Movies
Explicit Sexual Gore Causes ‘Antichrist’ Controversy at Cannes
At the top of my list as “most anticipated” for 2009 is Lars von Trier’s Antichrist, which just had its world premiere at the ongoing Cannes market/festival. I’ve been patiently awaiting the buzz, good or bad, and have instead found myself interested for all the wrong reasons – “explicit sexual gore”. Apparently it was so intense it caused an uproar during a press conference where reporters asked von Trier to explain himself. Read on for this breaking story.
From the Hollywood Reporter:
“Declaring himself “the world’s greatest director,” 53-year-old Dane Lars von Trier defended his enfant terrible title with aplomb at the Monday news conference for his Competition shocker “Antichrist.”
It started with a shouting match between Daily Mail columnist Baz Bamigboye and other members of the press corps, with Bamigboye demanding von Trier “explain and justify” the explicit sexual gore in his film and another journo in the audience yelling “He’s an artist, you’re not. He doesn’t have to explain anything!”
And he didn’t. On questions both abusive and toadying, von Trier maintained his autistic savant persona, deliberately avoiding any explanation of “Antichrist,” alternatively mocking or dismissing his interrogators.
“I don’t have to explain anything. You are all my guests here, not the other way round,” von Trier said. “Anyway, I don’t think about the audience when I make a film. I don’t care. I make films for myself.”
Von Trier did defend his use of nausea-inducing imagery — including a bloody masturbation scene and a leg-drilling sequence that could have been cribbed from the “Saw” franchise — as artistic “honesty,” saying to leave the shockers out would have been “like lying.”
He also insisted he was not playing a joke on the audience but meant everything, from the film’s talking fox to the closing dedication to Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, a dedication that drew howls of laughter at last night’s press screening, to be taken seriously.
But, as always, von Trier tried to have it both ways, joking that it was “a bit of a pity” one can’t actually kill people on screen and putting the blame for the most extreme scenes on lead actress Charlotte Gainsbourg.
“Charlotte took it too far. I tried to, but I just couldn’t stop her,” von Trier quipped.”
It was announced two weeks ago that Paramount is resurrecting the Scary Movie spoof franchise with a brand new reboot movie, which will likely arrive in theaters next year.
The new movie, a joint venture between Paramount and Miramax that will technically be the sixth installment in the franchise, is expected to go into production this coming Fall.
We don’t yet know who will be writing, directing or starring in the Scary Movie reboot, but two actors in particular have already expressed an interest in joining the franchise.
The first is Melissa Barrera, who can currently be seen in theaters in Radio Silence’s bloody horror movie Abigail. Barrera is of course also the star of Scream and Scream VI, which kind of makes her a perfect candidate to lampoon herself in a Scary Movie reboot.
“I always loved those movies,” Melissa Barrera tells the website Inverse. “When I saw it announced, I was like, ‘Oh, that would be fun.’ That would be so fun to do.”
The actress adds, “They have the iconic cast that did it, so we’ll see what goes on with that. I’m just excited to see a new one.”
In a tweet posted last night, Bailee Madison (The Strangers: Prey at Night, the upcoming “Pretty Little Liars: Summer School”) also threw her hat in the running.
Madison tweets, “Random but scary movie 6 hit me up cause I just feel like we’d have fun okay bye.” Your move, Paramount. And make sure you call Anna Faris and Regina Hall too.
Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans, the first Scary Movie was released in 2000, just four years after Wes Craven reinvigorated the horror genre with his meta slasher masterpiece, Scream.
The film parodied horror movies of the time including Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and The Blair Witch Project, and the horror-comedy spoof scared up $278 million at the worldwide box office. The success of that first Scary Movie paved the way for an entire franchise of horror spoofs, five of them in total released between 2000 and 2013.
Bailee Madison in “The Strangers: Prey at Night’
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