Age of The Nerd
For anyone keeping tabs on the international film scene, two of the biggest announcements of the 71st Cannes Film Festival came a week after this year’s official lineup of films competing for the coveted Palme d’Or was unveiled. The first: Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, after decades of disastrous production issues and legal battles that seemingly threatened to put Mr. Gilliam in an early grave, would close the festival. The other: Lars von Trier, the notorious enfant terrible of Danish cinema and a general staple of the Cannes scene, would walk the Croisette seven years after his unprecedented ban – as a fast reminder, when he premiered Melancholia in 2011, amidst the horrified looks adorning the faces of Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Mr. von Trier suggested he “understood” Adolf Hitler and sympathized with the Nazi ideology because of his German ancestry, leading to his immediately being declared persona non grata – with his latest film The House That Jack Built. And if the social media firestorm is a sign, it certainly and unapologetically made its bid for the title of 2018’s most politically incorrect experience. The reception is also certain to make the last time Mr. von Trier attended Cannes look tame in comparison.
Early Monday morning, the film’s official Facebook page unveiled the first trailer for his 2.5 hour odyssey into the mind of the titular architect-turned-“homicidal artist” (Matt Dillon), sure to join the ranks of fictional madmen like Patrick Bateman, Dexter Morgan and Hannibal Lecter as one of the most devious and twisted minds to shake the pantheon of horror pop culture up. Right off the bat, the OCD-afflicted psychopath is warned by the mysterious, Victorian-era dressed Verge (Bruno Ganz, best known to Western audiences for playing Hitler in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Downfall, certainly something too scintillating and tempting for Mr. von Trier not to troll audiences with), to whom he will narrate the five “incidents” that shaped his notoriety, not to believe what he says are things Verge has “never heard before,” a hint of whatever madness is to ensue. And, as this trailer – set to the increasingly unsettling combination of David Bowie’s “Fame” and Mr. Dillon’s narration about murder, the soul and artistry – is also fast to show, no taboo is off-limits to that madness, ranging from Jack as a child holding a duckling in one hand and pliers in another to his adult self on a hunting trip with one victim (Sofie Gråbøl) and her sons, none of whom are likely to see the day after. There’s also encounters with a caustic Uma Thurman, reuniting with Mr. von Trier after her celebrated Nymphomaniac performance, as the first person who stokes his need for carnage, also conveniently providing the murder weapon with a busted car jack , and a bound, terrified Riley Keough (also headlining another anticipated Cannes player, David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Silver Lake) as his most personal victim, moments ranging from morbidly humorous to hopelessly bleak. Mr. von Trier’s regular DP Manuel Alberto Claro also gets to show off some chilling visuals; one such memorable image is a heavy rainstorm washing away a long trail of blood from one unfortunate victim stretching far as the eye can see.
[vimeo 269485725 w=640 h=360] [Be warned: there’s some pretty visceral and graphic images of violence in the trailer, so definitely NSFW]Hours after the trailer debuted, and after the premiere of Spike Lee’s equally incendiary BlacKkKlansman, Mr. von Trier and a healthy portion of the cast and crew – Ms. Thurman and Ms. Keough were notably absent due to scheduling conflicts – walked the red carpet, with Mr. von Trier himself receiving a standing ovation as he entered the theater right before the movie started. What happened once the lights dimmed is a story sure to join the annals of infamous Cannes premieres. Social media posts confirmed a small part of the audience – supposedly up to 200 attendees out of a 2,400-person audience – walked out during some of the film’s more gruesome sequences, notably the post-homicide treatment of Ms. Gråbøl’s children (though murdered children didn’t seem to raise many eyebrows last year when Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer won the Screenplay award along Lynne Ramsey’s You Were Never Really Here) and the extensive cruelty inflicted on Ms. Keough. The critical consensus was expectedly divisive, as the 50% now held on Rotten Tomatoes suggests, with many lauding the performances, commentary and the film’s shocking climax while others, quick to damn its sadistically violent and nihilistic aspects and resurrect debates of Mr. von Trier’s supposed misogyny towards his female characters. On one end of that spectrum is The Playlist’s Jessica Kiang, who reviled The House That Jack Built as perhaps the most reprehensible film ever conceived in a spoiler heavy review leaving little to the imagination; on the other, Eric Kohn of IndieWire praised it as a deeply reflective walk-through of an artist (Mr. von Trier himself, with Jack serving as his avatar) explaining and justifying his existence and that of his work, no matter how sinister or grotesque.
The Internet, of course, reacted in the way the Internet will be depended on to react when such controversy arrises. Many exclaimed the film’s controversial reception further stoked an interest in seeing the film and experiencing its horrors firsthand while others called for another condemnation of the director, saying he had gone too far this time. For a small film not having nothing to do with the Avengers or how divided the Star Wars fan base has become with Rian Johnson, to garner such fierce debate online is a feat. And if the early word is what it suggests, then The House That Jack Built will most likely be another sterling example of Lars von Trier doing what he does best: thoroughly pissing and provoking his audience off however he can in a way that only the best can, which means we’ll really have something to look forward to this fall.
“The House That Jack Built takes place in 1970s USA. We follow the highly intelligent Jack through 5 incidents and are introduced to the murders that define Jack’s development as a serial killer. We experience the story from Jack’s point of view. He views each murder as an artwork in itself, even though his dysfunction gives him problems in the outside world. Despite the fact that the final and inevitable police intervention is drawing ever near (which both provokes and puts pressure on Jack) he is – contrary to all logic – set on taking greater and greater chances. Along the way we experience Jack’s descriptions of his personal condition, problems and thoughts through a recurring conversation with the unknown Verge – a grotesque mixture of sophistry mixed with an almost childlike self-pity and in-depth explanations of, for Jack, dangerous and difficult maneuvers.”
* The House That Jack Built is set for American distribution this fall from IFC Films
