Dogville (2003)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Lars von Trier

Writer:

Lars von Trier (written by)

Release Date:

21 May 2003 (Belgium)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

A quiet little town not far from here.

Plot:

A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado town. In exchange, she agrees to work for them. As a search visits town, she finds out that their support has a price. Yet her dangerous secret is never far away...

Plot Keywords:

Mob | Rocky Mountains | Gangster | 1930s | Community

Awards:

13 wins & 19 nominations

Cast

Nicole Kidman	...	Grace Margaret Mulligan
Harriet Andersson	...	Gloria
Lauren Bacall	...	Ma Ginger
Jean-Marc Barr	...	The Man with the Big Hat
Paul Bettany	...	Tom Edison
Blair Brown	...	Mrs. Henson
James Caan	...	The Big Man
Patricia Clarkson	...	Vera
Jeremy Davies	...	Bill Henson
Ben Gazzara	...	Jack McKay
Philip Baker Hall	...	Tom Edison Sr.
Thom Hoffman	...	Gangster
Siobhan Fallon	...	Martha (as Siobhan Fallon Hogan)
John Hurt	...	Narrator (voice)
Zeljko Ivanek	...	Ben

Also Known As:

Dogville (France) (Germany)
The Film 'Dogville' as Told in Nine Chapters and a Prologue (USA) (long title)
U - Der Film 'Dogville' erzählt in neun Kapiteln und einem Prolog. (Germany) (long title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and sexual content.

Runtime:

178 min | Australia:138 min | Italy:135 min

Country:

Denmark | Sweden | Norway | Finland | UK | France | Germany | Netherlands

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Norway:11 | Iceland:14 (theatrical rating) | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Italy:T (re-rating) (2004) | Singapore:PG (video rating) (cut) | Malaysia:U (DVD) | Brazil:16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia) | Denmark:11 | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:15 | Italy:VM14 | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:R13 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:R(A) | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Film i Väst, Nohab Industrial Estate, Trollhättan, Västra Götalands län, Sweden

Company:

Zentropa Entertainments

Trivia:

Paul Bettany didn't want to play Tom Edison because they were shooting it in Sweden. Then his friend Stellan Skarsgård said that Lars von Trier's shoots are so funny that "you'll miss something extraordinary if you turn the part down". After shooting half the movie Bettany asked Skarsgård when the fun will start, which Skarsgård replied: "I lied. I did it because he is amazing to work with, and you wouldn't be able to see that before you were actually here yourself. I wanted to give you a chance, and you wouldn't have shown up if I had been frank with you"

Goofs:

Continuity: When Chuck takes the scarf from Grace's neck it shows up two shots later, then is gone again in next shot.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: This is the sad tale of the township of Dogville. Dogville was in the Rocky Mountains in the US of A, up here where the road came to its definitive end, near the entrance to the old abandoned silver mine. The residents of Dogville were good honest folks...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in David Smiling Bowie (2003) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Young Americans

One of the bravest observations on the truth of humanity

I started watching Dogsville and felt like turning it off.. after all, what kind of movie could occur with no scenery? No doors.. it seemed like some sort of play/movie hybrid but after a shortwhile all those things faded away until I realized how much I would have missed if I had turned it off - it is now one of my favourite movies of all time.

Why? It is so brave to criticse humanity like this and admit just how 'dark' a race we truly are - not matter how much each of us profess to being 'good', we all know that most of us are anything but. Through this movie you see a woman who learns the cold harsh truth in a place where she expected to find the goodness that her faith told her existed. And then on not finding it, discovered that even within her lay a wrath that echoed the darkness that she herself wished did not feature so dominant in our race. And the biggest test of this is to observe your own emotions throughout this movie until what you feel at the end as perfect evidence...

I honestly believe those people that don't believe what this movie is expressing needs to take a cold hard look around them. And if they still don't believe, they are just like the people in this movie - unwilling to see the truth and coming up with excuses and reasons when nothing justifies the horrible world we live in.

A true masterpiece - one of the few pure pieces of art in cinema with amazing acting from Nicole Kidman especially, and the lack of a set causes you to be immersed in the characters like no other movie. And its 'them' and human nature that is the focus. Will leave you thinking and astounded (unless you don't like to think and can't watch a movie that isn't afraid to do something unique, in which case there a countless movies for 'you').