Bitch Killer
25Mar2004 Filed under: Pop VulturaThis article nicely paraphrases one of the many reasons why I won’t be seeing Dogville:
As was “Breaking the Waves” and “Dancer in the Dark,” “Dogville” is about the degradation and torture of a beautiful young woman. (The critic Greg Tate nailed it in the Village Voice when he referred to the director as “Lars ‘The Bitch Killer’ von Trier.”)
Women are von Trier’s select victims. That alone doesn’t make him a misogynist. What does make him a misogynist is the sadistic relish he takes in the drawn-out destruction of his female characters, which we see as if watching flies having their wings pulled off under a microscope.
Let’s not forget, I’m one of the few who deeply loathed Dancer In The Dark. Dogville sounds like more of the same. Anti-American films are normally right up my alley, but sure as hell not this one.
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7 Responses to “Bitch Killer”
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Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.
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Blake
March 26th, 2004 at 9:05 am
I also despised Dancer in the Dark. At the time, I wasn’t so aware that the violence of the film was misogynistic, although it was staring me right in the face. I reacted to the depth of the violence depicted: emotional, social and physical all at once. To me it was a disgusting piece of voyeurism appealing to the worst in people.
The fact that it was violence directed at a woman (a single mom!) and that it was entirely fictional also bothers me. There is enough violence against women going on every day in the real world. If the intent was to raise awareness of this kind of violence, fiction was wrong strategy. Fictional violence simply diverts us from looking at the real violence. But I don’t think awareness was the expected outcome of this film.
Anna
March 26th, 2004 at 4:50 pm
I didn’t like Dancer in the Dark, either. My husband and I had to turn it off during the murder scene. It was just too painful, too real, too unjust. I have heard before the criticism that von Trier delights in destroying his female protagonists - but his movies will probably continue to be critically acclaimed nonetheless.
philippe
March 29th, 2004 at 1:31 am
‘Mysoginist’ or ‘antiamerican’ are maybe over the top… As far as I’m concern Dogville is just boring to death !
heather
March 30th, 2004 at 3:57 pm
Breaking the Waves was the first and last von Trier film that I’ll see. I remember walking out of the Angelica with my then boyfriend, passing sobbing women being somewhat comforted by their confused partners. I wailed all the way down Houston and then West Broadway and fell into a funk for days. The degradation of Emma Watson’s character was horrific and disgusting. I couldn’t bring myself to see DITD and I’ll avoid Dogville for the same reasons.
kim
March 31st, 2004 at 9:37 am
i don’t think he’s mysogynist at all; just very melodramatic. here’s a quote from a good article analyzing some of the issues: “And though the films themselves may be far too complex and interesting to be reduced to their political parts (“I don’t do propaganda,†he says), the issues underlying them read like a laundry list of generic European grievances with America. Dancer takes on the death penalty, Dogville economic exploitation, Manderlay racism, Wendy guns and crime, and Washington — well, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Ariel
March 31st, 2004 at 10:19 am
There’s no doubt that he’s addressing larger political issues — but why do all these political points have to be made by degrading women? Is there some inherent need for a movie about the death penalty to involve a cute little pixie woman getting destroyed? Is there something about economic exploitation that demands extensive rape and sexual torment? I think von Trier hides his misogyny behind his politics, and it gives me the weebies.
donut
March 31st, 2004 at 6:31 pm
Dancer is the only film I have ever walked out of… and I love Bjork. And yeah, I won’t be seeing this one either. I don’t take Anti-American rants from someone who has never set foot in this country.