The House That Jack Built (2018) - Lars von Trier

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  • The people at Cannes who react all hysterical are people who never watch these types of films to begin with, so when they're confronted with violence they act all "shocked".

    I bet there is nothing in this that we haven't seen in a Final Destination movie.

    There was one journalist ranting and raving all over twitter yesterday about how awful this film is and that's it's going to bring about the end of the world. Looking at his twitter profile, this journalist is currently writing a book about the TV show, The View.
  • I worked at Cannes a couple of years ago so had a pass to 3 screenings for the Un Certain Regard section including Hell or High Water. It's certainly like no other festival and the experience is kinda intense because it's HARD to get passes and even when you have passes you have to queue early for hours.

    For Official Selection screenings you have to wear a Tux and have a top tier pass. Hundreds of people hold signs begging for tickets or to be you +1. They do all sorts of things to get your attention, I remember one guy had some Great Dane dogs dressed up beneath a banner begging to see the latest Spielberg. So yeah, it's an eccentric crowd in a hot atmosphere. That entire stretch of coast is like a festival so it's the right conditions for people to blow their lid or act up.

    All the greatest Escorts in the world are at Cannes as well earning a fortune. They were everywhere and looked stunning.
  • Arguably the greatest living horror director, mainstream or underground. He tries to literally horrify his audience, has the artistic talent to actually do it, and most people aren't willing to deal with such aggressive art. Watching a Lars von Trier movie is the cinematic version of getting in a car crash.
    I love the way you sing, okay? I fucked up my whole life because of the way you sing. - Before Midnight
  • @Post Ghost we already got that with The Virgin Spring loooooong before.
  • edited December 2018
    Now available from the usual outlets ;)

    Imma need a rewatch. Some parts are excellent, others not so much, but its pure heroin Von Trier.
  • This movie was disgusting. The duckling scene and the family scene - makes me sick just thinking about it. I liked how it never tried to be cool, and how artsy it got at the end. It didn't fill me with a feeling of dread like Antichrist and Melancholia, but I was captivated by every frame. Would rate five out of five.
    I love the way you sing, okay? I fucked up my whole life because of the way you sing. - Before Midnight
  • @gunsrazorsknives --- Have to agree with your post...Cannes and some of those larger festivals are just loaded with dead money, puffy jacket wearing boomers who just explode with false outrage over a director that pushes buttons. LVT is a provocative director...he provoked...I'd call that success.
  • It's like these people who get outraged don't have the slightest clue about film history

    How can anyone be mad at anything after Clockwork Man it's 2018 this is Von Trier grow up
  • Heads up, the version that is currently out is not the uncut version.

    I saw the uncut version at a film festival and the one out is not it.
  • Apparently it won't be out till next year because of an MPAA violation

    I've been out of the bubble for a few years and forgot they had any real influence. I'm gonna watch in the next day or two but fuck it's put me off
  • Wait just a doggone minute. The 151-minute version isn't the uncut version?
  • Honestly, the cuts really neuter certain scenes.

    They're only small cuts but they take away all the impact.
  • Thanks for the heads up, I'll wait for an uncut version.
  • On one hand, obviously, fuck the MPAA and fuck all art-censors in general. On the other hand, there was no point during this movie that I wished it had more violence. I had to turn my head a couple times as it was. To me, the casual psychological damage Jack inflicted on his blonde girlfriend, "Simple", was way worse than the actual gore scene with her, even though that gore was (I thought) very graphic.

    Then again I've never been much of a gore hound. I can appreciate it a lot if it's done well, but I don't really require it to be there. I will use the future release of the uncut version as an excuse to watch this movie again. That's how I know I've seen a von Trier film - even if I loved it, I'm in no rush to watch it again. But I will be ready by the time the uncut version comes out.
    I love the way you sing, okay? I fucked up my whole life because of the way you sing. - Before Midnight
  • ^^ If I had seen the cut version then I would have been satisfied with it because it's graphic enough, but the uncut version just takes it that one step further, but honestly, even the uncut version is no worse than anything else horror fans have seen before.

    The only scene I think is problematic is the one with the family. In the uncut version, we see what those bullets do to kids legs and heads. Yeah, it goes there.
  • That's kind of the problem. If it's nothing we haven't seen before, why is it being cut?

    Because it's Von Trier and the MPAA just has to flex their muscles. It's absurd.
  • Pretty much. I'd say all the crazy hype from Cannes had something to do with it as well.
  • Agreed - the industry has an agenda with von Trier. Watched a Matt Dillon interview, and the journalist was so visibly upset about the family scene that Dillon almost had to apologize for the whole movie (nervously trying to rationalize it away as dark comedy or theater of the absurd). Dillon was as graceful and professional as possible, and he praised von Trier a bunch, but Matt should have never been put in that situation to begin with.

    I want to tell these artists - You guys, don't even bother. The industry will never accept actual horror - only horror lite or thrillers (which can be sophisticated enough for The Academy, laugh). Von Trier makes real ones, the kind meant to literally horrify the audience, and because of this the industry will always treat him and his actors like shit.

    But he's making a fortune scaring the pants off these squares. If they ever decide to kick him to the curb entirely, he can at least be welcomed back home into the horror community with open arms, given a pat on the back and a heartfelt, "We appreciate you, man."

    This is a rant because, the more I dwell on it, the more this MPAA thing is pissing me off. What if those gory gunshot effects elevated this movie to an even higher artistic plane? And we missed it? SPOILER ALERT: Antichrist wouldn't have been the same without the blood ejaculation scene - imagine if that had been cut out (you can follow the evolution of that concept from Nekromantik to ReGoregitated Sacrifice to Antichrist, and it NEVER gets old). If it turns out the censors robbed us of something that good, then that is unacceptable in my opinion.
    I love the way you sing, okay? I fucked up my whole life because of the way you sing. - Before Midnight
  • edited December 2018
    It's unacceptable if any artists vision is compromised because of adults telling me, an adult, that I can't watch something because they deem it to be unsavory.

    I believe this MPAA violation is over them screening the uncut version ONE TIME in the US. Excuse me?
  • edited December 2018
    ^^Agree with both of you, except I don't think the industry has an agenda against von Trier. Antichrist was released in all its glory as was Nymphomaniac. I think the industry, or more like the MPAA seems to have issues with this particular movie, and I'm betting all of the ridiculous reactions from the Cannes screening played a large part in House being censored. At the time of the House Cannes screening, the majority of the hysterical reviews were coming from American critics.

    We got the uncut version here at the film festival I went to, and that same version is getting a wide release in March, so I'm blaming the MPAA fair and square.

    What pisses me off is that all the pearl clutchers who act all horrified at von Trier would surely know of the guy and his films and that they are meant to shock, so why would they go on about him and his movies so much just to ruin the experience for everyone else?

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