Chaos Reigns

The subliminal cultural pressure that I have been enduring for some time reared its ugly head a few days back when a good friend and I felt compelled to watch Lars von Trier's Antichrist.

It was overcast and dull outside but still light, thankfully. It felt like it was midweek but sadly one cannot verify this; August has seemed like one long inclemently confused day, and not having a job or changing my boxers means that the Lunisolar calender can fuck itself and time has taken a back seat in deciding what I do. Great.

But yeh, I read on some guy's blog that Lars von Trier took some biblical inspiration from the Fall of Man via the punishing reality of Westernised gender stereotypes. This is interesting to bear in mind as the film follows a manic depressive mother (Charlotte Gainsbourg) trying to overcome the psychological aftermath of the loss of her son, with the help of her therapist husband (Willem Defoe).

To be honest the review I read was unrelentingly brash and haphazardly over-critical, and although I did find the movie slightly ambiguous and needlessly macabre in places, the real message that got under my skin was a poignant one.

A certain part of me started to think that to an extent, chaos really does reign. Chains of events, reactions, the inherently selfish and destructive nature of human beings? I think Lars von Trier has got a point. Evil and destruction is everywhere, it's embedded in every geographical, cultural, social and even biological structure.



Moreover, in an almost erotically obscure way I found the cinematography completely fascinating. The Epilogue and the slow motion scenes in the woods in particular were visually encapsulating, twinned with the edgy fluidity of the free hand camera's that never stop rolling on a Lars von Trier set.

Take what you will from Antichrist, but definitely worth a watch without a doubt.