Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by jamesgarvin (A) on August 07, 2005 at 16:14:03

In Reply to: An excellent film though it suffers from the posted by tinear on August 5, 2005 at 15:49:06:

"WOW ending."

Not sure what you mean here. Are you referring to the scene in whcih the woman falls through the ice? If so, I never thought "wow", or was otherwise shocked. But then, that may be my Americanization, conditioned to years of violence through movies. I'll write Von Trier and ask him.

"It's like they needed to put in some action to appeal to Western audiences."

Action? If you thought that was action, then you need to get out more. No, the purpose of the film, I think, was to show the cycle of life. How to get a small baby in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of a lake, to start the cycle all over again. Well, I guess the director could have used a stork to drop the baby boy there. Or he could have had the baby in the basket with a sign telling the proprietor of the inn to take care of him. Need to appeal to western audiences? The film grossed about 2.3 million in the U.S., doing about 42k it's first weekend. Which is better than it did in Europe. Obviously, it did not appeal to western audiences. Unless he was so inept that you think he tried, and failed. If he is going to pimp himself out, why no go all the way - have some heavies come in with a man who cheated the mob, who also has a son. Have the heavies shoot the father in massive gun fire, leaving the little boy to fend for himself. The monk, hearing the gunfire, comes to the rescue, finds the little baby, then takes him home. Now THAT would a designed for a western audience. A woman falling through the ice? Uh, no.

"Still, a very powerful film, beautifully filmed, with a delicate and sensitive feel unknown to Western directors.
It's a good thing you and Rico aren't novel critics or you'd spend your whole lives re-counting stories."

I am not sure what you mean by that. Your "comments" are largely the same as mine, except I made mine first. At least Rico and I would not be the subject of an expose on plagiarism.