of intrigue, "The Five Obstructions"
nevertheless winds up a vain and vapid intellectual exercise that
illustrates not just how consummate an artist Leth clearly is but how
defiantly arrogant von Trier would appear to be.
--
David N. Butterworth
dnb@dca.net
Got beef? Visit "La Movie Boeuf"
online at http://members.dca.net/dnb
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