Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willam Dafoe star in Antichrist, a psychological horror drama coming to theaters in Los Angeles, Friday. The film, by controversial Danish director, Lars Von Trier, is a surrealistic look at the darker side of human nature.
The protagonists, identified only as "he" and "she", are a couple devastated by grief when their infant son falls out of a window to his death while they are making love in another room. "He" is a psychologist who takes his grieving wife off to a secluded cabin where he treats her with intense psychological methods that are nothing short of torture and which eventually lead both of them into violent madness.
It is, by all accounts, almost as intense an experience for the viewers as the fictional participants. It shocked the normally blasé crowd at the Cannes Film Festival and an audience member reportedly fainted when it was screened at the New York Film Festival. Critic Roger Ebert called it, "the most despairing film I've ever have seen." Shocking or not, it got the director a nomination for a Golden Palm and Charlotte Gainsborough the best actress award at Cannes.
More information about Antichrist can be found here. Two reviews of the film can be found here and here.
Photo Credit:
1) Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willam Dafoe (still from Antichrist)
If you find my articles interesting, you can click on "Subscribe by email" to receive notice when new ones are posted.
You might also enjoy these:
Comments
Yukky!!
That's one movie I'll not see.
A lifelong atheist and a fan of Marry Poppins-type movies.
Me either, RCK. While I acknowledge that real people can do the most monstrous things to one another (and work against some of these things), I've never found fictional horror appealing as entertainment.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!