Lars von Trier and Richard Foreman: Willem Dafoe performing the most controversial material of the year?

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Lars von Trier and Richard Foreman: Willem Dafoe performing the most controversial material of the year?#1

Posted: 5/26/09 at 4:01pm

WOW! In one year Willem Dafoe will open in a new Richard Foreman show at the Public (the first in many, many years and destined to be... unique... as we know only Foreman can imagine) AND star in the most controversial film in the world this year, ANTI-CHRIST (check out the trailer to see why). And Charlotte Gainsborough (who in the film apparently :SPOILER:castrates-and-disembowels-herself:SPOILER:) winning Best Actress at Cannes almost gaurentees a wider release from IFC Films (who own the American rights to the film) so hopefully he will be on everyone's lips.

The bare soundstage that DOGVILLE and MANDERLAY occupy (two previous von Trier films which are really plays filmed in a vast space with no sets and minimal props/costumes, the latter featuring Dafoe), while reminiscent of OUR TOWN, is truly innovative if only to show that a theatrical text can be presented unadorned on film and work very well (or maybe it's just the casts! Patricia Clarkson, one of the truly great actresses (along with Meryl and Judy Davis, the best) is at her riveting best in this film playing a character about as far removed from her turn in THE GREEN MILE or PIECES OF APRIL (her two best known performances, I'm assuming) as you can get.

Dafoe hasn't worked on stage in a while, but his work in the Dogme 95 (too complicated to explain, look it up) MANDERLAY is the perfect practice and I hope he returns for the third part in the trilogy, WASINGTON (correct spelling), instead of James Caan (who he replaces/alternated in the role of the gangster father continued from DOGVILLE) who appeared visibly very uncomfortable and unhappy with the film (no scenery of which to speak of (or chew on) tends to do that to certain movie actors like Jimmy...).

And if you've never seen MEDEA, one of the greatest plays ever written if not the best, definently get von Trier's production which he adapted for TV which was recently released on DVD.

A Good Nightmare Comes So Rarely,
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