Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Idiots/Idioterne (1998) - Von Trier challenges normalcy and human behavior in his Dogme masterpiece

7/11/2021

The Idiots/Idioterne (1998) - Von Trier challenges normalcy and human behavior in his Dogme masterpiece

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Movie of the Year

+ Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Experimental Movie of the Year + Most Undeserved Flop Movie of the Year


A cast assembly framed upside down, and the promise of a nude Jens Albinus in the lower right corner, makes up this French poster for Lars Von Trier's The Idiots

The woman Karen is sitting in a restaurant, where a noisy group of disabled people are also dining. But she finds out that they are actually only 'normal' people from a collective, who just cultivate a private 'sport' of 'spazzing out'.

The Idiots is written and directed by Danish master filmmaker, Lars Von Trier (Images of Liberation/Befrielsesbilleder (1982)). It is his 6th feature, and the 2nd film made according to the strict rule set of the Dogme 95 movement, co-founded by Von Trier. It is also the 2nd in Von Trier's Golden Heart trilogy, which also contains masterpiece Breaking the Waves (1996) and Dancer in the Dark (2000).

It is Von Trier's only Dogme film, - an ascetic vow to shoot without major effects and interference, budget or accreditation, among other things, - and it is a fittingly extreme film filled with embarrassing scenes, where both people in the scenes and certainly us watching as audiences are made uncomfortable. The cast of young actors, which contains many of the biggest names in Danish film in the subsequent decades, jump courageously into Von Trier's bizarre pool of ideas with both feet.

Watching The Idiots is a funny and wild experience; it is probably the most pure of the Dogme films, and extremely original. It is a deeply unusual film, which ranks among the best Danish films ever made. At its core The Idiots is an existentially provocative masterpiece.

Nymphomaniac (2013) short version, vol. 1 & vol. 2, or, Lars Von Trier's Suck It
Melancholia (2011) - Von Trier's heightened reality doomsday reflections
Antichrist (2009) - Von Trier's cabin-in-the-woods psycho-horror
The Early Years: Erik Nietzsche Part 1/De Unge År: Erik Nietzsche Sagaen Del 1 (2007) - Thuesen and Von Trier's hilarious film school comedy (autobiographical screenplay)

Top 10: Best Danish movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The Boss of It All/Direktøren for det Hele (2006) - Von Trier's hilarious absurd comedy
Dear Wendy (2005) - Vinterberg and Von Trier's unpopular, gun-themed megaflop (writer)

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Dogville (2003) - Von Trier's implacable, truly unique drama
The Five Obstructions/De Fem Benspænd (2003, documentary) or, Lars von Trier vs. Jørgen Leth
Dancer in the Dark (2000) or, Selma the Immigrant

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Top 10: Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date
Zentropa/Europa (1991) - Von Trier's audacious ode to the heavy continent is a fever dream on celluloid
Epidemic (1987) - Von Trier's trippy, bizarre second film
The Element of Crime/Forbrydelsens Element (1984) - Von Trier's ultra-strange debut

Watch a 5 -minute excerpt from the film here

Cost: 2.5 mil. $

Box office: Around 4.68 mil. $

= Big flop (returned around 1.87 times its cost)

[The Idiots premiered 20 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 114 minutes. The script was reportedly written in 4 days, in connection with the creation of the Dogme 95 manifesto. No less than 13 companies were involved with the financing and production of the film. Shooting took place in Denmark around June 1997. It is one of the first films shot entirely on digital cameras. Details about its limited North-American release are not made available online but was likely very small. In the film's main production country Denmark it sold 119,892 tickets, which comes to roughly 8.2 mil. DKK, or approximately 1.31 mil. $. A Danish blog by the head of the cinemas of Denmark informs that the film sold 719k admissions outside of Denmark, and with an average prize of 4.69 $ at the time, that comes to 3.37 mil. $, a total gross of around 4.68 mil. $. The film lost the Palme d'Or to Eternity and a Day. It won a Robert award (Denmark's Oscar), and was nominated for a European Film award. Von Trier returned with 3 TV movie and video short credits priot to his theatrical return with Dancer in the Dark (2000). Bodil Jørgensen (Ronal the Barbarian/Ronal Barbaren (2011)) returned in 4 TV credits prior to her theatrical return in Klinkevals (1999)). The Idiots is fresh at 71 % with a 6.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

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Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

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7/11/2021

The Idiots/Idioterne (1998) - Von Trier challenges normalcy and human behavior in his Dogme masterpiece

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