Antichrist (2009)
AKA: Anticristo
Directed by: Lars von Trier
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Country: Denmark, Scandinavian Cinema, European Cinema
Language: English (English Subtitles)
Runtime: 01:48:49
Genres: Sexual-Violence against Women, BDSM, Gore-Gruesome, Sexual-Violence against Men, Self-Harm, Family, Misery-Depressing
Plot – Spoilers:
Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg play an unnamed couple. She’s been working on some sort of a thesis on the concept of hatred towards women just because they are women (gynocide), while he’s a therapist, though it’s unclear whether he is practicing.
Anyway, while they’re busy fucking to glory one snowy night, their little son stumbles out of his crib through an open window and falls to his death. With time, the woman is not able to deal with her grief and the husband suggests he take over her care and get rid of all the medication she’s being fed. As part of his methodology, he decides that they head over to their cabin in a woody place called Eden, where she’d spent summer alone with her son.
While at Eden, she vacillates in bipolar fashion between being submissive and accusatory and soon, he realizes he is probably not equipped to handle her.
Thoughts on the Ending – Massive Spoilers:
Towards the end of Antichrist, she is shown to have actually seen her son walk towards the window while fucking, which she then chose to ignore. This coupled with the fact that she deliberately forced an abnormality on the kid’s foot indicts her. But this is probably untrue. Her having seen the kid seems to be something she has convinced herself about the events in hindsight.
Likely, her guilt over being in the throes of pleasure while her son fell to his death ravaged her so monstrously, suicide seemed an inadequate measly punishment. Instead, she probably drove him to rage deliberately, through her continued aggression and torture, to the point where he felt compelled to kill her. Her expressions when he finally rids himself of the grindstone suggests a certain peace over her impending murder at his hands.
The point with this movie though is that everyone has the right to a theory because even Director Lars von Trier has said he couldn’t explain the movie fully even if he wanted to, as he wrote it during a period of intense depression.
I can’t believe that now I’ve seen Goblin’s junk. 10/10
The B&W cinematography in the opening and closing sequences was superb, most excellently accompanied by Handel’s Lascia Ch’lo Pianga (Let Me Weep). What a great story about nature/ human relationships/psyche. Lots of symbolism. Some scenes may be hard to watch, but von Trier never fails me.
I didn’t get it.
wtf are these comments
feminist bullshit
😐
pretentious, boring garbage.
Great direction, sound and acting. Depressing as all hell though.
One of the most artistic openings to a film I’ve ever seen, helped of course by the genius of Handel. Thereafter the film becomes more of an ordeal than a vehicle of ‘entertainment’.
The films is saying that Women are the antichrist. Lars von Trier has difficulties with women..
Fun Unpolitically correct movie.. . but I don’t know why Lars, (He is an scandinavian atheist, a descendant of Vikings) insists on including lame Abrahamic religious themes though.. Christianity is only relevant in the middle East and America, It is meaningless to the rest of us.
Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg are both masters of their craft. I went on a Charlotte Gainsbourg kick for a while and watched a shit load of her movies. One performance that she was outstanding was in “Melancholia” (2011). Willem Dafoe was superb in “The Lighthouse” (2019) though I have to say that I like “The Lighthouse” (2016) starring Mark Lewis Jones and Michael Jibson better because it is a more accurate depiction of the Smalls Lighthouse Tragedy that happened in 1801 near Wales. “Antichrist” is a epic film. One of Lars Van Trier’s masterpieces.
Interesting don’t know what the hell happened 9/10
a mom that gets aroused by his sons death. WOW brutal. Lars Von Trier manages to shock without being cheap no wonder why his films are getting so much fame and controversy, but let´s face it that disturbed mom is fucking hot
Both options lag for me
i didn’t understand it
I’m glad that I was finally able to sit through this movie and watch it. Normally if I’m not into a film within the first five minutes I turn it off. It ended up being pretty damn good.
watch this with headphones omg
dude the ants it feels like they’re crawling inside of u
Apparently, this movie had to have a double for Willem Dafoe because his cock was too big.
Another bullshit european movie. European cinema is a big pile of feces tbh (it´s just sex, violence, sexual violence, polemic, exploitation, and sex… and sex…)
Slow build up but result to great clarity at the end. An excellent distinct perspective film.
i don’t hate myself enough for this
RIP my man’s weenie
got way too high to this great movie tho
When even the director cannot explain the writing. Chances are it’s all over the place.
Hmmmmmmmmm
Not sure about this at all .. certainly looks and sounds great but MY GOD… It trys waaaayyy to hard to be alternative and edgy. . It’s actually over bloated over produced utter pretentious garbage.
I don’t understand what the director and producer wanted aside from making money on fans of true art like users of this amazing site ie us….
They were so desperate to shock and stun us they actually totally forgot about story.. proper plot.. pace.. pathos … Drama…
Watch the witch or sinister or summat
I wish I could tell you the end because that is my favorite part. Charlotte Gainsborough is really good in this (as well as many other films). I think this is one of Lars Van Trier’s top 5 movies.
She looks so cozy in those sweaters
Another overrated, pretentious film. One good thing is that, it’s cinematographically-stunning.
if they did shrooms this would have been way more fucked up
That tick scene though
It’s been a decade since I’ve seen this but there is a scene that disturbed me so much, I still frequently think about it and wince in pain. I’ve seen some intense movies (A Serbian Film, August Underground, Martyrs, to name a few) but this movie really got stuck in my brain. It’s a great movie though. CHAOS REIGNS.
Slow start, quite boring and then suddenly it started to get my interest up and by the end of the movie I was thinking wtf. It totally mindfucked me trying to understand all the symbolism behind it. Whilst not very gory it had enough content to earn its place here at EUM. Willem Dafoe is a great actor and one of my favorites, have seen many of his films.
I wonder if female circumcision is really how it is performed? Quite gruesome & sick! Thanks EUM for uploading this movie.
I found this to be pretentious. It was like a pretend disturbing film for people who think they are being disturbed but are living too much in their heads to take a real punch to the gut. In that respect it was like a French movie. I felt the same way about this as I did about Martyrs.
Read Joe’s comment, and then mine.
What the fuck man