Another very strange film by this guy (Lars von Trier), who for some is a genius and for others just a provocateur (but a great one, nonetheless).
In The House That Jack Built, Matt Dillon plays a serial killer in the 1970s. As always, Lars von Trier is the true unseen protagonist in a strange, provocative and brutal film.
Plot
Jack is, quite simply, a serial killer. He kills, without much meaning to it, and tries to see the artistic side of his occupation. Jack is Mr. Sophistication who is on his way to a Dantesque hell, led by the hand by Virgil.
The Movie
It’s hard to get into this film that, as always, tries to reinvent itself and reinvent cinematic meaning in every scene. Yes, Lars von Trier is a provocateur and provokes us in every scene, both in the story and in the narrative formula, as well as in the direction of the actors and the disorderly orderly way of narrating… nothing? The film is a dark reflection on human beings, art, evil and about cinema itself.
The House That Jack Built is not Antichrist, it is less metaphorical, …more cruel, perhaps? It is a journey into a black hole that many do not even want to approach, you have to be suicidal to like Lars von Trier and I have to confess that I love his work, a guy who always transports us into the beyond, and is perhaps the most personal director in cinema today, who overcomes classicism to reflect on it through transgression, violence.
A lot of badassery in the references to culture: the classical, the modern… Dante and Virgil, even Bob Dylan is there… a lot of music… contradictions – which, after all, is what culture is built on. Dialectics.
Our opinion
To tell the truth, it’s not that big a deal. They say that people were leaving the cinema and that what they had seen was enough to keep them awake for a week, but… if our stomachs can take it, it’s not that bad. A good film, for strong stomachs, it is not Lars von Trier’s best effort, but it certainly is a different film.
Very interesting narrative style, the story not so much.
This gentleman… whether he gets it right or not and whether we like him or not… he is always different, and we do like that.
