Scene 6
Tear it up, and eat it!
I came back from the screening of “Dogville”, feeling the director didn’t have much success depressing me. But he did strike me with the continuation of thoughts and ponders upon one eternal thing (if any)—human nature and its unspeakable vulnerabilities. I wouldn’t think it’s inappropriate to compare this piece of art work (which, by the way, was a little too simple and thrifty to avoid its hypnosis side-effects) to its similar ancestors. Boule de suif by Guy de Maupassant, for example, was told on a similar basis but glorified from a shorter time span and consequentially higher intensities. But that short story ended with a question mark, leaving people with spacious possibilities of sequels. Xiu Xiu, or known for its Chinese name 天浴 (Heaven Bathing), was more entangled with its political settings and thus more pointedly designated as an impugn for dictation. But after all the introduction part of that movie, what is left contains one spot and two main characters, and a bunch of come-and-go people who should be credited for arousing the isolation, the fears and hatred. That, is perfectly incorporated in “Dogville”. And yet I still would like to say that Xiu Xiu, despite all its graphical and psychological disturbing, makes a more optimistic movie than the latter, simply because the script told the heroine to die on top of the mountain. She terminated her life in great despair and left the vicious world without a physical trace. At least she refused to be part of it, helplessness turned zero. While Grace in “Dogville” after the painful ambivalence (which was kind of single-sided, again because the one-set footage saved all the space for a could-have-been-better prologue), chose to commit a crime not necessarily unjustified but certainly as immoral as that of the others. This spreading and continuation of crime becomes an even more dreadful and haunting cleavage of human nature. And with the laughter from the theater the director himself must have grinned. Yes you people watching and laughing, and the ghost is right in the mirror in front of you.
The movie sure has artistic-bore moments, but the drama is clear and hot. And it paves way for some serious thinking, which could be useless, but could also make a difference.
I came back from the screening of “Dogville”, feeling the director didn’t have much success depressing me. But he did strike me with the continuation of thoughts and ponders upon one eternal thing (if any)—human nature and its unspeakable vulnerabilities. I wouldn’t think it’s inappropriate to compare this piece of art work (which, by the way, was a little too simple and thrifty to avoid its hypnosis side-effects) to its similar ancestors. Boule de suif by Guy de Maupassant, for example, was told on a similar basis but glorified from a shorter time span and consequentially higher intensities. But that short story ended with a question mark, leaving people with spacious possibilities of sequels. Xiu Xiu, or known for its Chinese name 天浴 (Heaven Bathing), was more entangled with its political settings and thus more pointedly designated as an impugn for dictation. But after all the introduction part of that movie, what is left contains one spot and two main characters, and a bunch of come-and-go people who should be credited for arousing the isolation, the fears and hatred. That, is perfectly incorporated in “Dogville”. And yet I still would like to say that Xiu Xiu, despite all its graphical and psychological disturbing, makes a more optimistic movie than the latter, simply because the script told the heroine to die on top of the mountain. She terminated her life in great despair and left the vicious world without a physical trace. At least she refused to be part of it, helplessness turned zero. While Grace in “Dogville” after the painful ambivalence (which was kind of single-sided, again because the one-set footage saved all the space for a could-have-been-better prologue), chose to commit a crime not necessarily unjustified but certainly as immoral as that of the others. This spreading and continuation of crime becomes an even more dreadful and haunting cleavage of human nature. And with the laughter from the theater the director himself must have grinned. Yes you people watching and laughing, and the ghost is right in the mirror in front of you.
The movie sure has artistic-bore moments, but the drama is clear and hot. And it paves way for some serious thinking, which could be useless, but could also make a difference.
posted by David | 12:19 AM
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