The Five Obstructions/De Fem Benspænd (2003, documentary) or, Lars von Trier vs. Jørgen Leth

5/08/2018

The Five Obstructions/De Fem Benspænd (2003, documentary) or, Lars von Trier vs. Jørgen Leth

♥♥♥♥♥

The two dueling filmmakers each command half of this cleverly composited poster for Jørgen Leth and Lars von Trier's The Five Obstructions

Danish master filmmaker Lars von Trier (Breaking the Waves (1996)) has watched fellow Danish filmmaker Jørgen Leth's (Notebook from China/Notater fra Kina (1987) documentary) short art film The Perfect Human/Det Perfekte Menneske (1967) obsessively as a fan, and as he finds himself in a position of power as a consummate filmmaker himself, he engages his idol Leth to revisit and attempt to ruin his film.

For anyone interested in Trier and/or Leth, who are artists with completely deviating aesthetics, temperaments in their works, and different creative standpoints, The Five Obstructions is a highly stimulating documentary of an artistic exercise, which is ripe with all sorts of interesting layers. They venture onto the film's experiments with very different mentalities, each highly intelligent and respectful of the other:
SPOILER Trier's experiment is as one out to be perfidious, perverse and arrogant. Out to make his opponent commit a mess. In the face of this, Leth shows impressive courage, patience and creative muscle. Trier realizes these things towards the film's end, which adds complexity to the peculiar exercise that ends with a narration read by Leth, allegedly wholly written by Trier.

Related posts:

Lars Von Trier: 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 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)
Dogville (2003) - Von Trier's implacable, truly unique drama
Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Dancer in the Dark (2000) or, Selma the Immigrant
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 portion of Leth's solution to the second obstruction here in a scene shot in Mumbai's red light district, with Spanish subtitles

Cost: 8 mil. DKK, equal to approximately 1.28 mil. $
Box office: At least 279k $
= Uncertain - but looks like a mega-flop
[The Five Obstructions premiered 11 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 90 minutes. The film opened in 1 theater in North America to an 8k $ first weekend. It peaked in 3 theaters and at #68 there, grossing 165k $ (59.1 % of the listed gross). The film was screened at 17 film festivals. 12,636 paid admission to see it in Leth and Trier's native Denmark. The film was nominated for a European Film Award. It was later, around 2010, rumored that Trier was going to be collaborating with master filmmaker Martin Scorsese about another similar documentary, in which he would challenge Scorsese to remake his masterpiece Taxi Driver (1976), but this never came to fruition. Leth returned with documentary short Aarhus (2005), another short called Most of the Time/Det Meste af Tiden (2009) before he returned theatrically with The Erotic Man/Det Erotiske Menneske (2010). Trier returned with Manderlay (2005). The Five Obstructions is certified fresh at 88 % with a 7.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Five Obstructions?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

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.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

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.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

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5/08/2018

The Five Obstructions/De Fem Benspænd (2003, documentary) or, Lars von Trier vs. Jørgen Leth

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