Before you read on, I'm going to discuss key scenes and themes in this film, which if you haven't seen it, but wish to, may colour your view, or ruin the film for you entirely. If you want to watch this, please, just go out and watch it.
I genuinely don't know where to start, but I guess I'll give you a quick overview. So Antichrist is a 2009 film featuring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, who play the characters He and She. Their toddler dies, and He, being a psychiatrist, tries to help She through her grief. Unfortunately, he decides to do this by making her confront her fears, taking her to the cabin she often visited with their son to write her thesis, in Eden. Whilst trying to help She, He finds out some very disturbing things that happened in Eden previously, and then everything goes horribly wrong. (See, I'm even struggling to describe it!)
Oh, Antichrist looks absolutely beautiful. This might actually be the most beautiful looking film on the list, with stunning visuals and cinematography, incredibly well thought out shots and cuts, and a fantastic use of colours and filters. The forest is a wonderful setting for this film, and only improves the look further, with the forest almost becoming it's own character. It sounds beautiful as well, no digital cameras, and a great score. Oh yeah, Antichrist is an absolute treat for the eyes, but the look does really just emanate grief, sadness and depression. It might look nice, but it feels hopeless.
The acting is amazing, as expected, since we have two very good performers playing the main characters. The lack of huge cast may also help, as it feels more personal to the viewer. Antichrist is set into chapters, Grief, Pain and Despair,with a Prologue and Epilogue. Grief, Pain and Despair are also the names of 3 animals who are very important beings (although, that may not be clear at first).
The opening really sets the tone for this film, being in black and white, and slow motion. We see He and She, entirely too much of He and She, in the shower, having sex. (NO NO NO, WILLEM DAFOE NAKED). It then cuts to their son, as he wanders around his room. And then it cuts in between these as their son continues to wander ever closer to his window. And then he falls out. Here's lesson number one guys, get windows with safety locks! But seriously; this opening is so well constructed, the slow motion makes you realise that tragedy can occur in a matter of seconds, even if it feels like you had a long time to prevent that tragedy, even as the boy falls, it is still slow motion, the viewer can see the terror in this poor child's face as he falls to his eventual death. The entire opening has a sense of impending doom, but you don't realise what that doom is, until it's too late.
The final scene is also shot in black and white, Willem Dafoe walks away from the scene of all the trauma he has just endured, as he sees hundreds, possibly thousands, of faceless women pass him in the woods. All the women killed by the hands of men? A symbol of the misogyny of society? Or maybe that women are the easiest victims? I think this is definitely up to the viewer, but it does make for a very interesting and thought provoking scene.
There are multiple layers and themes to this film, and I do think that you need to watch Antichrist and form your own opinions, but gender and sexuality are so undeniably important within this film, and tie into the other very important theme of religion. No one can say that religion isn't a major theme within Antichrist, the cabin is called Eden, and the 3 Beggars; the deer, symbolising grief, the fox, pain and the raven, despair, are essentially versions of the 3 wise men, but instead of birth when they arrive, we get death. What the audience is shown, is simply that Eden is not a sanctuary, it is the birth place of She's worst fears, and cannot stop the inevitable. This could be construed as an attempt to show religion as not being the answer to all the sins humans commit, and is a very atheist and nihilistic view. Sex and gender are a huge part of the film's ideas, especially as we see She fall further out of touch with reality. She commits horrific acts of cruelty against He, attacking him to make him infertile, but she also self mutilates in one of the film's most painful scenes. The clitoridectomy represents that She no longer feels any pleasure in anything, but also that if one must die when the 3 Beggars appear, she must remove her femininity to be able to kill. The two are intrinsically linked as often in religion, sex is seen as something abhorrent, and in Antichrist, the sex scenes are not titillating, but often an excruciating watch, with horror just around the corner.
I'm not sure how much more I can say about this one, it's very arty, which may put some people off, but if you can reach below the surface of this film, and see the meanings, it's a fantastically depressing watch. Just watch it!
8/10
I genuinely don't know where to start, but I guess I'll give you a quick overview. So Antichrist is a 2009 film featuring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, who play the characters He and She. Their toddler dies, and He, being a psychiatrist, tries to help She through her grief. Unfortunately, he decides to do this by making her confront her fears, taking her to the cabin she often visited with their son to write her thesis, in Eden. Whilst trying to help She, He finds out some very disturbing things that happened in Eden previously, and then everything goes horribly wrong. (See, I'm even struggling to describe it!)
Oh, Antichrist looks absolutely beautiful. This might actually be the most beautiful looking film on the list, with stunning visuals and cinematography, incredibly well thought out shots and cuts, and a fantastic use of colours and filters. The forest is a wonderful setting for this film, and only improves the look further, with the forest almost becoming it's own character. It sounds beautiful as well, no digital cameras, and a great score. Oh yeah, Antichrist is an absolute treat for the eyes, but the look does really just emanate grief, sadness and depression. It might look nice, but it feels hopeless.
The acting is amazing, as expected, since we have two very good performers playing the main characters. The lack of huge cast may also help, as it feels more personal to the viewer. Antichrist is set into chapters, Grief, Pain and Despair,with a Prologue and Epilogue. Grief, Pain and Despair are also the names of 3 animals who are very important beings (although, that may not be clear at first).
The opening really sets the tone for this film, being in black and white, and slow motion. We see He and She, entirely too much of He and She, in the shower, having sex. (NO NO NO, WILLEM DAFOE NAKED). It then cuts to their son, as he wanders around his room. And then it cuts in between these as their son continues to wander ever closer to his window. And then he falls out. Here's lesson number one guys, get windows with safety locks! But seriously; this opening is so well constructed, the slow motion makes you realise that tragedy can occur in a matter of seconds, even if it feels like you had a long time to prevent that tragedy, even as the boy falls, it is still slow motion, the viewer can see the terror in this poor child's face as he falls to his eventual death. The entire opening has a sense of impending doom, but you don't realise what that doom is, until it's too late.
The final scene is also shot in black and white, Willem Dafoe walks away from the scene of all the trauma he has just endured, as he sees hundreds, possibly thousands, of faceless women pass him in the woods. All the women killed by the hands of men? A symbol of the misogyny of society? Or maybe that women are the easiest victims? I think this is definitely up to the viewer, but it does make for a very interesting and thought provoking scene.
There are multiple layers and themes to this film, and I do think that you need to watch Antichrist and form your own opinions, but gender and sexuality are so undeniably important within this film, and tie into the other very important theme of religion. No one can say that religion isn't a major theme within Antichrist, the cabin is called Eden, and the 3 Beggars; the deer, symbolising grief, the fox, pain and the raven, despair, are essentially versions of the 3 wise men, but instead of birth when they arrive, we get death. What the audience is shown, is simply that Eden is not a sanctuary, it is the birth place of She's worst fears, and cannot stop the inevitable. This could be construed as an attempt to show religion as not being the answer to all the sins humans commit, and is a very atheist and nihilistic view. Sex and gender are a huge part of the film's ideas, especially as we see She fall further out of touch with reality. She commits horrific acts of cruelty against He, attacking him to make him infertile, but she also self mutilates in one of the film's most painful scenes. The clitoridectomy represents that She no longer feels any pleasure in anything, but also that if one must die when the 3 Beggars appear, she must remove her femininity to be able to kill. The two are intrinsically linked as often in religion, sex is seen as something abhorrent, and in Antichrist, the sex scenes are not titillating, but often an excruciating watch, with horror just around the corner.
I'm not sure how much more I can say about this one, it's very arty, which may put some people off, but if you can reach below the surface of this film, and see the meanings, it's a fantastically depressing watch. Just watch it!
8/10
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