Snarking at Lars Von Trier aside.
Maybe it’s my mood and maybe it’s the bourbon, but right here, right now, that particular song called “Unison,” being the last track of Björk’s Vespertine, is without a drunken doubt the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. —Oh, wait: now iTunes has started “Lift Yr. Skinny Fists, Like Antennas to Heaven…” Oh—oh, my—
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So, you're not a Von Trier fan?
I liked "The Kingdom," but couldn't stand "Breaking the Waves." I know it's all a fable, but watching that woman go through all that torture wasn't my idea of a good time, particularly because I couldn't really believe in the sentiment at the end of the story, given I've never seen life go that way. The idea of earning a miracle through self-abasement just doesn't click with me as true or even something to wish for.
There’s a certain hard-won grace in Breaking the Waves—I’m not at all sure it’s worth the price, but it was something awful and gorgeous and transcendent, and inarticulable. I think. But I’m not all that eager to watch it again and make sure. —And it might very well be telling that the person who pays a similar price in Dancer in the Dark is also a woman; I haven’t seen enough of Von Trier’s œuvre to make the call, myself. (I’m curious to see what he did with Medea. I think. Then I remember how I felt when I came out of the other two flicks and I stop, dead, my hand halfway to the tape on the shelf. But: some of the most heartbreakingly beautiful moments I’ve had in a theater came thanks to him—those unearthly landscapes in Waves; the for God’s sake opening sequence of Dancer, those abstract shapes, that music. —Maybe I should just avoid him when he deals with people..?
(I kid, of course. He’s done some good things with people, too. And wow, but The Kingdom’s fucking creepy—)
Stephen King's imminent US TV version of "The Kingdom" is bound to sucketh mightily.
According to the Dancer site, says that it's third in a trilogy with Breaking the Waves and a much smaller-budget film in Danish called The Idiots. The trilogy focuses on female leads who make huge sacrifices for people they love, based on a fairy tale he read when he was young. Unlike the other two, The Idiots is more uncomfortable to watch than heart-wrenching.
He did another trilogy that features male leads. I've seen the first in that trilogy and it's very very dark.
Still have to see Kingdom 2. I don't do so well with scary creepy stuff like that but it's so addictive. The strangeness just sucks you in, Twin Peaks style.
The sad thing is that a couple of the main Kingdom actors died before Kingdom 3 could be made. (2 does not resolve the story.) Supposedly Lars is going to still do Kingdom 3, but will have to work the deaths of these actors into the plot. (Easier, I suppose, on a show which deals with supernatural occurences.)
The Kingdom 2 is fun, but there's a marked shift in tone. The Kingdom had its funny bits, but The Kingdom 2 is seems more like a comic film with some moments of dread shoehorned in.
Some of the better gags are very funny, though.