Antichrist can be considered a horrible film, but I suggest you don't give up on it so easily. I think this film isn't misogynistic, but in a weird way, is trying to be the opposite. Number one, typically the antichrist is thought of as a male, not a female. As far as nature and the natural order of things, women are the givers of life, yet childbirth is a painful process. Charlotte Gainsbourg's character is at odds with her true nature, because she feels marginalized through motherhood and marriage. Deep down she has a strong need for power and to be in control. Gainsbourg's character only controls Dafoe's character through sex or pain or a combination of both. If we get religious at this point, Willem Dafoe's character is the "Adam" to Gainsbourg's "Eve" and just as in the bible, fails to protect Gainsbourg from evil. The fact that they return to Eden where Satan lurks, to find the answers to their grief and to heal is ironic.
This film has a female who goes against her nature, or what the idea of woman/motherhood is, acts as the most disturbing part of this film. More so than the violence and mutilation scenes. We know she is murderous in the fact she saw Nick at the window, but did not stop having sex, because she would have interrupted her pleasure. Women putting their pleasure (especially sexual) above their children is a no-no. This also leads to the question of what did happen the previous summer with Nick's feet. There is one scene that may offer an explanation besides the shoes being on the wrong feet. During a dream recollection the female states she heard a child crying but checked on Nick and found out he was okay, but he was in a shed. However, because we don't have the information we have at the end of the film, it is possible she did something to Nick's feet, similar to her husband's on a small scale and blocked it out of her mind, or tried to cover it up with the shoes on the wrong feet.
Willem Dafoe's character is so all knowing, so smug, that it is easy to see why the female feels detached from him, though he sees it as if she is part of him (again Adam reference). But again, Adam wasn't aware of the fact that when left alone, Eve was capable of sin. Dafoe's character plays God, but even Eden is full of bad things in nature: ticks, still born babies, self mutilation, chaos in the physical aspect of the woods. Eden is physically hard to reach and ultimately doesn't exist in the literal since. However, you do feel for him, once he puts the pieces of the puzzle together, but his wife's evil is more volatile and deeper than he realizes. So what does he do, he expels his wife, who at this point, has become Satan, but because she is a woman a witch metaphor develops here. He builds a pyre and without reservation burns her after he chokes her to death. OK I can see where misogyny comes into play for some audience members. Yet, at this point of the film, I felt I was watching two characters in the book Gynocide and felt the wife had gained power because she wanted her life to be over. Dafore's character followed his wife's unknown wishes in a strange way.
The ending of this film, with the women coming up to Dafoe's character and the woods losing its contorted features gave me two trains of thought: One is Dafoe's character freed himself from evil. The second is that he didn't free himself from evil and that the women were coming for him. The three beggars reminded more of sin, death, and resurrection. Dafoe had to acknowledge the sin, (death of his child) atone the sin by killing his wife, and resurrect himself by leaving Eden.
The cinematography at the beginning and end of this film is beautiful. You can take that away from Lars van Trier. His message may have been garbled, or it may have been a fable, which are often full of bad people and evil things. There is no tidy ending and American audiences in particular have to try to learn to accommodate this. A cult classic in the making.
This film has a female who goes against her nature, or what the idea of woman/motherhood is, acts as the most disturbing part of this film. More so than the violence and mutilation scenes. We know she is murderous in the fact she saw Nick at the window, but did not stop having sex, because she would have interrupted her pleasure. Women putting their pleasure (especially sexual) above their children is a no-no. This also leads to the question of what did happen the previous summer with Nick's feet. There is one scene that may offer an explanation besides the shoes being on the wrong feet. During a dream recollection the female states she heard a child crying but checked on Nick and found out he was okay, but he was in a shed. However, because we don't have the information we have at the end of the film, it is possible she did something to Nick's feet, similar to her husband's on a small scale and blocked it out of her mind, or tried to cover it up with the shoes on the wrong feet.
Willem Dafoe's character is so all knowing, so smug, that it is easy to see why the female feels detached from him, though he sees it as if she is part of him (again Adam reference). But again, Adam wasn't aware of the fact that when left alone, Eve was capable of sin. Dafoe's character plays God, but even Eden is full of bad things in nature: ticks, still born babies, self mutilation, chaos in the physical aspect of the woods. Eden is physically hard to reach and ultimately doesn't exist in the literal since. However, you do feel for him, once he puts the pieces of the puzzle together, but his wife's evil is more volatile and deeper than he realizes. So what does he do, he expels his wife, who at this point, has become Satan, but because she is a woman a witch metaphor develops here. He builds a pyre and without reservation burns her after he chokes her to death. OK I can see where misogyny comes into play for some audience members. Yet, at this point of the film, I felt I was watching two characters in the book Gynocide and felt the wife had gained power because she wanted her life to be over. Dafore's character followed his wife's unknown wishes in a strange way.
The ending of this film, with the women coming up to Dafoe's character and the woods losing its contorted features gave me two trains of thought: One is Dafoe's character freed himself from evil. The second is that he didn't free himself from evil and that the women were coming for him. The three beggars reminded more of sin, death, and resurrection. Dafoe had to acknowledge the sin, (death of his child) atone the sin by killing his wife, and resurrect himself by leaving Eden.
The cinematography at the beginning and end of this film is beautiful. You can take that away from Lars van Trier. His message may have been garbled, or it may have been a fable, which are often full of bad people and evil things. There is no tidy ending and American audiences in particular have to try to learn to accommodate this. A cult classic in the making.