Antichrist (2009) [Blu-ray]
Drama | Fantasy

The Criterion Collection [Blu-ray]

Tagline: Chaos reigns.

Lars von Trier (Europa, Breaking The Waves, Dancer In The Dark) shook up the film world when he premiered Antichrist at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In this graphic psychodrama, a grief-stricken man and woman - a searing Willem Dafoe (Platoon, The Last Temptation Of Christ) and Cannes best actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (Jane Eyre, 21 Grams) - retreat to a cabin deep in the woods after the accidental death of their infant son, only to find terror and violence at the hands of nature and, ultimately, each other. But this most confrontational work yet from one of contemporary cinema's most controversial artists is no mere provocation. It is a visually sublime, emotionally ravaging journey to the darkest corners of the possessed human mind; a disturbing battle of the sexes that pits rational psychology against age old superstition; and a profoundly effective horror film.

Storyline: A couple lose their young son when he falls out of a window while they are having sex in another room. The mother's grief consigns her to hospital, but her therapist husband brings her home intent on treating her depression himself. To confront her fears they go to stay at their remote cabin in the woods, "Eden", where something untold happened the previous summer. Told in four chapters with a prologue and epilogue, the film details acts of lustful cruelty as the man and woman unfold the darker side of nature outside and within. Written by Peter Brandt Nielsen

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov, October 28, 2010 -- Winner of the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, Lars von Trier's "Antichrist" (2009) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an audio commentary with professor Murray Smith from University of Kent in the United Kingdom and director Lars von Trier; interviews with various cast and crew members; making of fetaturette; footage from the film's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival; theatrical trailers and more. The disc also arrives with a 30-page illustrated booklet. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked". Please be advised that the film contains disturbing footage that is not appropriate for minors!

Danish director Lars von Trier's Antichrist is this year's most controversial film. Similar to Gaspar Noe's Irreversible, it has truly managed to get a number or people, including some prominent critics, out of their comfort zones. The well-mannered Todd McCarthy, who writes for Variety Magazine, for example, had this to say: "Lars von Trier cuts a big fat art-film fart with "Antichrist". As if deliberately courting critical abuse, the Danish bad boy densely packs this theological-psychological horror opus with grotesque, self-consciously provocative images that might have impressed even Hieronymus Bosch�" But is Antichrist truly that bad?

Depending on how flexible your tolerance for human suffering is, I'd say yes, Antichrist is a bad film, but a different king of bad. It offers a chilling trip into the bleak world of a devastated couple - He (Willem Dafoe, Shadow of the Vampire) and She (Charlotte Gainsbourg, The Science of Sleep) - where abuse, misery and self-humiliation are examined in a shockingly disturbing fashion.

Antichrist is divided into four chapters - Grief, Pain (Chaos Reigns), Despair (Gynocide), and The Three Beggars - each focusing on the complex process of coming to terms and eventually overcoming the loss of a loved one. The film also has a short prologue and epilogue; the former chronicles the tragedy, the latter summarizes the consequences of it.

Now, here's exactly why the film has turned off so many who have already seen it:

First, Antichrist is not a symbolic film. What you would see in it is what von Trier wanted you to see. The visuals are so direct and powerful that you won't have to speculate about hidden meanings or unspoken messages. The horror is right there, on the screen; it will hit you in the face and you will react to it during the film, not after the final credits roll.

Second, Antichrist is an explicit film. Not dirty, explicit. The sex is mechanical, cold and ugly. He and She have sex to temporarily escape the pain. In a cynical sort of way, Antichrist shows that sex is a form of therapy that works (unlike religion, which isn't even mentioned).

Third, Satan, the Creator, the One who started it all. All four chapters in von Trier's film make it perfectly clear that it was Satan that created us; hence the reason why we suffer, kill and die. According to von Trier, God gave up on us and left. In Antichrist, He and She come to realize precisely that.

So while Antichrist is a bad film, it is not a bad film. It is a powerful and very unsettling depiction of a world where according to von Trier, a self-admitted atheist and Nietzsche admirer, only pain and evil are eternal.

Dafoe and Gainsbourg deliver notably brave performances. The latter, in particular, is so good, she actually does look possessed. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle's (The Last King of Scotland) lensing - a mix of cool black and white footage for the prologue and other parts of the film, and rich but cold color footage - is stunning.

Fragments from Georg Friedrich Handel's "Lascia ch'io pianga" from the composer's classic Italian opera Rinaldo, performed by Tuva Semmingsen and Barokksolistene, appear during key scenes in the film.

Note: In 2009, Antichrist won Best Actress award (Charlotte Gainsbourg) at the Cannes Film Festival. Earlier this year, the film also won four Bodil awards, including Best Film, Best Actress, and Best Actor (Willem Dafoe).

Danish director Lars von Trier's Antichrist is without a doubt the most disturbing film to appear on Blu-ray since the format was launched. It is difficult to like, but it isn't difficult to appreciate. As expected, Criterion have put together a fantastic package for it - the film looks and sounds terrific, and all of the supplemental features from the French Blu-ray release have been ported. Indeed, VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

[CSW] -4.7- One of the few films that caused me real anxiety which bordered on fear. The graphic images embedded with symbolism, the at times, unusual cinematography, and the physical sexual violence combined to give you not only a sense of dread but also a sense of hidden evil. A very disturbing film that is most definitely not for everyone, but for those can withstand the horridness that borders on the psychological abyss of madness it will be one of the most thought, and emotion, provoking film that you will ever see. See this genre masterpiece at your own risk, it will leave you shaken.
[V4.0-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.

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