Fantasia (1940) - Disney's classical music experimentation, an animated feature unlike any other

♥♥♥♥♥

Beloved Mickey Mouse, with cherubs, a flying horse, intense darkness and a prominent foreign last name stand out on this original poster for Disney's Fantasia

Fantasia is Disney's 3rd feature film, a grand, experimental expedition that combines animation with classic music; 8 sequences with each their piece of music.

The film has no less than 25 story and writer's credits, (too many to list here), and the following 12 directors handled the various segments: Debuting James Algar (The Wind in the Willows (1949, short)), debuting Samuel Armstrong (Dumbo (1941)), debuting Ford Beebe Jr. (Challenge to Be Free (1975)), Norman Ferguson (The Three Caballeros (1944)), David Hand (Pluto's Judgement Day (1935, short)), debuting Jim Handley (Pinocchio (1940, assistant director), T. Hee (Pinocchio), Wilfred Jackson (Cinderella (1950)), Hamilton Luske (Alice in Wonderland (1951)), Bill Roberts (Mickey and the Beanstalk (1947, short)), debuting Paul Satterfield (Bambi (1942)) and Ben Sharpsteen (Polar Trappers (1938, short)), all working under the ultimate leadership of the film's champion and father Walt Disney.
Some of the finest classical music ever made (conductor Leopold Stokowski) plays to more or less abstract animations; of the orchestra, lines and circles, Mickey Mouse, - who was reestablished as the iconic animated Disney character that he is with Fantasia, - grotesque gods, animals, ghosts etc.
Fantasia is Disney's fantastical gift to us, his audiences past, present and future, which is a playful time with musicality, movement and expressions. It is an enchanting and beautiful animation, (if a bit long at times.)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 2.28 mil. $
Box office: 76.4 mil. $ - North America only
= Mega-hit (returned more than 33.50 times its cost)
[Fantasia premiered 13 November (New York) and runs 126 minutes (several shorter cuts exist). Development began in 1936 with Disney's intent to reestablish Mickey Mouse with a film that used classical music actively and in a new way, and his meeting and cooperation with the enthusiastic conductor Stokowski was instrumental for the creation of the film. The Disney company, far from the established media giant of today, went financially out on a limb to create the very costly and risky endeavor, which among other things revolutionized cinema sound, presenting the first stereophonic sound experience for audiences. Developing this took approximately 1/5th of the film's total cost. The film originally played successfully in North and South America as a roadshow engagement with elevated prices, but as the new sound system had to be installed at every venue, - and because WWII shut the film out of most of Europe for its first several years, - it would not be until 1969 that Fantasia began to turn a profit, as college kids embraced the film for its psychedelic qualities. The film was re-released several times; the 1990 reissue grossed 25 mil. $ domestically. It also became a highly profitable home video title for Disney; one estimation puts its profits from this venue at 120 mil. $! Fantasia won 2 honorary Oscars in 1942. It also won a National Board of Review award. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Disney had envisioned Fantasia as a film that would be shown in a new version every few years, which didn't happen, but a sequel was released with flop Fantasia 2000 (1999). Disney returned with Dumbo (1941). Fantasia is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8.6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Fantasia?

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?

Dogville (2003) - Von Trier's implacable, truly unique drama

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Ensemble of the Year: Nicole Kidman, Ben Gazzara, James Caan, Lauren Bacall, Harriet Andersson, Chloë Sevigny, Patricia Clarkson, Paul Bettany, Stellen Skarsgård, Zeljko Ivanek + Best Epic of the Year + Best Experimental Movie of the Year

Nicole Kidman as Grace and the residents of Lars Von Trier's Dogville on its poster

QUICK REVIEW:

A lady in distress, on the run from mobsters, appears in the small Colorado mountain town of Dogville in America in the 1930s, where the town's aspiring writer Tom gets the townspeople to show mercy and take in the stranger.

Dogville is the 8th feature from Danish master filmmaker Lars Von Trier (Breaking the Waves (1996)), who both wrote and directed it. Half of the awe-inspiring work that is Dogville is Trier's disturbing script, (which Quentin Tarantino has said would have won the Pulitzer Prize, if it had been written for the stage instead of the screen), and the film's unique stage concept; the film takes place in a small town which is not physically created but merely marked by chalk lines on a dark stage. The other half is the combined force of an ensemble that could be among the decade's best:
Ben Gazzara (Anatomy of a Murder (1959)), Nicole Kidman (The Hours (2002)), James Caan (Misery (1990)), Lauren Bacall (The Big Sleep (1946)), Harriet Andersson (Cries & Whispers/Viskningar och Rop (1972)), Chloë Sevigny (Boys Don't Cry (1999)), Patricia Clarkson (Six Feet Under (2002-05)), Paul Bettany (The Tourist (2010)), Stellan Skarsgård (Breaking the Waves) and Zeljko Ivanek (Oz (1997-03)) are all simply grand.
The ending is strong and hard to come to terms with, which is not meant as a criticism.
The only reservation I do have regarding Dogville is that it has too much narration. For a film as long as this, it simply becomes too dense.

 Related reviews:

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 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 [UPDATED II] 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Dancer in the Dark (2000) or, Selma the Immigrant  

Lars Von Trier's Dogville as seen from above

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: 16.6 mil. $
= Big flop
[Dogville premiered May 19 (Cannes) and runs 178 minutes. It is the first of a proposed America: Land of Opportunities trilogy, which also includes Manderlay (2005) and Washington, which hasn't been made. The film was shot digitally on a stage in Trollhättan, Sweden and was a co-production between no less than 9 European countries. Trier has since revealed that he wrote the script for Dogville in a 12 day drug binge, although the truthfulness of that statement shouldn't be taken for granted. More or less outrageous stories about the film's production abounds, and some can be read here. Dogville competed in Cannes but lost to Gus Van Sant's masterpiece Elephant. Dogville had a limited run in North America, where it opened #41 with 88k $ and grossed 1.5 mil. $ (9 % of the total gross). Its biggest markets were Italy with 3.2 mil. $ (19.3 %), France with 2.1 mil. $ (12.7 %) and Germany with 2 mil. $ (12 %). In Trier's native Denmark, the film made a fine 1.2 mil. $ (7.2 %). Mostly American critics were offended by the fact that the film is obviously made by a filmmaker who is critical of the US, but others have hailed it as a great film. It is included on several top 10 lists of the year, and several critics and filmmakers also believe it to be among the best films ever made. It was nominated for 4 European Film Awards, winning Best Cinematography for Anthony Dod Mantle. It won Best Danish Film at the Bodil Awards (Danish critics awards), and Best Costume Design and Screenplay at the Robert Awards (Danish Oscar). Dogville is fresh at 70 % with a 6.9 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Dogville?