The anti-war Left has been strangely quiet in recent weeks, which is strange considering that so many of our predictions have been realized in post-war Iraq and elsewhere. Eric Alterman has begun documenting it all: We Told You So, Part I and Part II.
I think Senses of Cinema is the best online film journal, and I'm not just saying that because they published my piece on Tsai Ming-liang today. My friends Nick and Acquarello have also written for the latest issue.
Speaking of Films. J. Hoberman is reporting from Cannes, where he is still recovering from Dogville, Lars Von Trier's latest:
A Christian allegory narrated like an 18th-century novel and set in an abstract Depression America, Dogville tips its hat to Bertolt Brecht and thumbs its nose at Thornton Wilder's Our Town, but is immediately recognizable as something new. The story of a beautiful fugitive (Nicole Kidman) who is first harbored, then exploited, and ultimately martyred by the denizens of the eponymous small town, Dogville bears a family resemblance to von Trier's 1996 Breaking the Waves and his 2000 Palme d'Or winner Dancer in the Dark; it is, however, a more mature and sustained film than either. Kidman, who gives another remarkable performance—acting "natural" in an almost absurdly diagrammatic setting—heads a terrific oddball cast (including Lauren Bacall, Ben Gazarra, and Chloë Sevigny).
Brilliantly staged on a single set, running nearly three hours without a single boring minute, Dogville builds in suffering but saves its catharsis for the end credits—a devastating juxtaposition of pop music and photographic images that blows a hole in its matrix and ours. Von Trier's timing is uncanny. America, as we are often told, is the most Christian nation on earth—Dogville wonders what exactly that means. A 5-2 favorite before it screened, von Trier's movie may well be 2-1 by the time you read this. Indeed, if originality, ambition, and passion are any measure, it will be a remarkable year if any film in competition is more deserving.
If that ain't enough to pique your interest, check out the official Website.
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