Every Friday, were recommending an older movie thats available to stream or download and worth seeing again through the lens of our current moment. Were calling the series Revisiting Hours consider this Rolling Stones unofficial film club. First up: Tim Grierson on Lars von Triers warped Our-Town-through-a-glass-darkly parable Dogville.
This is the sad tale of the township of Dogville. With those words, spoken by off-screen narrator John Hurt, writer-director Lars von Trier introduced us to a community (and a movie) that invited audiences to project their own darkest impulses onto it. A three-hour opus of misanthropy, hypocrisy and violence, the Danish filmmakers 2004 thumb in the eye of small town U.S.A. remains, to date, his biggest salvo against a far-off land that fascinates and vexes him in equal measure. Dogville was conceived during one of our nations bleakest periods that, now seen through modern eyes during an even bleaker moment in this countrys history, remains just as horrifying and provoking as when it was released. If this is Von Triers jaundiced view of the United States, hes really taking aim at the idea of what America pretends to be and so rarely is.
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Von Trier hinted at his spiteful interest in the land of the free and home of the brave with his previous film, 2000s Dancer in the Dark, in which Bjrk played an optimistic, going-blind immigrant mother freshly who is exploited and, eventually, sentenced to death. (Plus its a musical!) The director always enjoyed boasting that hed never set foot here partly because of a fear of flying, partly because it helped position him as the countrys fearless, defiant adversary. I would have to fly to go to America, and that I dont imagine I will ever do, he once declared. But I have seen a lot of films about America. You shouldnt underestimate that.
With Dogville, Von Trier dropped his bomb, imagining a small, secluded, impoverished Colorado community trying to survive during the Great Depression. That was also a despairing moment in American history, of course, but great novels of that period, such as John Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath, found strength in the decency and spirit of the countrys plucky citizens. These were fictional jus folks who maintained their dignity despite such difficult conditions. By contrast, theres little decency or dignity in Dogville. There arent even walls.
As brilliantly conceived by the filmmaker and his production designer Peter Grant, Dogville takes place on one bare set in a blackened studio, with chalk markings on the floor indicating roads and suspended window frames suggesting individual domiciles. The simple staging recalls Thornton Wilders Our Town written during the Depression but looking back fondly on small-town life at the turn of the century but the absence of the usual set decoration strips away the artificiality from supposed sunny American domesticity. Here, everyone is poor, miserable and utterly devoid of moral fiber.
Into this world walks Grace, played by Nicole Kidman during a remarkable run of performances that included everything from the enigmatic spouse in Eyes Wide Shut to the impossible tragic beauty of Moulin Rouge. She is a woman on the run from dangerous gangsters, and her only hope is this quaint little burg specifically, Tom (Paul Bettany), a self-satisfied aspiring author and philosopher who fancies himself the communitys social conscience. Seeing in Grace a chance to test Dogvilles ethical well-being but, really, because hes smitten with this gorgeous woman the writer gathers the townsfolk to propose that they allow her to stay, despite the risk. In exchange, she will do tasks for each of the households for two weeks. Should the good citizens decide that shes not worthy to stay, shell leave.
If Von Triers doom-laden previous work wasnt enough of an indication: things do not go well for Grace. But the grim inevitability of the towns eventual betrayal of this defenseless lass contains echoes from the days headlines both back when the film was released and now.
The residents all seem like honorable, humble people: the kindly doctor (Philip Baker Hall), the chatty blind man (Ben Gazzara), the simple truck driver (eljko Ivanek), the regal shopkeeper (Lauren Bacall). But the more they get used to Graces selflessness, the more they take advantage of it. Her wages get cut, her hours get extended and then things get especially fraught. Throughout this ordeal, the people of Dogville never stop feeling completely justified in their willingness to debase her. Shes fraternized with gangsters! Shes been accused of being a bank robber! Cant be too careful! Tribalism and suspicion are thicker than the milk of human kindness.
When the film hit U.S. theaters, this warped parable felt like an attack on American protectionism in the wake of 9/11, condemning the nation for its overreaction and xenophobia, not to mention its willingness to use terrorism as a thin excuse to wage war in Iraq. (Talk about perfect timing: The film world-premiered at Cannes in May 2003, roughly two weeks after President Bush had declared Mission Accomplished from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln.)
But sadly, its a testament to Dogvilles indictment of its targets evergreen wretchedness that viewers can watch the movie today and discover a whole different set of parallels. Graces plea not to judge these monstrous denizens too harshly (The people who live here are doing their best under very hard circumstances) feels uncomfortably similar to the protestations of economic anxiety that were meant to forgive Trumps heartland voters. And the communitys treatment of her which eventually leads to rape, subjugation and a conspiracy of silence sickeningly recalls the #MeToo revelations that started springing forth a year ago, as hundreds of women spoke out against the harassment, assault and intimidation theyd faced from men. (And lest we forget, Von Trier is not immune from such criticism: In October, Bjrk detailed the directors alleged sexual harassment on the set of Dancer in the Dark. He has refuted the claim.)
When the movie was released in the U.S., some critics ripped its anti-American stance and its creators haranguing, dogmatic tone. To be sure, it is an uncompromising polemic, but theres a lot of sorrow and humanity in its anger. You can feel it in the delicacy and nuance of Kidmans performance, especially as Grace comes to recognize the towns rancid heart. Even during the films taunting end credits in which David Bowies biting Young Americans plays over photos taken from Danish photographer Jacob Holdts book American Pictures, which chronicled the countrys impoverished the prevailing sentiment is of outrage and anguish at a country born of such promise thats failing to living up to its own ideals.
For Von Trier, those ideals extend beyond the boundaries of America. Speaking with The New York Times A.O. Scott at the time, the filmmaker noted that Franz Kafka never visited America when he wrote his critical novel Amerika, which was about the immigrant experience in this country. I must say Im very fond of this idea that Kafka didnt go to America, said Von Trier. For me its about America, even though its about what he had seen in Europe. Somehow America is a canvas that you can use. Of course [Dogville] is, like Kafkas book, inspired by my own meeting with not Americans but mostly Danish people. It could be a place anywhere.
Dogville could be anywhere its the manifestation of your anger at any organization, community or country that espouses high-minded principles and then reveals its true colors. There are no walls or streets in this place because its characters rottenness could take place in any number of locations across the globe. As fascism and alt-right movements spring up across the U.S. and Europe and their deplorable behavior is condoned or normalized the movies expression of creeping evil starts to feel ever-present, suffocating. These are wicked times, Tom is warned early on in Dogville. And like Grace, were not sure well ever escape.
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