After years of gut-wrenching “Golden Heart” films, chalk-outline experiments about “America,” a co-founded movement for pure cinema and other infamous works including his most recent, the explicit horror film Antichrist, it’s easy to forget that Lars von Trier started his feature film career in the science fiction genre. Of course, he being who he is, Von Trier’s dystopian detective story The Elements of Crime isn’t easily identifiable as sci-fi.

And neither, I’m sure, will be his next venture, a “psychological disaster” film titled Planet Melancholia. I’ll ignore the Hollywood Reporter’s reference to “Roland Emmerich territory,” especially since it follows the equally asinine description of Antichrist as being in some way related to a slasher film, and stick to comments from Von Trier and his partner at Zentropa Entertainment, Peter Aalbaek Jensen.

First: The filmmaker’s statement of “no more happy endings!” could easily be the next Von Trier t-shirt, joining the recently released “chaos reigns” design and the Van Halen-style tee.

Jensen added that hopefully no genitals will be cut off, that there will be some special effects employed, that this won’t be about an alien invasion (though there apparently will be a threat from the titular planet) and that this will be “romantic, in a Lord Byron sort of way.” I’ll admit the only familiarity I have with Byron is as a character in Bride of Frankenstein. But regardless, as a longtime fan of Von Trier’s, I’m excited for this film no matter what the inspiration or comparison.

After he dedicated Antichrist to Andrei Tarkovsky, though, I’m really hoping Von Trier sets his new film on a spaceship, a la Solaris. You know Von Trier in outer space would be the greatest thing of all time.

Check out what other film bloggers are saying in response to this news after the jump:
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Because last year’s list of dress-up ideas for cinephiles was a hit, we’re doing it again. From movies released in the past 12 months, there are few obvious costume ideas. We’re sure to see a lot of guys dress up as the main trio from The Hangover, while girls inspired by Whip It will be sexy Girl Scouts (with or without roller skates).

This time around, though, we’re presenting ten costume ideas that shouldn’t be too popular. And that makes them somewhat appealing, because nobody wants to show up at a Halloween party where someone else is dressed in the same outfit (especially if the other person’s costume is better). Of course, keep in mind that some of the following unpopular ideas could in turn make you unpopular, too.
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It seems impossible these days for a film franchise to keep its cast intact for a full run. This time it’s the Twilight series that has succumbed to the switcheroo game, as Bryce Dallas Howard was announced to be taking over Rachel Lefevre’s character, “Victoria,” as of the third film, Eclipse. This sort of thing nearly happened before for the Twilight series when Taylor Lautner came close to being fired from the part of “Jacob” after the first film, because he wasn’t seen as a strong or fit enough actor for the demands of the role in New Moon.

With this news, Howard cements herself as the official go-to actress for filling in vacated roles. In the past she has been a substitute in Lars von Trier’s USA - Land of Opportunities trilogy, taking on the lead role “Grace” originated by Nicole Kidman in Dogville for the sequel Manderlay, and she more recently filled in for a non-returning Claire Danes as “Kate” in the Terminator franchise (for which she also replaced the first-choice substitute, Charlotte Gainsbourg) Also, let’s not forget that she replaced Kirsten Dunst as the lead in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, when Dunst departed to make Elizabethtown.

With the way things are going for her, I predict she’ll be taking over as “Ginny Weasley” in the second part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, “Black Widow” in Iron Man 3 or The Avengers, “Rachel Dawson” in the next Batman film and “Kumar” in A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas.

Let’s take a look at what the rest of the film blogs are saying about the substitution after the jump:
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A friend pointed me to this inane editorial in the Guardian Daily Mail, in which Christopher Hart rails against the British ratings board for giving Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist an 18+ certificate rather than banning the film outright. Comparing the film unfavorably to the eye gouging scene in King Lear, Hart writes,

The world of Antichrist, by contrast, is blatantly amoral, without any sense of justice or retribution whatever. Its mingling of sex and violence, the cheapest and nastiest trick in the book, is usually one which the BBFC pounces on in a straight horror film. But here they are blinded by their own cultural snobbery, swallowing the lie that Antichrist is Art.

Harsh words … which might actually merit serious argument from me if not for this preceding admission:

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2009 may be remembered as a “down year” for the Cannes Film Festival — certainly, some press and industry faces familiar from previous years were nowhere in sight; certainly, celebrity directors like Ang Lee, Pedro Almodovar and Quentin Tarantino showed up with new films that failed to single-handedly rescue the world economy by the end of their first screenings — but isn’t it a down year all around, not just for film but for, like, life on Earth? In a time as stagnant and depressed as this, what can we reasonably expect a film festival to do? Never once in my eight days at the festival did I question whether Cannes does or does not matter. Spending hours each day in Market badge lines composed of Cannes’ equivalent of rabble (myself included — I was standing in those lines because my coverage is not important enough to the Festival to merit press accreditation) the weight of the event doesn’t seem up for debate — you’re literally fighting over seats with too many people to whom Cannes matters to.

Back in New York now, maybe I should have a clearer perspective, but it’s hard. Even as the bigger films failed to meet my expectations, even as Lars Von Trier stomped in like Godzilla, swallowed the press corps whole and left the festival in ruins (and I *liked* Antichrist), even if I went home without seeing anything that matched 2008’s A Christmas Tale or Modern Life as sure-to-endure masterworks international cinema … I’ll still do whatever it takes to go back next year. I spend an awful lot of time covering things out of obligation because they’re perceived to matter to someone; in return, let me be selfish. Let me have Cannes, if for no other reason than because it matters to me.

And with that: after the jump, you’ll find my collected coverage. At right, the one photo I managed to take of “local color” - because even the coffee at Cannes this year came with unneccessary nudity.

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I initially planned to write an Antichrist-inspired list of most misogynistic movies ever made. But after some minor research, I decided that as a man, even one who has studied feminist film theory, I’m not the best judge of what titles to choose. Besides, I figure there are already enough places on the web where we can debate whether or not Neil LaBute and Lars von Trier are misogynistic filmmakers or if they are in fact the opposite.

I could have instead attempted a list of movies that are misandric, but I don’t think hatred towards men is equally as off-putting to male viewers as misogyny is to women. So, here’s something slightly similar, also inspired by Antichrist (particularly a disturbing genital-mutilation scene in the film), because there’s certainly nothing more difficult for men to watch than scenes in which male sex organs are harmed.

Of course, cinema has been hurting guys’ balls for laughs throughout the existence of motion pictures. And plenty of action and horror flicks depict castration by shotgun, knife, van door and other means on a regular basis. Therefore, I’ve gone specifically with these six sex scenes, since they add to the pain by first teasing pleasure. But no, masochistic delight is nowhere to be found in any of these hard-to-watch movie moments.
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As of this writing, no film at Cannes has yet managed to surpass Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, which premiered three days ago, as the hot topic of conversation. In fact, the chatter began before the movie screened: there was a palpable level of excitement days ago about a main Competition title, in English, from a name-brand auteur, with elements of genre that could potentially up its market value. In fact, for awhile there was talk that Antichrist could be the most accessible film Lars Von Trier has ever made. And then people saw it.

As you may have heard by now, the film stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a married couple (they’re never named) who lose their only child in a freak accident, which they were present for but failed to stop because they were distracted having operatic sex. After she spends some time in a psychiatric ward dealing with her grief, Dafoe, a therapist, convinces Gainsbourg they should retreat to their house deep in secluded woods (they call it “Eden”) so that he can teach her how to face her fears. The house happened to be where the wife used to go to work on an academic thesis on Gynocide — ie: archaic and semi-mythic violence against women, witch hunting and like practices through which, as Gainsbourg’s character puts it, “nature causes people to do evil things to women” — before her husband dismissed her subject and thereby discouraged her ambition. Feeling as though her own sexuality is responsible for the death of her son, the woman essentially internalizes the texts she’s studied and becomes an embodiment of the “evil” she once dedicated her life to critiquing, manifested mainly through total sexual hysteria. And it’s funny!

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When Lars von Trier claimed to be suffering from depression two years ago, I assumed the illness was caused by his (then) most recent film, The Boss of it All. Not only did the office comedy fail to make as much noise as his prior features, but it actually earned a lot of favorable reviews. Some even called it (gasp!) enjoyable. For a guy used to polarizing critics with his often controversial and groundbreaking movies, that reception had to be tremendously dissatisfying.

But the filmmaker is back at Cannes this year, and I mean back. His latest movie, Antichrist, is apparently as audacious, shocking and misogynistic as everyone expects von Trier’s work to be. And even though it’s getting a lot of negative reviews, it’s still the talk of the festival this year. No wonder the filmmaker is looking so jolly in photos from Cannes; the attention, both good and bad, must be doing wonders for his mental health.

Nobody from Spout has seen Antichrist yet, unfortunately, but don’t doubt we’re trying. Desperately. And we know you’re looking forward to Karina’s take as much as The Brothers Bloom director Rian Johnson is. Today he Tweeted: “Waiting for @KarinaLongworth to see & review Antichrist the way a drunk man waits for a hint of blessed equilibrium.” She responded that she hopes to prove male reporters wrong in their belief that no woman will like it.

While we wait for her anticipated response, we’ll just have to settle on reading other reviews from around the blogosphere. I’ve highlighted some of my favorites, both positive and negative after the jump:

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It’s the first true Big Cannes Moment to happen since I arrived in Cannes on Friday: Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, starring Charlote Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe, screened for the press last night, and immediately word started to spread that the film was intentionally unreleasable, chock full of intense violence, graphic sexuality, unforgivable misogyny … and also beauty. One man’s total debacle is another’s ecstatic vision, but thus far the Antichrist supporters seem to be outnumbered by the offended press. I haven’t seen the film yet — I waited in line for an hour last night, but didn’t get in — but I did watch the press conference. As I passed through the Palais, my attention was drawn over to a bank of monitors when I saw this quote on Matt Dentler’s Twitter stream: “I work for myself,” Von Trier said. “And I am the best film director in the world.”

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Is the end of the world nigh? It sure seems that way. Even if the economic situation wasn’t enough of a harbinger of doom, this swine flu pandemic is a sure sign of the apocalypse. Or so it would appear through the media attention. Yes, the outbreak is tragic, and it is certainly a serious concern. And necessary, non panic-inciting developments must be reported. But when we read about how the flu might affect the box office for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the news coverage has clearly gone a little overboard.

We’re not saying that we should ignore the topic; in fact if there’s anything we’ve learned from Hollywood’s treatment of plots involving widespread disease and infection it’s that turning a blind eye and/or burying the story will come back to bite us on the ass (or any other part of the body that a zombie can sink its teeth into). But fearmongering isn’t helpful either. That’s another thing the movies teach us.

So, what do we do if we want to get out of this latest flu scare alive? We rent some films, and we learn how to survive from both the characters who endure and the characters who perish. Fortunately for you, we’ve already watched the films and are willing to share their lessons.
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If you’ve been paying attention to any of the pre-Cannes speculation this year, you won’t be surprised to see that Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, and Pedro Almodovar’s Broken Embraces made the competition lineup. You may be surprised by just how many modern masters, globally recognized provocateurs and early-to-mid career boldfaced names will be showing work alongside them: Michael Hanneke, Jane Campion, Park Chan Wook, Johnny To, Isabel Coixet, Gaspar Noe, Jacques Audiard, Tsai Ming-liang, Andrea Arnold, and Alain Resnais. This leaves little room for emerging talents — and in fact, a couple of small American films gossiped about in recent weeks as being Cannes-bound were not included in the Competition or Un Certain Regard lineups. But there’s always Director’s Fortnight; the slate for that and Critics Week will be announced tomorrow. The full ineup so far after the jump.

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The trailer for Lars von Trier’s Antichrist has hit Vimeo (see it here after the jump). If patented Lars Von Trier creep applied to what seems like an old-school horror formula doesn’t pique your interest, the final money shot probably will. Unless you have something against a naked Willem DaFoe thrusting atop Charlotte Gainsbourg, who is herself mounted on a tangle of muddy tree roots and froze, anonymous limbs!

The general consensus seems to be that this film will probably be at Cannes. So will I! I will report back.

Via FILMMAKER Blog

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Still impossibly gorgeous and chic at age 65, Catherine Deneuve is the ultimate living emblem of the lasting romance of French film.  She’s also amongst the busiest international female stars over the age of fifty, and while Deneuve has made the occasional questionable move since hitting that marker of age (dueting with a post-post-post Sex Pistols Malcolm McLaren; playing “herself” in I Want to See, a dramatized document of her visit to war-torn Lebanon), Melissa Anderson is right to note that for the most part, over the last decade and a half, “she has shown a fearlessness in her roles—no matter how small.”

That fearlessness is on display in A Christmas Tale, where Deneuve is at her best rocking a borderline incestuously playful love-hate with her wicked charmer of a son (and potential lifesaver) Matthieu Amalric. With that film hitting theaters tomorrow, here’s a look back at a few iconic Catherine Deneuve moments, all readily available via YouTube.

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Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello have drawn an increasingly large following as the decade as worn on, but this year their cinematic profile has raised dramatically. In Berlin this year Madonna unveiled her Filth and Wisdom, staring frontman Eugene Hutz, and now comes a full blown tour documentary filmmaker Margarita Jimeno, Gogol Bordello Non-Stop. The film made its North American bow at AFI over the weekend and screens again this Wednesday at the Arclight. The Bogota, Columbia born, Williamsburg based Jimeno, who has made shorts and worked in the art and editorial departments of NYC indies for a decade, caught up with us to discuss her fascination with There Will Be Blood, her desire to adapt Que Viva La Musica! and where to catch Sid Vicious on You Tube. …Read more