Lee Woodward: More currently, I enjoyed Ben (Gazzara) in a most unusual film starring Nicole Kidman. A film called "Dogville."

Wayne McCombs (author of Baseball in Tulsa...webmaster) assaulted me yesterday as I was exiting "The Aviator," with his dead-on impression of King Lionel's voice. I thought was having a flashback! He informed me that he is now with BMC Advertising and buys radio time. I gave him a cookie and he went away.

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Product Description

Grace arrives in the isolated town of dogville on the run from gangsters. The town agrees to hide her. However when outsiders start looking for the fugitive the locals make demands of her in exchange for harboringher. But she has a secret & its dangerous. Dogville may regret it ever decided to bare its teeth Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 09/05/2006 Starring: Nicole Kidman Lauren Bacall Run time: 177 minutes Rating: R

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14841 in DVD
• Brand: Lions Gate
• Released on: 2004-08-24
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 178 minutes

Amazon.com
The latest galvanizing and controversial film from Lars von Trier (Dancer in the Dark, Breaking the Waves, The Kingdom), Dogville uses ingenious theatricality to tell the Depression-era story of Grace (Nicole Kidman, The Others), a beautiful fugitive who stumbles onto a tiny town in the Rocky Mountains. Spurred on by Tom (Paul Bettany, Master and Commander), who fancies himself the town's moral guide, the citizens of Dogville first resist Grace, then embrace her, then resent and torment her--little realizing they will pay a price for their selfish brutality. The town is indicated by fragments of building and chalk outlines on a soundstage floor, stylishly pointing to the movie's roots in classic plays (particularly Thornton Wilder's Our Town and Friedrich Durrenmatt's The Visit). Several critics have stridently attacked Dogville as anti-American, but the movie's dark, compelling view applies as easily to Rwanda, Bosnia, the Middle East, or pretty much anywhere in the world. Also featuring Lauren Bacall, Patricia Clarkson, Jeremy Davies, Stellan Skarsgârd, Chloe Sevigny, and many more. --Bret Fetzer

From The New Yorker
Pedantic, obtuse, and unwatchable, this three-hour exercise in inept avant-gardism, written and directed by Lars Von Trier, is set in a town without walls, streets, or air-a conceptual Depression-era nowheresville in the American Rockies in which obvious allegories of conformity and viciousness are acted out by a cast reciting an inhuman language into the dead silence. We might be present at a nightmarish school play. With Nicole Kidman as the poor waif who eventually takes her revenge, Paul Bettany as a weak-willed artist, and a variety of other excellent actors submitting to Von Trier's solemnly stupid rituals of betrayal. The pompous narrator is John Hurt, who sounds like Henry Fielding wishing he had a tankard in his hand. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

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Customer Reviews

LONG BUT WORTH IT (AND IT'S NOT ANTI-AMERICAN!)
Von Trier has never been to America and has been known to have said that he is afraid to visit the U.S. With this in mind, it seems a little audacious if not viciously self-indulgent to make a film about the ugliness of human nature set in an American village.

Critics have pounced on this feature of the movie, accusing von Trier of anti-Americanism. I feel such paranoid jibes completely miss the point: although Dogville is set in a fictional village in the Rockies during the Depression-era, it really could be any place, any time. It is anti-human-ugliness. The tagline reads "A quiet little town not far from here", and the sparse stage set reinforces that point. The viewer's imagination is meant to fill in the gaps, making Dogville their home town for nearly three hours.

The theme veers around Grace (Nicole Kidman) arrives, seeking shelter from pursuing gangsters, the natives are reluctant to help. With the assistance of a local 'philosopher' (played by Paul Bettany), she eventually persuades the inhabitants to relent, and they grant her a two week trial period. During the fortnight, she manages to win the villagers over by performing good deeds, but gradually they begin to take advantage of her kindness and the rot sets in.

This is an extremely long film, but it is definitely worth the effort. It is an allegory of staggering proportions, it deals with virtually every aspect of humanity and some of the most fundamental questions people can face, whilst maintaining a lightness of touch that makes the mental workout more than bearable. Did it have to be 3 hours? No. But nor did the Matrix or LOTR or the Titanic.

So empty the tank, order a pizza and coke, and settle down for 180 minutes of cinematic genius.

Very different film
I knew that this film was not traditional before seeing it, but I didn't know how non-traditional it actually was. At first, the minimalist set was jarring, but eventually my imagination filled in everything else and I was used to it. In fact, it really made me focus on the characters and not space out by watching the scenery or focusing on some small detail on the set.

As far as the story goes, I don't claim to have understood all the subtext or the commentary it was making on American life, but I still enjoyed it. Probably like others who have seen it, I was rooting for Grace to take her revenge, but when she did I felt a little guilty for having wished it.

I guess that was part of the point of the film - we all have a little Dogville in us.

Starts Slow, Stays Slow, but Packs a Powerful Wallop
Dogville is a movie that will disappoint most conventional viewers--I myself came close to turning it off a few times. There are a number of reasons for this: its more like a play than a movie (the "set" is really a stage), its extremely long (nearly 3 hours), its heavy on dialog but lite on action, the plot unfolds at the same rate that grass grows, and it doesn't fit into any traditional movie genre. However, if you can wade through all that, you'll discover Dogville delivers a powerful thesis on human nature that has plenty of "bite". The story itself is about a beautiful, fragile woman on the run (Grace) and the town that "befriends" her. Of course, neither Grace or the town are quite what they appear to be. Like a mean dog, the town eventually turns on the pure-hearted Grace--while she struggles to maintain her dignity and ideals. Perhaps the most pathetic character is Tom, the town's erstwhile philosopher and full-time layabout, who has professed his love for Grace (and she for he). Despite his role as the town's moral compass, Tom stands idly by as Grace is increasingly humiliated, abused, and ultimately enslaved by his fellow townsfolk--so much for true love. As the movie reaches its climax, Grace suffers a final betrayal at Tom's hands and the town is exposed for what it is (the transparency of the set itself helps reinforce this point). With her faith in the goodness of humanity gone, Grace ends up embracing what she once shunned. Will Dogville survive? And should it? The ending is appalling, yet satisfying from both a cinematic and emotional standpoint, and a James Caan cameo provides the icing on the cake. If you want to see a movie that showcases the best & worst of human nature, I highly recommend Dogville.