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Dogville (2003) Plus avec IMDbPro »

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279 utilisateurs sur 353 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
One of the bravest observations on the truth of humanity, 3 novembre 2004

Auteur : Viz79 de London, England

I started watching Dogsville and felt like turning it off.. after all, what kind of movie could occur with no scenery? No doors.. it seemed like some sort of play/movie hybrid but after a shortwhile all those things faded away until I realized how much I would have missed if I had turned it off - it is now one of my favourite movies of all time.

Why? It is so brave to criticse humanity like this and admit just how 'dark' a race we truly are - not matter how much each of us profess to being 'good', we all know that most of us are anything but. Through this movie you see a woman who learns the cold harsh truth in a place where she expected to find the goodness that her faith told her existed. And then on not finding it, discovered that even within her lay a wrath that echoed the darkness that she herself wished did not feature so dominant in our race. And the biggest test of this is to observe your own emotions throughout this movie until what you feel at the end as perfect evidence...

I honestly believe those people that don't believe what this movie is expressing needs to take a cold hard look around them. And if they still don't believe, they are just like the people in this movie - unwilling to see the truth and coming up with excuses and reasons when nothing justifies the horrible world we live in.

A true masterpiece - one of the few pure pieces of art in cinema with amazing acting from Nicole Kidman especially, and the lack of a set causes you to be immersed in the characters like no other movie. And its 'them' and human nature that is the focus. Will leave you thinking and astounded (unless you don't like to think and can't watch a movie that isn't afraid to do something unique, in which case there a countless movies for 'you').

218 utilisateurs sur 289 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Exploration of the darkness of the human soul, 23 décembre 2003

Auteur : Roman Kossarev (kossarev@hytti.uku.fi) de Kuopio, Finlande

If one is looking for a starter to this heart-tearing masterpiece, I suggest My Dinner With Andre from 1981. Another movie from which you get a feeling of having read a good book. Very few films render that feeling, but these two do.

Where to start describing the bouquet of feelings this masterpiece has caused in me? A good point is admiration for Nicole Kidman's mix of wit, grace, innocence scented with beauty that, as the film evolves, turns into a thick film, a pellicle of suffering and enduring, glued together with forgiveness. I do not wish to believe that those qualities can be displayed credibly without the actress actually possessing them ( :) ? ) From the point Chuck takes advantage of Grace the first time, I couldn't stop occasional shivers the just-observed caused me, so much it touched. The conclusion can be drawn after watching the film: one cannot know his/her true nature unless given a real ungoverned power over another living being. They all seem nice in the beginning. The power and a sense of opportunity of free use only amplify themselves in Dogvillians. The evil seed in Chuck spreads among all the dogs, or were they all evil a priori?

Artificial settings? One stage? Please! They are forgotten in 10 minutes. As all true works of art, this thing glows from the inside, it doesn't need a vivid facade. Long movie? I would have liked to see maybe an even longer one, but it would have probably put me into even sadder mood watching the ugliness killing the grace.

Indeed, Tom, a great illustration of the fact that humans haven't changed from the medieval or perhaps even more primitive times - still dismissing the truth about themselves as lies, the truth that only very few of them are unselfish, decent in terms of morale and even 1 cm away from the animal desires for flesh.

Grace concludes that she wouldn't have been much better had she been born in Dogville. I disagree - one can be no matter how poor but still cultured, at list on a microlevel of one person, on a macroscale culture of course doesn't develop without having material funds at its foundation. Then a human raises his head from a plug and looks up in the sky, and connects with Love, and then the decency is born in him/her as a little fire that can't be put out by any amount of torture inflicted upon her/him. The decency can also be transferred from a parent to a child.

Dogville got what it deserved, in the end, justice comes in and flushes the inner hollowness created by co-suffering with Grace, heals the pain.

Thank you, Lars, and thank you, Nicole, this work is engraved into my mind for a lifetime.

147 utilisateurs sur 202 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Unforgettable Bitter Play About a Town, Which Did Not Deserve To Be On the Map, and Its Disgusting Dwellers, 7 juillet 2004

Auteur : Claudio Carvalho de Rio de Janeiro, Brésil

*** Ce commentaire peut contenir des spoilers ***

On the Great Depression, the fragile and beautiful Grace (Nicole Kidman) arrives in Dogville, a small town in Colorado, escaping from the mob. Tom Henson (Paul Bettany), a young local man, welcomes and introduces her to the distrustful community. They decide to vote whether she could stay with them or not. After a brief meeting, they decide to lodge her for fourteen days, when they could judge her behavior and come up to a final decision. Meanwhile, she should perform some small jobs for them in a sort of retribution, receiving a symbolic payment. Later, the police come to the town with some pictures of her, informing she was a missing person. The vulnerable Grace becomes a slave of the community, being used by the locals in the most sordid and cravenly way. The conclusion of the story is spectacular.

Two days ago, I started seeing this long unusual movie, indeed a filmed play. It surprised me in the first moment, but a friend of mine told me that this movie was a sort of 'love it' or 'hate it' film. Yesterday, I finished watching the DVD and actually it is one of the best stories about human exploitation and pay back I have ever seen. In some moments, the unfair misery of Grace recalled me Victor Hugo's Jean Valjean. It is amazing the tendency of the human race, when having some kind of power, to exploit those who need. The lack of scenarios or special effects highlights the stunning performance of the cast in a very original screenplay. This film is a great homage to the theatrical world and for great actors and actresses. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): 'Dogville' ('Dogville')

144 utilisateurs sur 206 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Not as anti-American as you might think., 24 octobre 2004
Auteur : Joe Howes (joeh@guild1.com) de Calgary, Canada

Dogville is long, and if you don't have the patience for a slow ramp-up of tension, it'll turn you right off. There are a couple story devices Von Trier uses that really bugged me, and I almost shut it off once. I'm glad I stuck with him, though, because he really took it somewhere and I came away really enjoying the experience..

Critics who hated Dogville talk about it's hamhanded anti-American slant (Lars von Trier refuses ever to set foot in that country). I knew nothing about this film or Von Trier before seeing it and I have to say I entirely missed the anti-America thing until the backcredits. Don't get me wrong, there are several scenes that make commentary about rampant nationalism, prejudice towards immigrants and small town xenophobia, but those comments could be made about the zealous in ANY region of ANY nation at ANY time.

If we are to criticize 21-st Century America, and there are plenty of reasons to criticize it, we must also criticize other peoples and governments who are screwing up royally. I think if Dogville has a point to make to America, its not that it is uniquely problematic, but that it is as problematic as any other nation. Where on this planet can you NOT find a group of people who think:

THE WORLD WOULD BE A BETTER PLACE IF EVERYONE WAS JUST LIKE US.

That statement is the kernel of failure for every major conqueror and every major religion in history and it portends the long, inevitable swirl down the toilet and the people who want you toppled have only to sit back and watch you do it to yourself.

America is a great nation, with a lot of culture, history and art to be proud of, and maybe that's why modern artists feel the need to make pieces like Dogville. To remind America that, as great as it is, it's still a nation of crying, barfing, excreting, whining, greedy, worried, scared mouths to feed, just like the rest of us -- no better or worse.

That's all I think Dogville does as an anti-American piece. If Von Trier meant to just poo on America, he missed his mark and ended up making a point about all of us. Regardless, he among many others wants America to change it's mind about itself, and it doesn't matter if he hates it or loves it. Much more interesting to me is the blatantly obvious point Dogville makes -- to what point do you forgive the transgressions upon you by others who may be less fortunate but are nonetheless doing wrong? It sure made me take a look at my own pacifism.

Nicole Kidman was brilliant, as was Paul Bettany and the simpler townsfolk who will play so skillfully with your emotions. It seems I've been flooded with Kidman movies regularly for a couple weeks now and this is my favourite of her performances.

Good film, Dogville.

95 utilisateurs sur 126 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
A brilliant film, 26 décembre 2004

Auteur : pisanond de Etats-Unis

*** Ce commentaire peut contenir des spoilers ***

I watched this film after much of the controversy about it at Cannes had passed. The buzz in the U.S. press was that the film was slanted and reflected Lars Von Trier's ignorance of American society. Such arguments are specious on their face--there are examples of great literature and film making where the creator never set foot in the setting, as any reader of Shakespeare well knows. So discounting the self-appointed guardians of America, what exactly is this film about, what are the film's merits and why does it evoke such strong feelings from its audience, especially American ones? What Von Trier has done is take several American icons: the gangster, the small town, the woman in distress, the ideal of the common person, the local sage and the wise elder gentleman doctor, and has turned them on their head to create a timeless play about human motivation, greed and the corrupting influence of power. The people of Dogville are on the surface simple and decent people. Grace's arrival and her helplessness is the catalyst that, step by step, tempts the people of Dogville to inflict upon her greater and greater humiliations to feed their now unrestrained desires. So complete is her humiliation that the twist at the end leaves the viewer very little sympathy for the fate of Dogville's citizens. It is a powerful message and the judgment of the characters is one that takes no prisoners. That there are more than a few examples of this behavior in contemporary American society (and in the American past) and that it confronts these issues directly is the reason for the controversy surrounding it and--apart from the brilliant acting, especially by Ms. Kidman and Paul Bettany--what makes it great art. Von Trier has made a movie that is part of the quintessential American proletarian artistic tradition and its setting in 1930s America is part of the film's genius. That he is not an American and that this movie did not originate in Hollywood should give us all pause. There is a scene in which Grace confronts the people of Dogville with a critique of their bad behavior. Their response is to either deny the truth of what she has said or to blame Grace herself for tempting them. This movie, without being preachy or dogmatic, attempts to provide its own critique and received much the same reaction as the movie's protagonist. I would not be surprised if this was Von Trier's original intent. Dogville is a disturbing and powerful film.

66 utilisateurs sur 81 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
A Disturbing Sense of Illustration, 3 mars 2006

Auteur : Aluísio Parondi (nem.freud.explica@gmail.com) de Winooski, Vermont, USA

"Dogville" is, along with Peter Jackson's "Heavenly Creatures", one of the most disturbing film experiences I've ever had. Love it or hate it, it's impossible to be indifferent about this overwhelming film written and directed by Lars von Trier.

This is the first part of a trilogy ironically entitled "USA: Land of Opportunities" ("Manderlay" is the second, "Wasington" will be the third). "Dogville" begins with a prologue and extends to nine chapters in almost three hours of daring, exquisite film-making.

Nicole Kidman gives the performance of her career, in my opinion. Forget her (great) portrayal of Virginia Woolf in "The Hours", and the ambitious Suzanne Stone ("To Die For"): Kidman's most accomplished composition to date is Grace. She's a beautiful young American who, apparently on the run from gangsters, hides herself in a small Colorado town called Dogville, helped by Tom (Paul Bettany) and the other residents. Things go fine for some time until Dogville's folks begin to exploit the lovely Grace and, literally, chain her up like a dog.

You'll better appreciate the film if you don't know too many details (and even if you do, Von Trier reserved us lots of bitter surprises). We could say briefly that this is a film about those people you lend a hand and want to take your arm, but "Dogville" is too sharp and intelligent to be summed up this way. Many people accused Lars von Trier of criticizing the American arrogance violently. That's true, but the fact is that "Dogville" is a universal story: it could happen anywhere. Human beings are really this bad?, we wonder by the end. "Dogville" wasn't made to make you feel good, but it's a compulsory film for everybody.

"Dogville" is a much better work than "Dancer in the Dark", Von Trier's previous film which gave him the Golden Palm at Cannes, and proves definitely he's one of the greatest filmmakers nowadays. He led his ensemble cast wonderfully, and all of them are superb (that's no surprise, however, regarding Kidman, Ben Gazzara, Lauren Bacall, James Caan, Chloë Sevigny, Paul Bettany, Stellan Skarsgård, Jeremy Davies, Patricia Clarkson, Harriet Andersson, Udo Kier, Zeljko Ivanek and Philip Baker Hall, among others – honourable mention to John Hurt's excellent, ironic narration). 10/10.

P.S.: You'll never forget David Bowie singing "Young Americans" after seeing this film.

94 utilisateurs sur 140 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
A lyric movie about society, 11 novembre 2004
Auteur : ale82pineapple de Bologna, Italie

This movie is not the best I've ever seen, and probably not as good as "Breaking the Waves". But I left the theatre astonished, shocked, sad, confused, and a bit angry with the director, for being so cruel (and true?) in portraying human behaviour with vulnerable people, for using no props, for forcing me to watch the characters in their eyes and facial expressions 'cause there was nothing to draw my attention away. But this movie deserves to be seen, because that's what an artist is supposed to do, to share a bit of his thoughts and views, without giving answers, but arousing emotions and questions: and it has probably more right to be than other blockbuster movies sold by studios with nothing but what people like to see in it.

69 utilisateurs sur 95 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Like watching a brilliant novel..., 9 octobre 2004

Auteur : R-O-N-I-N

It's the only way I can describe a movie like this. To me, the best movies are like watching novels. In some ways, this can be detrimental, and at times, I did indeed find myself disconnected from the movie.

However, therein lies the redeeming value in "Dogville." Like a great novel, its nuances and details develop slowly and become intertwined with the underlying message within this film.

This movie forces you to pay attention to the story at hand. It's sparse of scenery and locale, yet if you're willing enough, you can fill in the details if you want to. The lack of scenery forces you to focus on the characters and the slow deterioration of their human sensibilities.

It's a movie that, like all brilliant movies, has themes that transcend into society as a whole.

10/10

53 utilisateurs sur 65 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Incredible!!!, 3 septembre 2004

Auteur : so4 de USA

When I started the movie and realized that it isn't really a movie, that it is more like a play and that there is really a lack of props and scenery I thought to myself, My God, what the heck did I buy???? I'm a huge fan of Nicole Kidman and she is the reason I bought it in the first place. The movie (or play), whatever u might wanna call it, drew me in and I couldn't stop watching. The end is so powerful, I was speechless. That's one of the best movies I have seen in a long, long, long, long time. I don't agree with the Anti-American comments I read here in some of the comments. Human emotions are all the same all over the world and this movie could have played in any country. Anyway, go watch this movie it's soooo worth it.

46 utilisateurs sur 54 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
People as animals (spoilers throughout), 18 juin 2005
Auteur : Ricky Roma (thepestilence001@yahoo.co.uk) de http://rioranchofilmreviews.blogspot.com/

*** Ce commentaire peut contenir des spoilers ***

I find it quite amusing that so many Americans were outraged that Lars von Trier had the temerity to criticise their country without having visited it. After all, we do it all the time, don't we? Millions of us are quite content to sit on our sofas and criticise China, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Israel and countless other countries without having visited their shores. And we're perfectly justified in doing so. So why should Von Trier be vilified for criticising America from a few thousand miles away? Well, of course, I don't think he should. He's perfectly entitled to his opinion, and those that cry and moan are symptomatic of America's biggest problem – its inability to take criticism without getting its pants in a twist. Surely every great country should thrive on criticism. It should help it grow and develop. But instead America seems to resemble a child sometimes, spouting unhelpful phrases like, "America: love it or leave it" or, "You're either with us or against us." Therefore a film like Dogville, one that refuses to revel in the hollow American Dream, is vital, and it's a film that should be embraced, not shunned.

But anyway, what the detractors seem to overlook is the fact that Dogville could really be a small town anywhere. It may be the first part in an American trilogy, but the small town values with their prejudices and hypocrisy are universal. Everyone can relate...

The film begins and ends with a God's eye view of the proceedings and it isn't hard to imagine that Von Trier is looking down on the characters, judging them. In fact, as Tom himself says, everything is a game, a test, and Von Trier is the one pulling the strings.

The game begins when Grace enters the town. The townsfolk are frightened, but Tom thinks it's a gift. He wants to see if Dogville has a problem with acceptance. Well, at the beginning, the citizens are understandably cautious, but they're eventually placated when Grace proves that she can help them out. And so at the beginning she develops a good relationship with the town and its citizens. But even at the beginning the relationship is far from equal. She may like everyone, but she's essential a slave. Yet the townsfolk like her best like this, when she's happily subservient.

As the film progresses, the town is tested further. The police post wanted posters and accuse Grace of crimes that she couldn't have committed (as she was in the town at the time). But rather than this bringing everyone around to her cause, the town gets cold feet. It wants to help, but only as long as it doesn't put them at risk. Therefore they decide to doubly enslave Grace to make themselves feel better. It's an extraordinary move, but one that is anything but far-fetched. Individuals are brave, but people have worrying habit of proving themselves to be spineless.

And seeing as Grace affects the status quo, the townsfolk decide to take their frustrations out on her. The men rape her physically and the women rape her psychologically. In fact, the most upsetting scene isn't one of the numerous rape scenes – although Chuck's rape scene does prove the brilliance of the set, what with it showing everyone going about their daily business and turning a blind eye to what is going on - it is instead the womens' abuse of Grace and the destruction of her figurines. It's more than just a physical violation. It's a violation of everything. Her dreams are being smashed right before her eyes.

But why do the people of Dogville react this way? Surely their behaviour is an exaggeration. Well, it is and it isn't. Of course the film paints a bleak portrait of human nature that you might not find down your street, but I think that the film proves that we all have darkness present in us. It only takes the right conditions and the right buttons to be pressed for it to emerge. In the case of Dogville, it emerges for many reasons, but I think the main reason is because Grace shows everyone what they are. Before her arrival everyone is happily stuck in a rut, but once she arrives everything changes. Everyone is faced with their mediocrity and everyone's lies are exposed. In one scene McKay, after having finally admitted his blindness, indeed thanks Grace for "showing us who you are", but during her time in Dogville she also forces Bill to realise his stupidity (by playing checkers for him), Liz her unattractiveness (by catching Tom's eye), Ben his loneliness (by providing for him), Chuck and Vera their unhappy marriage (by catching Chuck's eye) and Tom his cowardice (through his refusal to kiss her even though she's admitted her love for him). Needless to say, not everyone likes being exposed. It's hard to face yourself when you don't like what you see. And therefore the person that you're going to punish is the one that made you look at your reflection…

The ending is certainly bleak, but I think it forces us to take a hard look at ourselves. How often have we taken advantage of other people when we should have helped? How often have our intentions been selfish? And Grace's final actions suggest one thing to me: if you treat someone like an animal, you shouldn't be surprised when they treat you like one too.

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