Cheap Dogville (DVD) (Lars von Trier) Price

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Customer Reviews of Dogville

Is the Whole World Dogville?
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>Beautiful and mysterious stranger Grace runs from the gangsters and arrives to the tiny town Dogville that sits somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. The first man she meets, Tom Edison (Paul Bethany), writer/philosopher (who has not written anything yet) decides to help her and introduces her to town folks. Hard-working and decent residents of Dogville reluctantly agree to let Grace stay in the exchange for some menial services. When the residents find out that she may be wanted by the law for the bank robberies, they demand more of her services and eventually make her their slave. Friendly and honest people turn into the sadistic monsters indulging their vile instincts and enjoying the strongest drug possible - absolute power over a helpless human being. <
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>Dodgeville's visual style comes directly from the 50th TV dramas - minimum decorations, just a few actors, and a lot of text. There are no real houses or mountains on the screen - the main street, the benches, the bushes, the houses of the residents are marked out with a chalk outlines on the stage. We see some chairs, beds, and desks. There are no walls or doors to cover what happens behind them - all is opened for us to see. Director's craft is fantastic - you soon forget unreality of the sets - impressiveness of close-ups, usage of light and different angles are fantastic. Several film's images should be studied in the film schools. One of them is the shot of Grace trying escape Dogville and hiding in the truck full of apples. She thinks she is covered and safe and nobody could see her...Another - shot when the light lit her face and it radiates in a gentle gold - brings to memory the famous candle lit scenes from Kubrick's Barry Lyndon. The actors are all amazing and they are another reason to forget about the unconventional set. Nicole Kidman played the best role of her career and I have to admit that waiting for so long to see her in this performance was worth it. <
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>With all this said I couldn't accept Lars von Trier's "Dogville" as his masterpiece. He may be a genius but an evil genius. He is a cold and calculating master of provocations. Each frame of Dogville is a masterpiece and I am ready to admire and applaud to every one of them. Unfortunately, put together they contain nothing but misanthropy, hatred and contempt for all humans with only one exception - Mr. Von Trier himself. I kept asking myself while watching Dogville why he hates us? Not just the town folks of Dogville and not only America but the whole human race. What is it, genuine pain or the evil laugh in which we hear that we all deserve our Hell? <
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>Von Trier is a brilliant director, "Dogville" is a phenomenal film but I just cannot agree with his depiction of all residents. There were children (one of them just an innocent infant who could not be hold responsible for the sins of his parents) and a crippled, helpless girl. <
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>This is not the first von Trier's film I've seen. His "Breaking the Waves" and "Dancer in the Dark" are very difficult to watch. They, too, deal with humiliated and tortured innocence but there was hope in those two films. The heroines went through unthinkable trials and tribulations but there was light in the end, catharsis. There is no catharsis in "Dogville" - bitterness, hopelessness, despair, anger, and the question to the writer/director -who are you to judge? You are the one who came up with all these monsters in the first place. <
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>I understand the whole story is an allegory of power and how easily it turns seemingly decent people into monsters. As Lord Acton said "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely" but I simply refuse to accept von Trier's message that the whole world MAY BE Dogville. I refuse to believe that an outsider in a desperate need of help will be treated by ALL with no exception members of a tight community in such way the citizens of Dogville treated Grace. <
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>Directing and acting - 5/5 ; message 1/5 <
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So terribly underrated
When seeing 'Dogville' for the first time, I didn't know what to expect. I was just excited because Nicole Kidman plays the lead. So, with an open mind I watched 'Dogville.' And boy, I'm glad I did. 'Dogville' is extremely original. The 'scenery' or rather absence of it makes a great commentary on small town life. Nicole Kidman is, of course, wonderful, as is the whole ensemble cast. I feel that this film and its cast is so very underrated and should have been more widely acknowledged. The ending was a true twist that you don't see coming, making it even more disappointing when it's over.