Sex, Violence and Genital Mutilation at Cannes

Lars Von Tier is known for controversial film maker, and his new film is set to raise more questions.
Antichrist, stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. A thriller about madness and love, it is becoming known for its close-up sex and genital mutilation. The film opens with a close-up of sexual penetration, journeys into violence and concludes with Gainsborough slicing off her clitoris. The story centers on a couple who retreat to a remote cabin to overcome their grief for their infant son.

“This is a very dark dream about guilt and sex and stuff,” said Von Tier, to a hostile news conference after the film’s premiere, which is one of 20 films competing for the Palme d’Or award.

Von Trier, who won a Palme d’Or in Cannes for Dancer In The Dark in 2000, says he shot the film as a form of therapy after having a mental breakdown two years ago, and says it is the most important of his career. Challenged on why he chose to make such a visually violent work, he fired back: “I don’t think I owe anyone an explanation. I made it for myself. “It’s the hand of God,” he added provocatively with a grin. “And I am the best director in the world!”

The film will no doubt raise questions about the violent imagery associated with the simulated clitoral mutilation. According to various reports, critics found the film challenging: gasping, squirming and jeering during a preview.

“It was unbearable. I hated it. It’s misogynistic and there is going to be a scandal,” Victor Saint-Macary, a project developer at Gaumont film studios, said after the premiere on Monday.

Gothic imagery, references to medieval witch-hunts and ghoulish hallucinations of talking animals combine to create a hauntingly Gothic atmosphere throughout the film. Critics gasped, squirmed and jeered during a preview of the movie, but there were both cheers and boos from the Cannes film crowd at the premiere.

Dafoe plays Gainsbourg’s psychotherapist husband in the film – neither character is named – who tries to help her cope with her mourning, but who is dragged down with her as she slides from grief into insanity.

In the film Gainsbourg’s character subjects him to ordeals that include having his genitals smashed with a wooden plank, and his leg hand drilled through and bolted to a millstone.

The 37-year-old Gainsbourg, who masturbates under a tree in one of many explicit scenes, said the film’s emotional content, with a focus on grief, motherhood, cruelty and madness was far tougher than the blood and gore.

“The hardest part wasn’t necessarily the sex and nudity, it was scenes with emotion and suffering that felt the most raw.”

Both she and Dafoe said they were deeply affected by the making of the film, which was shot without any rehearsals.

“It was quite an experience – very intense, not a lot of talking, and something that I won’t live again,” the softly spoken actress said.

Asked why he included the film’s most disturbing scene – the close-up shot of genital mutilation – Von Trier replied: “For me not to show it would be lying. It came in naturally.”

Antichrist’s director, Von Trier insists he is not a misogynist, but that he finds female sexuality “frightening”. He has dedicated the film to late Soviet film director Andrei Tarkovsky.