Dogville may have disappointed Cannes 2003 but certainly not me...

dogville ended my stint with the nordic film fest last tuesday and what a way to finish off! lars von trier is one of cinema's greats and that is a fact sealed with dogville. grace (nicole kidman) is a beautiful, mysterious fugitive hiding from a mob when she chances upon a small, isolated town in the rocky mountains called dogville. upon the invitation of tom edison(paul bettany), a self-appointed spokesman and philosopher of dogville, she embarks on tom's plan to offer herself for any sort of physical labour in a bid to win the townfolks' approval and as a means to repay their kindness for habouring her there. however, as it becomes more and more apparent that it is increasingly dangerous to keep her, the townspeople begin to demand more and more of grace. in these demands, the prior charms of dogville begin to melt away and the true nature of the people comes to the fore.

once again, like in breaking the waves and dancer in the dark, lars's recurring themes of humanity and kindness are being explored in dogville. to what extent is kindness sincere and truly devoid of ulterior motives? how much is a person willing to give without any strings attached? behind the smiles, the generosity of heart in the willingness to let grace stay, belies the irrational fear and bitterness borne out of xenophobia. there are double standards in the way grace is treated as compared to the original residents. grace has to work twice as hard under relatively exclusive rules- most apparent when she took a shortcut through the gooseberry bushes and was chided for it by ma ginger (lauren bacall). grace defended herself by pointing out how others use the same shortcut as well and was met with a harsh, snide reply, "but u haven't lived here that long." i think lauren bacall is just deliciously, brilliantly bad... but i digress. hypocrisy is pervasive in dogville and it clings onto everyone- and no one personifies hypocrisy better than tom edison. although he claims to love grace, he is truly in love with himself and his extending a gesture of help, is really a self-righteous mission to prove his own theories and elevate dogville into a glorified existence with him to be thanked afterwards. grace, as her name befits her, is very forgiving of the town and the sins of its people and yet they use and abuse her to the point that she becomes dehumanised. toward the end, she is chained and treated no better than even the town's dog, moses. but retribution sweeps upon them when the mob drives into town with james caan (woohoo!!) as the mob boss. the godfather theme started playing in my head during his onscreen time... but again, i digress.

ths story is split into 9 chapters and the beginning of every chapter is indicated with the chapter number, and a one-line summary. this self-reflexive tool works brilliantly with lars's largely theatrical set. the cinematography in this film is not the conventional natural landscape or outdoor sets but rather an indoor studio, with several random props to indicate the homes of people. there are no tangible walls but they are indicated by lines drawn into the flooring of the studio. lars von trier is experimenting with television theatre, a genre that was very popular back in the 1970s and 1980s. what struck me also is that because he is experimenting with theatrical artifice, lars extensively manipulates lighting and music and hence, deviates from his famously forged rules of chastity from his dogma 95 film making doctrine. so he is not only dealing with material that is not conventionally mainstream but he is also making it unconventionally dogmatic (95). i think this is a very brave and clever decision to move around genres so one doesn't get pinned down and become too distinct. i also respect that as being versatile. so here's to lars von trier and a healthy career. it'll be good for us too!

picture courtesy of http://outnow.ch/

A girlhood past time.

my brow broke into a sweat. the seconds passed, pounding in my ears. i couldn't stay like that forever. a decision had to made no matter how tough...
i clutched the sandman volume 1: preludes & nocturnes and painfully placed this month's issue of sight & sound back onto the shelf, bill murray staring out from the covers in that wry, idle way of his as if mocking my choice. so it's goodbye cover story of lost in translation- the force is stronger in neil gaiman this time. i've been on a total gaiman binge lately. read coraline back in 2002 and really love it and i'm currently reading neverwhere. i also recently flipped through the wolves in the walls... i'm contemplating whether i should get a copy for my nieces. if i want them to grow up appreciating some of cult's finest, i gotta start early. anyway, the sandman volume 1 cost me a whopping 30 bucks! so i'm officially penniless now... i've gone for broke and i need to stay in to survive. can't go out anymore unless it's to collect some ang pows. btw, happy new year to all!

the sandman: preludes and nocturnes contain the first 8 issues of the acclaimed sandman graphic novel series from the 1990s. the sandman was hot property back then when i was collecting but i was an avid x-men fan and didn't pay much attention to it. it's awesome to curl up with a good comic book and i almost forgotten the feeling. the first thing that hit me was the distantly familiar world of comic book images- the vibrant colours, the sharp inking, the flowing contours. the other thing that roused my memories was the distinct smell of the glossy pages. before i knew it, i started to remember the days, 10 years ago, when me, jia and another pal of ours, tricia were hardcore comic book collectors. we all started with x-men, but jia moved on to spawn and tricia found solace in cyberforce. only i remained the rabidly loyal x-men fan. we used to visit our usual comic book stores together, buy our monthly stuff and proceed to the nearest mcdonald's, buy a couple of drinks, and just sit there for hours reading. and when we're done with our own, we switched so we knew what was going on in each other's titles. and since we were the ones contributing to the rare female presence in comic book stores, the nice uncles used to give us cards, posters and other memoribilia for free! i've still got my hundreds of issues packed away in a huge air-tight plastic box and i think i have a collector's issue, with a certificate of authenticity and signed by the artists. wonder if that's worth anything.

i enjoy the sandman so far. it's really interesting to see neil gaiman's interpretation of old english lores and myths into dark urban fairytales. the stories revolve around morpheus, king of dreams and nightmares and his kin, the endless who include destiny, desire, death... just to name a few. so morpheus is like this tall, pasty and brooding bloke while death, his sister, is an overtly cheerful goth chick. the characters are rather 3-dimensional and the plots quite unconventional as far as comic books go anyway.