When looking for filmmakers who have theorized on their work and on filmmaking I found one of the directors/ auters fascinating! His name…Lars Von Trier.
Now to say that he is a little mentally unstable is an understatement. I decided to first look into him as a person before I delved into his film making methods.
His most notable incident occurring at the Cannes film festival at 2011 where he stated “I understand Hitler” and “OK, I’m a Nazi”.
It can be argued that Lars is as unstable as he is brilliant. I’m in no way condoning his actions (which were horrible) but to say that he said those statements purely on a surface level is a little rich. He would know that controversy generates air time and that’s exactly what it did. He was made Persona Non Grata by the competition, and seemed to relish in it. Don’t worry, he apologized and was back the next year. Lars has also never been to America because of all of his phobias and has even said that he would have liked Melancholia better if he had not made it because “It was very easy to do a film that looks this way, that’s beautiful. Maybe it gave me too much pleasure to do it.” In a newspaper article on the events at Cannes, the journalist says very cleverly that he isn’t here to entertain us, “he is here to trouble us.”
Now! Enough about Lars and his unwieldy mouth. The Ideas that I am keen to learn about are the ones on his filmmaking. I thought I would find nothing all that interesting of note due to his craziness. BUT! In his writings of filmmaking manifesto’s he makes some points that I cant help but nod in agreement with.
“We will no longer be satisfied with ‘well-meaning films with a humanistic message’, we want more – of the real thing, fascination, experience – childish and pure, like all real art”
“There are also those who live together in rooms with no furniture. But their love is growth without soul, replication without any bite. Their ‘wildness’ lacks discipline and their ‘discipline’ lacks wildness.”
“There is only one excuse for living through – and forcing others to live through – the hell of the filmmaking process: the carnal satisfaction in that fraction of a second when the cinema’s loudspeakers and projector in unison and inexplicably give rise to the illusion of motion and sound like an electron leaving its orbit and thus creating light, in order to create only one thing.
This carnal experience when movie magic really works, rushing through the body like a quivering orgasm…it is my quest for this experience that has always been and always will be behind all my work and efforts…Nothing else! There, I’ve written it and it felt good. And forget all the bogus explanations about ‘childlike fascinations’ and ‘all encompassing humility’. For here is my confession: Lars Von Trier, a simple masturbator of the silver screen.”
“One final word. Let only God judge my alchemic attempts at creating life on celluloid. One thing is certain. Life outside the cinema can never be equaled, for it is his creation and therefore divine.”
All of these points made by Lars are exquisite! And represent an ideology that I can’t but help to agree with! The likening of seeing his images on screen to a sexual desire is crude, but I think still quite accurate. It is beyond some childlike fascination and it has been dulled down by social correctness. It is some kind of carnal satisfaction that is achieved by seeing what you have created projected in from of you. You must be excited and feel something, or else you are doing the wrong thing with your time.
In Dogma95, Lars was interviewed about the technique he used while making a film of a similar title in the 90’s. The technique he employed was to apply restrictions on the coverage of the scenes. He said that they endeavored to use only natural lighting and to not move objects like furniture in order to get into places to place the camera for a shot. I think this is a very interesting idea but in the interview Lars didn’t sound overly happy with the result. I wouldn’t employ this technique because I feel it is an experiment that I don’t need to undertake. However, the idea of trying to construct your scenes in relation to the best natural lighting is something that I would like to explore.
Karl.