Ok, first of all, let m admit something: this is actually the second time I've seen Antichrist. The first time around I didn't really know what to make of it (which is a polite way of saying that I thought it was a pretentious pile of shite) but now, I get it. This film is a masterpeice.
It' not without its weaknesses. Charlotte Gainsbourg's acting is rather weak at times (someone really needs to tell her that there are ways of talking other than a whisper) and her dialogue sounds like it was written by someone who has only recently learnt English. Despite that, though, this film is incredible. When I finished watching it, I felt physically drained - it's an emotional and visceral ordeal, particularly the last half hour. The plot of the film is deceptively simple: a greiving couple go to a cabin in the woods, where psychologist Willem Defoe tries to cure his wife of her psychological problems. Much like Melancholia though, Antichrist's true themes are far larger and more complex. First off, it is - like Melancholia - an allegory for depression. Charlotte Gainsbourg is Lars von Trier, Willem Defoe is everyone who's asked him what he's so sad about. Secondly - and this is the big one - it is, like Melancholia, a film about what happens when a rational man (Keifer Sutherland's scientist, Defoe's psychologist) is confronted with something utterly irrational - in this case, the idea that the world is inherently evil. Not in some vague, it's-a-hard-life way, but actively malign. In this way, the film has parallels with the stories of HP Lovecraft - it is, fundamentally, a horror film. Von Trier clearly intended this to be the case, and he makes use of a fair few horror tropes. There is the scene where Charlotte Gainsbourg's character hears the crying of a baby, a sound which seems to come from nowhere, and the acorns that fall onto the roof of the cabin are reminiscent of the showers of stones said to accompany hauntings.
Defoe plays a character who is defined by his rational outlook on life; it is this outlook which first destroys his marriage, and then destroys him. When his wife begins to exhibit symptoms of mental illness, he decides to treat her himself. From that moment on, he is unable to relate to her as a human being, but rather sees her purely as a patient. It is this coldness, this detatchment, that begins to drive the two apart. Once they get to the forest, this rationality begins to fray at the edges, as Gainsbourg's character is gradually proved right; the world is evil, and it does want to make you suffer and then kill you. And that, really, is a very frightening idea.
This film was one of the most intense that I have ever seen, and I cannot recommend it enough.
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