Rotten From the Inside Out
"wouldn't miss it if it fell into the gorge tomorrow."
Lars von Trier's Dogville (2003)
Points
for Reflection
Lars Von Trier's Dogville (2003), chps. 6-end
- do the townspeople of Dogville grow more corrupt over the course of the film, or merely, slowly begin to show their true colors?
- if Grace’s presence is a force for good in Dogville--if she provides a kind of catalyst for deeper self-understanding and movement away from unhealthy patterns—why doesn’t the film conclude with a fully realized redemptive transformation? What prevents the townsfolk from continuing to become better people?
- why do the townspeople become increasingly less patient with and irritable around Grace the more she does for them?
- Grace once told Chuck that nothing he could do would make her hate him. Do his actions in the second half of the film change her position, or demonstrate the truth of her claim?
- what causes Grace to weep for the first time since her childhood, and why does she break down so thoroughly?
- do the men and women of Dogville treat Grace similarly, or does one sex prove kinder in the long run?
- within the contours of this film, is it loving to show grace and forgiveness over and over again? Does it help those who sin against you?
- does Von Trier rely on easy stereotypes in his portrayal of disability in this film?
- what inspires Tom to finally write a first chapter for his first book?
- Von Trier is quite willing to capture both sexually explicit and uncomfortably grotesque, gory images in his work. Why might he have chosen to eschew such visual explicitness in this film? Does this decision lessen the emotional impact of those scenes which easily could have included such elements?
- is the ending to this film just?
- why allow the chalk outline of the town dog, Moses, to become an actual dog at the film’s close?
The Lost Land (2001)
Poul Anker Bech
Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu
