Another review, another opening disclaimer. Lars Von Trier is an enormously divisive film maker. People tend to either love his work or absolutely loathe it, there are very few taking up ground in the middle. Personally, I fall into the love camp. If you've seen his earlier work and thought it was overwrought, pretentious crap you'll think the same of this one and you may as well stop now because there's nothing in this film that'll change your mind and you may as well find a more constructive use of the next few minutes than spending it sitting and reading this. If you think a little more kindly of the man continue right on in ...
Make no mistake about it. Though nominally a documentary film in which Lars Von Trier challenges film maker Jorgen Leth to remake one of his own films - The Perfect Human - five times while adhering to a different set of rules each time The Five Obstructions is purely and simply a film about what drives Von Trier himself. Though the movement is not mentioned at any point you will likely never see a film that better captures the aims and ambitions of the Dogme movement and it should be required viewing for anyone serious about recent film on that basis alone. Luckily enough there's plenty here to keep non-film students occupied as well.
The film opens with Leth and Von Trier seated in Von Trier's Copenhagen offices discussing what lies ahead. Von Trier is about to do his best to break Leth's spirit; he will take a man who he considers a mentor and have him remake his own short film - a film Von Trier claims to have seen over twenty times - according to a set of arbitrary rules chosen purely to make life difficult for the elder film maker, to force him away from his normal methods and techniques. Von Trier plays the part of a capricious god, dangling morsels in front of Leth only to yank them away with an impish grin the moment Leth shows any interest or desire for them. By the time the duo is done Leth will have finished with five utterly different re-interpretations of his own work.
For Obstruction One Leth is ordered to go someplace he's never been, use a cast he's never met before, and answer every one of the rhetorical questions posed by the original script. Oh ... and no single edit is allowed to be longer than twelve frames, a mere half second in length. Leth heads off to Cuba for this attempt and turns the twelve frame restriction - something that should have been an absolute killer - and makes it the backbone of a stunningly beautiful, rhythmically lyrical film.
Obviously disappointed by how well attempt one turned out Von Trier lays down the instructions of Obstruction Two. Leth must travel to the most horrific place he can think of, spend time as close to the locals as possible and then screen them off and shoot a version of the film starring himself with the set placed dead in the center of the local misery. Leth is clearly rattled by this, carrying valium with him to the shooting site in the midst of Bombay's red light district, but again turns in a quality film, albeit one which does not adhere to the letter of Von Trier's instructions.
As a punishment for breaching the rules of Obstruction Two Von Trier hands Leth what would be his own nightmare assignment. Attempt three must be shot with no guidance, no restrictions whatsoever. Leth this time takes his crew to Belgium for a quietly graceful take on the material, this time built around luminescent cinematography and the liberal use of split screen.
For Obstruction Four Von Trier orders Leth to remake The Perfect Human as a cartoon, a medium they both profess an immense dislike for. For this task Leth enlists the help of Bob Sabiston - best known for his work as animation director on Waking Life - who he knows only by reputation. Once again Leth turns in beautiful work.
For Obstruction Five Leth is ordered to do nothing. Von Trier has assembled his own take on The Perfect Human using footage of the two of them at work on the project and Leth's sole function will be to narrate the film from a script written by Von Trier himself, formatted as a closing letter from Leth to Von Trier.
The mechanics of the film are fascinating. It is incredibly rare to see how material can warp and shift, can take on new meaning, to match the conditions under which it is made. In that sense it is a fascinating study of form and content, art and environment. While the films Leth produces have undeniably similar undercurrents they have remarkably different tones and inflections, different layers of meaning. We see first hand the importance of context, of how location and distance can take us in directions completely other than our own original intents.
But in addition to an abstract look at the nature of art The Five Obstructions gives us a very tangible look into what drives Von Trier himself, one of the world's most idiosynchratic and important directors. Since making Zentropa Von Trier has been increasingly fixated on matters of form and technique in his films, more specifically he has been obsessed with stripping as much technique out as possible. Why? Because more than anything else he wants to capture human frailty. Von Trier looks at Leth, a man he admires above all others, and sees someone who has made a film about human perfection while maintaining a sense of distance, a hard protective shell, and he cannot help but want to tear that protective covering away. He wants to break Leth, yes, but not out of malicious intent. He honestly believes that doing so is the best course, the path that will make Leth most fully human. The Dogme movement was Von Trier's attempt to put himself through just this process in his own art - he consciously abandoned all of the tools and techniques that kept truthful interaction at bay - and we here see him trying to draw another artist through the same process.
Von Trier critics will likely find here a certain smug superiority, a holier-than-thou air. And that's fair enough. Whatever else Von Trier may be subtlety is not his strong point and that will inevitably irritate some people to no end. Fans of the man, however, will find here a fascinating glimpse into what makes him tick.