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why does roger ebert consider lvt anti-american?

posted 17 years ago by kasparhauser44
21 replies | jump to latest

he claimed dogville was anti-american propaganda and panned the film bitterly in 2003. are his sentimnts in any way related to zentropa which depict american occupation soldiers gunning down chidlren (albeit assassins)? has lars von trier ever explicitly condemned the united states? is he "anti-american?" ebert's review of zentropa, also, is condescending in its sparse praise. what's ebert's deal with lars von trier? lars von trier is easily one of the five best living directors in the world, but ebert refuses to admit it.

[–] Suomi_perkele 17 years ago

Lars von Trier is a great director and not only because his anti-American way of life. He has said several times that he hates America but haven't ever been there because his fear of flight. So the way that he shows America (and Americans) in his movies can't be quite accurate but it's only how he sees the thing (without ever being in America). Most European people don't like America or Americans and surely everyone hates Bush.
Damn, it's hard to put this up correctly, when you don't know the language fluently...

They were gonna make me a major for this, and I wasn't even in their f uckin' army anymore.

[–] strawdawg 16 years ago

You don't need to visit America to criticize it.

give me a stage where this bull here can rage and though I can fight I'd much rather recite.

[–] xifz 16 years ago

you're sure don't, as we export enough of our culture to give anyone a wide range of issues to think about. but, as we all know, criticism is not authority, and a judgment or an opinion is not the last word, so does'nt the fact that he's never been here make his opinion questionable?

"I can't tell if I'm on foot or on horseback." -Bill Jacks

[–] strawdawg 16 years ago

does'nt the fact that he's never been here make his opinion questionable?

Absolutely. Anyone's opinion is questionable. But it has nothing to do with him not visiting the US. It doesn't make it right or wrong, whether he's been here or not. You can disagree with him if you want, but he still has the right to criticize.

give me a stage where this bull here can rage and though I can fight I'd much rather recite.

[–] lastyear11 15 years ago

It's interesting that he choose to deal with U.S. occupation forces only. My parents came from Germany and used to talk about their fear of the Russian troops there and how they were treated better by the British and Americans. In the Russian sector rape was a continuous threat and the Russian government did not prosecute Russian soldiers for it.

[–] chilone 11 years ago

You don't need to visit any place to criticize it!

I don't love her.. She kicked me in the face!!

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] HarveyManfredSinJohn 10 years ago

Before you can criticize someone's culture enough to rightfully "hate" it, you'd better be intimately acquainted with it.

I've never been to Iran, so I guess I can't criticise the intensely homophobic, misogynist, anti-Semitic aspects of its culture.

[–] cthulhulurks 12 years ago

What exactly is an anti-american way of life? I see he's grown quite fat, what he secretely dines in Macdonalds?

my vote history:
http://www.imdb.com/user/ur13767631/ratings

[–] JudgeX 11 years ago

You know, the world would be a lot better of a place if people would stop being "anti" an entire other culture that they've never taken part in.

I understand taking issues with human rights violations and a lack of women's suffrage and so on and so forth... but at a certain point, if you haven't lived here, you don't really have a good basis for any opinion at all relating to the people who do. You don't "really" know what it's like here based on TV, Movies, and the news.

That kid that lives down the street from you that had a birthday party that your kid went to? He lives here, too... so calm down and quit trying to pretend that we're different enough to "hate" each other's cultures.

[–] Tyler_Durden_pt 17 years ago

The problem people like Ebert have with von Trier is not his criticizing America. It's his way of doing it: he actually touches a deep nerve, while many other films, american ones for instance, also criticize the US, but they do it in such a way nobody takes them seriously, so that's ok and they're good "movies".

Last film watched:
Mr. Brooks by whoever - 6/10

[–] yeahyeahcandy 15 years ago

i agree completely.

i always find it strange that many of my fellows americans have trouble with someone like von trier criticizing america when he made this film (as i see it) partly in response to all the noirs and war films of the '40s and '50s made in hollywood that show nazi's, soviets, or japanese soldiers as nothing more then evil goons with no human qualities.

an above poster inadvertently made the argument that you need to visit america to critique it. i wonder how this person feels about all the american culture that does not heed this advice.

i think von trier may hate america for its imperialism, but i also think there is much to be found in american culture that he in fact probably likes. after all, von trier said 'europa' was his Tarkovsky meets Hitchcock. it's not hard to see this parallel if you are to mix 'stalker' with 'strangers on a train'.

[–] ebright99 15 years ago

Many of Von Trier's films say negative things about American institutions, some of it is right-on and troubling, some of it is off base, and some of it is juvenile. This has garnered him a reputation for being anti-American.

But when you look at his whole body of work, he really is anti-everybody. He is a very cynical filmmaker. Europa is most savagely anti-German, taking a position similar to Fassbinder by slamming contemporary Germany (and by extension all of continental Europe) as still harboring fascist tendencies and ideology. Europe is plagued and dieing because WWII killed its soul.

Breaking the Waves is anti-Scottish, anti-Protestant.
Kingdom saves its most cruel jokes for the Swedes.

He's a cruel filmmaker, he doesn't satirize; he lashes out brutally. That's his style. His targets are all institutions (America, EU, religion, medicine).

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[–] charlielpd 15 years ago

I'm gonna play Devil's Advocate and say that while I didn't really think of him as anti-american so much as a critic of human nature, I thought that the fact that he made films explicitly about the US without ever going at least tacky, especially because coming from North America something like Dogville, to me, plays out like a Brecht play made out of cliches. I still liked it though.

[–] onepotato2 15 years ago

I thought that the fact that he made films explicitly about the US without ever going at least tacky, especially because coming from North America something like Dogville, to me, plays out like a Brecht play made out of cliches.

by charlielpd
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Sounds like you have a lot of baggage that unknowing directors have to navigate to earn your attention.

I dislike Dancer in the Dark and Breaking the Waves intensely, but not because the director hurt my feelings about the U.S.
Zentropa is fricking amazing.

[–] domrodrig 15 years ago

"Lars von Trier has made some of the best films of recent years ("Europa," "Breaking the Waves," "Dancer in the Dark"). He was a guiding force behind the Dogme movement, which has generated much heat and some light. He takes chances, and that's rare in a world where most films seem to have been banged together out of other films. But at some point his fierce determination has to confront the reality that a film does not exist without an audience. "Dogville" can be defended and even praised on pure ideological grounds, but most moviegoers, even those who are sophisticated and have open minds, are going to find it a very dry and unsatisfactory slog through conceits masquerading as ideas."
- Roger Ebert

I wouldn't say Ebert "refuses to admit" that Von Trier has merit as a filmmaker. I think that the above quotation is very fair, whether you dig Dogville or not.

Explode, dogs, if you are not happy.

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[–] jjjones-64062 8 years ago

LVT should commit suicide on camera.