Antichrist

We start with a really beautiful and detailed epilogue, a brilliant photography and shots accompanied by classical music to contrast the harsh sequences to follow, glorifying the mixture of black and white and colored shots.

From the outset, the Danish director Lars Von Trier's intentions are clear: he is a natural provocateur who, this time, goes into the disturbing world of the human mind. For this he uses a therapist, Willem Dafoe, who must go into the disturbed head of his partner Charlotte Gainsbourg, in the same way he needs to face his own ghosts.

This underground journey will take us through 3 chapters: mourning, pain and despair. Steps needed to be faced if you are looking to get out of chaos.

Sadness is a feeling that also can be classified as a disease, a feeling beyond empirical mathematical logic that can make us vulnerable. This is where Lars Von Trier dominates in all his glory, showing with ease all its visual potential at the mercy of the most tangible fears.

The fox, the crow, the deer. The sum of them together forms a whole that helps our brains to interpret our nature.

A pyramid that, by cataloging their fears from the smallest to greatest, is the therapy  that Willem Dafoe tries to bout with his knowledge to remove the evil that is in Charlotte Gainsbourg. An evil than can be catalogued as the antichrist, the main exponent in the struggle between good and evil; the forest is the boss and it devours hope, a dark stage full of guilt from the past and breaking into the present.

Charlotte Gainsbourg won the award for Best Actress at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for this work, although her character is hard to grasp. When sadness, panic and madness are mixed together, the result is an explosive cocktail. Thus, we see an actress in a state of grace who is getting the audience to enter into her delirium.

Her co-star is a guarantee, a Willem Dafoe representing what might be the antichrist. The balance between good and evil should be compensated and Lars Von Trier certainly has succeeded in choosing these two wonderful actors. His psychoanalysis and shock therapy are the holy water with which this battle shall be faced, a deadly battle that will define the final outcome where the psyche and the body do not listen to any reason.

Director: Larsvon Trier

Writer: Lars vonTrier

Stars: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Storm Acheche Sahlstrøm