Tackling the Oeuvre: Lars von Trier — Dogville (2003)

Hello all.

This month, and hopefully more in the future, I am taking part in a project entitled “Tackling the Oeuvre” in which a handful of people are individually watching one film of a director, in this particular case it is Lars von Trier, and writes about that film. The film given to me was Dogville.  As a sort of precursor to this, I would like to state that although I have always been extremely interested in von Trier, I have seen just a few of his films. The continually-growing interest in von Trier is correlated with the fact that my two greatest passions are philosophy and film, and von Trier is the contemporary king of making films that could easily belong to a category that would be labeled “philosophical cinema.” As always, I like to provide a fair warning for those who have not seen this film to avoid reading this until you do so, and I can assure you, in this case, the film is well-worth your time.

This film is about quite a few things, but at its core, Dogville is a story of both the negative and positive effects of power/control. The word “story” and “experiment” are realistically interchangeable while discussing this film. Tom, the town of Dogville’s philosopher, is in control of this experiment. To clarify, the experiment is to successfully assimilate an outsider, Grace. If the town is capable of doing so, Tom believes that this will be a statement in favor of the townspeople’s moral character. For those unfamiliar with virtue ethics, it is an ethical theory that focuses on the virtues of a person rather than his/her duties or the consequences of his/her actions. Essentially, Tom is a virtue ethicist in the sense that Grace’s acceptance would hypothetically come about through the townspeople’s good nature and warm disposition, and that Grace’s acceptance would not be the result of the townspeople feeling as if they are duty-bound to accept her or for their own well-being. The viewer slowly learns what happens when the people of Dogville are given power and control over Grace. The power that they feel is the result of Grace being indebted to them for potentially accepting her and as the film progresses, the viewer is made more and more aware of what actions these people are capable of justifying. According to my notes, I jotted down “PROBLEM OF POWER” four times, so clearly, it is an issue dealt with in the film.

There are no words for the final sequence. And if you’ve gone this far and have not seen the film, I urge you to stop reading and see the film. As great as the first two hours and fifteen minutes are, this film is pushed into the “masterpiece” conversation with its final half hour. I sat on the edge of my seat with my hand covering my mouth during the confrontation between Grace and her father, anxiously waiting for her decision. At this point, you feel as if you know what the right thing for her to do would be, which actually very well may be the case, but due to what the viewer has seen Grace go through (especially in the twenty minutes leading up to this point) I feel as if there is a definite possibility of not being able to take a step back and look at the situation objectively. The viewer wants justice for Grace, the character who up to that point had the least (as close to none as possible in her situation) amount of control is the ultimate decider of the town’s fate and the viewer cannot help but want her to do what is right. I credit von Trier’s writing/direction and Nicole Kidman’s exceptional performance for eliciting this feeling.

Lars von Trier is three for four when it comes to me. I loved Europa, Dancer in the Dark, and Dogville but absolutely hated Antichrist, which admittedly, has grown on me a little over time. I hope you guys enjoyed this, and I hope it is something that I get the opportunity to take part in again. Thank you for reading!

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