GRADE: 7
The group of people gather at the house in Copenhagen suburb to break all the limitations and to bring out the “inner idiot” in themselves.
Director: Lars Von Trier
Country: Denmark | Spain | Sweden | France | Netherlands | Italy
THOUGHTS:
As with so many Von Trier films, one could easily view this film as a repulsive exercise in juvenile boundary-breaking disguised as artistic provocation. But also like his other films, there’s a bravura in it and a genuine fearlessness that invigorate and make one second-guess any dismissals out of hand. If nothing else, his technical skills shine through with the film: the Dogme limitations he places on himself not only fail to hinder his vision, they enhance it and lend it a greater depth. Von Trier’s provocations are aimed at everything at once, making it difficult to understand exactly where he’s coming from and what he’s trying to say. But in terms of its mark on cinema, his anti-Hollywood glamorization stance makes The Idiots most definitely an important piece of movie-making.