Antichrist

Overview

As soon as the title card appeared on-screen â€" a hand-painted "Antichrist" in manic scrawl, with the final 't' incorporating a female symbol â€" my usually objective back was up. The films of Lars von Trier tend to rub the viewer the wrong way, but this one has a little more venom in it than that.  It has rub, it has tug, and at some point falls entirely into hell.

As married couple, only known as She (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and He (Willem Dafoe), are engrossed in their own sexual world that covers the short first act of the film, their young son tumbles to his death through an open window. An event that occurs at apparently the same time as Gainsbourg's close-up climax. Thus begins the heavy (and more often than not, draining) use of symbolism throughout the rest of the film. The use of stark black and white for that scene gives way to a murky, magnificent hue that seems strangely darker than the previous black as the rest of the tale unfolds.

The remainder of the film (believe me, the above was not a spoiler), centres on Gainsbourg's descent into grief, and the needling cognitive therapy of Dafoe who defies the code that one mustn't counsel their own family, to unpredictably sadistic results. They venture to their cabin in the woods known as Eden, first a mental journey for Gainsbourg, and then (presumably) a physical one for them both. Herein, acorns fall heavy as hooves, fears are faced, a fox talks, a bird is bludgeoned, and then fears of those previously faced fears rear their terrifically ugly, domestic heads.

Much has been made of the seeming rampant misogyny in Antichrist, but it lingers more on a world already dented by existing patriarchal systems â€" She grappling with the history of witchcraft trials and gynocide â€" rather than approaching women/nature as inherently evil. Certainly, the character of He has no pedestal on which to stand (may have something to do with the bum leg). Neither does the director. Still, von Trier's legacy does focus substantially on dragging both its female leads and the audience through hell. Antichrist provokes questions from its viewers, prodding and poking until you’d rather just close your eyes.

There is a real power to the fable at the black heart of this story, Gainsbourg delivers an excruciatingly good performance, chaos does indeed reign, (and yes, there is graphic castration of both sexes), but I’m not convinced that Antichrist is worthy of the complex thought or dialogue it attempts to develop.

Photo: Christian Geisnæs
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z5tKBGcWQZE