Antichrist

Director: Lars Van Trier
Cast: Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg
Genre: Drama/Thriller 2009
Running time: 108 mins.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★



In this graphic psychodrama, a grief-stricken man and woman (Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) retreat to their 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!

A very provocative and intense film. It leaves you to wonder "who's at fault?" and "who is the bad guy?" As true to a lot of his films, Dafoe has a seemly natural knack for giving bone-chilling and authoritative performance as the foe. His character seems numb to the death of his son as he guides his wife through the natural psychological grieving period. The woman (Gainsbourg) is in agony, winding down and eventually up the mental spiral, of trying to hold onto the memory of her son. However, as the story unfolds, you are thrown off balanced and through a loop of haunting events and visuals. To see Dafoe partnered up with Gainsbourg is astonishingly beautiful. Why haven't they acted with each other before this film? They have great chemistry together on screen!!!

The film use of the crow, fox, and doe to represent the stages of grief was very subtle, but also very important role in helping you understand underlying message. The crow being death, fox being perhaps aggression, and the doe indicating a loss of innocence or paradise. They are introduced separately and reappear as a group near the end of the film. One noteworthy moment, when Dafoe's character leaves the cabin and descends down the mountain. It is here that I realized the Dante's Inferno reference. The cabin having been one circle and the descent transforming into the beginning of the next, all the mean while grief is constantly following behind him. Perhaps, the man and the woman continuing to have sex, in the beginning of the film, in the mist of the son's accidental death, was the first circle of hell.

What is fantastic about this film is that it is one of those rare cinematic masterpieces, that you could watch over and over again, and still pick up on something new.