Dogville is the second Lars Von Trier film I have been introduced to, the first was Antichrist which shot straight up into my favourite films for its imagery, uniqueness and its ability to provide an amazing atmosphere which lingers for days after watching it whilst providing enough connotations, interpretations and themes to poke at indefinitely. Antichrist has a full serving of horror, gore, sex and self mutilation so I expected similar things from Dogville, not necessarily that order.
Dogville is the story of a tiny town in the mountains somewhere in America during the depression. Nicole Kidman’s character stumbles upon it escaping gangsters and persuades the townsfolk to let her stay by volunteering herself for labour with each household.
The set for the film is not in the mountains. It is on a stage, blacked out at the sides so all that can be seen is the one street town with chalked out buildings and minimal furniture. No walls exist. It takes a few minutes to adjust after the novelty of the setting but the focus is quickly stolen by the atmosphere and acting skills of the cast. I personally found that, most likely as intended, having no distractions more focus was placed on the actual storyline and characters and found it mesmerising that such ambience can be created through chalked out floors alone.
Everything in the film is transparent, the film is split into chapters and they entitle what will occur in them, there is a narrator telling you what is happening, no walls or buildings enable you to see what the whole town is doing at once providing the audience to see that one character is raping another whilst another is ringing the parish bell. The transparency of the set aids the storyline and as it unravels, the transparency helps chillingly denote the township as everything you can see is everything they need fearful of anything beyond it.
As far as themes go there are many I am sure, for me, there is an underlying philosophical look at human nature and this is depicted by the town’s existence and the characters fear, jealously, good, evil, arrogance and resilience.
I almost thought at times that it was too long and I didn’t want to watch anymore. The deteriorating mood of the film and of the towns inhabitants turning goodwill into greed and changing needs from none into an insatiable desire for a slave I found gripping and infuriating and I hoped that the inhabitants would be shot in the end the whole town would be burnt down.
Lars Von Trier made me think. I have practically written an essay and could definitely write more. Anything that evokes a reaction on this scale, in me, is impressive. I think I will watch another.
