The Violent Sexual Antichrist

When I heard about the Lars Von Trier film Antichrist I needed to find out more about it. I couldn’t help myself after I heard some film critic on the TV describe it as an awful film, not because of the sex and violence, but because he thought it was just a very bad movie.

I think I’m going to have to watch it when it gets a DVD release, though I do wonder if it will be cut to ribbons as is often the case when a DVD is classified. Why are cinema audiences more able to cope with challenging images and subject matter than DVD audiences viewing the same film and same BBFC rating? Hmmm.

I need to watch it because I have found the film has split opinion. Some people regard it as a sensational shocker meant to provoke outrage rather than stir the imagination and intellect. Others see the film as a trial worth undergoing to experience the intensity of the situation that the two (and there are only two) characters find themselves in.

I do wonder whether the critics of the film object to the sexual content and therefore reject the film out of hand because of this. If the sex is there for titillation and to solicit disapproving tutting noises from the audience I can see their point but sex isn’t all hearts and flowers and is often tied up inextricably with the deep and sometimes violent emotions present in some relationships.

Passion can be violent, but that violence doesn’t have to be destructive, it’s all about control and awareness of your own feelings and the power that they and acting them out can have.

As I said I look forward to viewing this film and making my own assessment of its merits based on my understanding of sexuality – an experience of sex as more than one dimensional, more than a simple exchange of bodily fluids, once a week, on a Sunday morning, if you know what I mean.