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Thread: DOGVILLE: An American Parable by Lars von Trier

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    DOGVILLE: An American Parable by Lars von Trier

    "The film DOGVILLE as told in nine chapters and a prologue."

    Done with opening titles, an aerial view reveals the curious topography of a small town, drawn onto a stage, with chalk lines standing for walls and a minimum of props. John Hurt's voice intones: "This is the sad tale of the township of Dogville, in the Rocky Mountains, up where the road came to its definite end near the abandoned silver mine. The residents of Dogville were good, honest folk and they liked their town."

    Tom Edison (Paul Bettany), an aspiring writer and self-proclaimed town leader, returns home after visiting his childhood friend Bill (Jeremy Davies) and Bill's sister Liz (Chloe Sevigny). Suddenly he hears gunshots coming from the valley below, and later, Moses' frantic barks. A stranger appears begging for protection. Tom hides Grace (Nicole Kidman) and lies to the armed trenchcoats who come in pursuit. Tom holds a town meeting to inform the residents of the events of the previous night. They vote to let her stay, for the time being. In order to win their trust, Grace agrees to provide any service or assistance the residents may require. The townfolk gradually warm up to her graces and the fugitive integrates into the community. But not for long. Police come to Dogville to pin up a wanted poster, raising fear and suspicion. Greed, jealousy, envy and the baser instincts will soon become manifest.

    Dogville comes complete with a narrative twist giving Grace opportunities not available to the female victims in Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark. The film comes into focus as a parable, as moralist in its intentions as primo Kurosawa. The residents of Dogville can be said to embody different reactions to the possession of power over another human being ( one of many possible readings the film allows). The actions of Tom were of particular interest to me, given how he is introduced as a compassionate, well-educated, perhaps altruistic man. Trier's script becomes quite sophisticated when laying bare the way each character justifies his/her abuse of power over Grace. The stellar cast includes Lauren Bacall, Ben Gazzara, James Caan, Patricia Clarkson and Bergman-veteran Harriet Andersson.

    Lars von Trier refers to Dogville as the first of a trilogy titled USA: Land of Opportunities. He does not object to the label "filmed theatre" (more accurately, a staging turned into a film). Trier readily offers a variety of influences ranging from the BBC's Nicholas Nickelby, to the works of John Steinback, to the song "Pirate Jenny" from Brecht's The Three Penny Opera (http://pithuit.free.fr/FAITHFULL/LYRICS/twen03.html). As a cinema correlative, I'd propose Louis Malle's Vanya on 42nd Street, a bare-bones, post-modern adaptation of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya". Rarefied company indeed.

    In case of any doubt as to whether he intended an analogy between Dogville, Colorado and the USA, Lars closes with a collage of pictures of poor, homeless, addicted, disenfranchised Americans. A lot of Graces.
    Last edited by oscar jubis; 04-06-2004 at 10:46 PM.

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