DarkSideOfLucca: Lars Von Trier ranked...I guess

DarkSideOfLucca 12.18.18	Fuck you, Lars. I want my happiness back.
J() Alexander 12.18.18	Don't watch The Idiots, it sucks. Anyway, I haven't watched every Von Trier project but I'd be surprised if 5 isn't 1, so, 5 is 1. Oh, also, I noticed Europa isn't here, you should watch it, it's pretty damn good, top 3 Von Trier.
DarkSideOfLucca 12.18.18	Damn, gotta get on Europa. Yeah tbh most of these are really close - I get why someone would like Antichrist the best. The majority of these I'm really half and half on. I fucking love a lot about his movies, but they can be so over the top in their cynicism and self indulgence that they all kind of lose me at some point. As I mentioned above though, few other filmmakers have the ability to make me think about their movies weeks after I see them, so credit where credit is due. Downloading Europa now.
J() Alexander 12.18.18	Yeah, I really like some of his work, and dislike some of it. Curiously, the bottom 3 here are actually my least favorite films by him, even if you haven't watched The Idiots, 7 being the worse. Of the projects he directed that I haven't watched, the one I want to watch the most is Riget.
artiswar 12.18.18	I can't get behind Dancer over Dogville. Dancer is lovely but ultimately it's just contrived misery porn. Dogville is a pure masterpiece.
DarkSideOfLucca 12.18.18	@art - They're all misery porn lmfao - Dogville has Nicole Kidman getting raped repeatedly by the town for no reason @Alex - Oh damn, haven't even heard of Riget
artiswar 12.18.18	It's not for no reason though, that movie is extremely authentic in its psychology. In Dancer there's multiple times where I just throw the popcorn up and yell 'COME ON'. Some of those scenes I think he just put in to fuck with Bjork and it feels over the top and not in a good way. Although most of his films are very dark and miserable, I don't think I would consider them all 'misery porn'.
ArsMoriendi 12.18.18	I've only seen 3 of his films but: Melancholia > Breaking the Waves > Dancer in the Dark I like all 3 though
J() Alexander 12.18.18	Riget is a mini-series (like 5 hours long in total), 8 episodes. It looks quite interesting.
DarkSideOfLucca 12.18.18	@art - Aha, that's fair - tbh I think (most of) it had reason to exist in Dancer as well, but I personally think that all of his films are so insanely over the top with their bleakness that they all at least have moments that qualify as misery porn.
J() Alexander 12.18.18	Melancholia also sucks.
DarkSideOfLucca 12.18.18	@Ars - I would recommend Dogville and House That Jack Built. But to second what AlexanderMR said, I personally wasn't exactly huge on Melancholia.
artiswar 12.18.18	I think Lars was getting off on the horrible things he was doing to Bjork, and that pulled me out of it at some parts, like he was rubbing it in way too much. Whereas stuff like Antichrist and Melancholia, those films are so saturated with existential dread that it comes off as way more authentic even if it's still exaggerated. When I'm watching Antichrist, I literally feel like my child just died. It feels genuine and not as exploitive, but that's just me.
AnimalsAsSummit 12.18.18	used to like Von Trier films as a teen, I can barely stomach most of his work anymore. a lot of it is overblown, shock-oriented garbage with wasted moments of potential brilliance scattered throughout. Melancholia was one of the more watchable things I've seen from him but overall it proved thoroughly unentertaining after a second watch, as interesting as it was thee first time I saw it.
J() Alexander 12.18.18	Dancer in the Dark did feel less substantial for me tbh. I liked it, but I only watched it once like a year ago, so maybe I won't like it now tbh. About Melancholia, it just felt less subtle than his previous work, everything was obvious, the acting wasn't that great and it was kind of sloppy in general. I think my biggest problem is that the story is so uneventful: Oh the world is going to end 'cause giant blue thing, sad stuff happens, oh shit the world ended. Antichrist did the same thing much better.
J() Alexander 12.18.18	Sometimes I wonder how he manages to make films where he is the great director some people say he is and films where he acts like the pretentious moron other people think he is.
DarkSideOfLucca 12.18.18	"Sometimes I wonder how he manages to make films where he is the great director some people say he is and films where he acts like the pretentious moron other people think he is." Hard [2]
artiswar 12.18.18	I do think Lars indulges way too much in some of his films, but I thought Melancholia was a very clean meditation on mortality and it was good for what it was. Antichrist is all about grief and self-loathing, it really has nothing to do with life and death beyond the opening scene so they're nothing alike imo. I'll always respect Lars for being one of the key figures of the Dogme 95 movement which was really interesting and innovative, and responsible for Julien Donkey Boy, one of my favourite films of all time.
J() Alexander 12.18.18	Antichrist and Melancholia are both about depression, just from different angles, like you mention, and apparently he's only good with one. At least Melancholia wasn't the fucking mess that Nymphomaniac is.
artiswar 12.18.18	I didn't watch Nympho cause I saw that trainwreck coming from a mile away there. Honestly he's a bit of a creep the way he fixates on these specific female actresses in such a dark way. Sometimes it's justified when it works, but when it doesn't it's just fucking cringe.
DarkSideOfLucca 12.18.18	Yeah I really fucking hate Nymphomaniac lol "Honestly he's a bit of a creep the way he fixates on these specific female actresses in such a dark way. Sometimes it's justified when it works, but when it doesn't it's just fucking cringe." Also [2] And yeah, like I said I totally get why people love Antichrist as a lot of it felt genuine, but to me some of it was just a lot of meandering and I didn't buy into the level of betrayal at the end, nor the whole "nature is Satan's church" thing but I dunno.
J() Alexander 12.18.18	I think the problem with Von Trier is that sometimes he makes a film with an idea of the stuff he wants to say but without a good story. The three Von Trier bad films I remember the most (because I watched them not so long ago) are Melancholia, Nymphomaniac, and The Idiots; Melancholia is just "the world is gonna end but eh, who cares? Have some sad stuff and wait until we die 'cause we're going to do nothing", The Idiots is a bunch of people pretending to be retarded (I'm serious) and then it ends with what just looks like Von Trier saying "pls dont bwe retawwed its vewwwwwie bwad UwU", and Nymphomaniac is Charlotte Gainsbourg talking about her shitty life and then it fucking ends. His good films have characters actually doing something.
J() Alexander 12.18.18	His "Depression Trilogy" should be called "Charlotte Gainsbourg Has a Lot of Bad Days Trilogy" or something like that. But the former is shorter I guess.
artiswar 12.18.18	@Lucca what I took away from Antichrist was that her character had gone insane well before the beginning of the film, while she was isolated doing her research. The death of the son just tipped her over the edge, she had some kind of crazy self-loathing about her own sexuality and gender which I didn't fully understand but it was creepy AF. It's been a few years since I watched it.
BigPleb 12.18.18	1 is 1 yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
bigguytoo9 12.18.18	Breaking The Waves was pretty good.
bigguytoo9 12.18.18	Only caught the theatrical version of Nympho... I doubt the directors cut will help.
DePlazz 12.18.18	Lars Von Trier > Lars Ulrich 3 is 1 for me - but yeah, doesn't get more depressing than that 2 & 1 rule as well I thought 8 was funny
neekafat 12.18.18	6 is crazy fucking good but it's all I've seen so I can't be that mad
mifzal 12.18.18	Lars won't tire
Zig 12.18.18	The ones I saw: Breaking The Waves is his best. Amazing film. Dancer in the Dark is very good and worth watching because of Bjork. The Idiots is just a wannabe experimental sex-on-the-floor crap. Melancholia is conceptually and visually interesting, but the narrative is very weak. Nymphomaniac is total shit.
DarkSideOfLucca 12.18.18	Lars Von Trier > Lars Ulrich [2]