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DOGVILLE
6/10
Denmark
(Den/Swe/Fr/Nor/Neth/Fin/Ger/Ity/Jap/US/UK) (!) 2003 : Lars ‘VON’ TRIER
: 177 mins
Shot entirely
on a single sound-stage, with streets, houses and geographical features
marked out in white paint, Dogville is essentially a filmed play
– with copious narration provided by an unseen John Hurt to guides us
through a prologue and nine chapters. In the 1930s, a mysterious young
woman named Grace Mulligan (Kidman) takes refuge in the tiny Rocky Mountain
town of Dogville, home to idealistic would-be writer Tom Edison (Paul
Bettany). Edison welcomes the stranger, who seems to be on the run from
murderous gangsters, and after initial uncertainty his fellow townsfolk
also prove accepting. But it isn’t long before their ingrained suspicion
of outsiders starts colouring their view of the apparently innocent and
pure Grace – and gradually her life becomes a nightmarish ordeal of physical
and mental oppression and exploitation…
Presented in
its full three-hour version at Cannes, Dogville was pointedly shut
out of the awards and received a very mixed critical reception – and while
‘von’ Trier had reportedly spent the best part of a year tinkering with
the picture in post-production, he’s apparently going to perform some
radical trimming before the film is shown to the paying public. Unfortunately
for all concerned, Dogville isn’t really worth all this
bother. The film has many incidental pleasures – and the twist ending
is a knockout - but is so woefully, self-indulgently overlong that lopping
off 45 minutes probably isn’t going to make much difference. A much more
radical edit is required, down to around 90-100 minutes, but even this
probably won’t address the fundamental problems of the unconvincing story
and its gratuitously arty execution.
16th
November, 2003
(seen 15th November : Tyneside
Cinema, Newcastle)
this review
is itself a “radical edit” of the essay ‘Dogville
: Barking Up the Wrong Tree’
For a review
of the making of Dogville - Dogville
Confessions click here
by Neil
Young
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