The 'real' point

you are talking totally bollocks

No, I kinda think you're right.
I just had that film in a university class about von Trier and we all came to practically the same conclusion.
I mean- would that movie make any sense, then?


"Face-to-foot style, how do you like it?"
- Wimp Lo, Kung Pow

I am a high school English teacher, and I use The 5 Obstructions to teach writing to sophomores. I don't show the film or engage in the ideas with the students, but it always advises what I am doing. I think the movie shows brilliantly that obstructions are the key unlocking creativity. To say "Write a story" is to invite writers block. The writer will begin to look for his/her own obstructions. To provide the obstruction is to invite the writer to look at creative means around it.

For example, I start with a small assignment. Students write a generic response to a series of questions- What color are you, what animal are you, what time of day are you etc. The they brainstorm a list of active verbs and colorful adjectives. The final piece asks them to create metaphors by combining random verbs and adjectives with the initial questions. The results are startling.

Later, students move on a create longer pieces with more intricate obstructions. Write a poem from the opposite gender's pov without using the letter "T". It taps into a very deep, core creativity that think almost all human beings have.

Bravo to Jorgen Leth and Von Trier for putting this theory on display so brilliantly (whether intentionally or not) in their film.

A few writing samples from the metaphor assignment (these are everyday, run of the mill students):

I am a whisper floating around the quiet air waiting for someone to hear my voice.
I am a dull harp singing soft quiet tunes in the darkness of a room.
I am your blurred vision on a smoky night.
I am the ocean that wrestles with the shore.
I am the honest truth telling lies.
I am a breathy whisper blooming in your ear.
I am a thrown baseball searching for a glove.

"And with the cartoon. Both Leth and von Trier states that they hate cartoons. And looks what Leth made out of that! A beautiful poetic animation. Coincidence? I don't think so!"

You must not know anything about 'art.'


"It just seems to me that there is too much control, too much plot to this whole movie for there not to be a point beyond one director challenging another."

Plot? You do know this is a documentary, don't you? The term 'plot' means nothing in this context. Instead of waxing pseudo-intellectual crap, why don't you just read up on von Trier and see what his views on art and film are? This is a young(er) artist trying to push an old master out of his repose.

Skepticism can be useful, but only if one knows how to use it.

ps. You are talking total bollocks.

All I can say is Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth: both sneaky devils with hearts of gold.

It seems that everyone here is missing the point. von Trier is talking about authorship, we tend to think of the director as being an important figure even though filmmaking is always a combined input of many individuals who are essential to creating a film. This 90-minute documentary of The Five Obstructions is a light-hearted exercise for Leth and von Trier, which ultimately question this nature of authorship. The principal assumption here is that the director, rather than the scriptwriter, art director, cinematographer or producer, is the author of the film, and therefore is central to understanding particular films made by particular directors. The idea here is control, the freedom to control all the aspects of the film making process, so that the finished work is the director’s personal and artistic creation. The Five Obstructions is the remarkable result of von Trier’s quest of its author and consequently is the subject of his fundamental study about the core of humankind and ultimately cinema. What von Trier wants us to ask ourselves at the end of the film is, who created it?
-who is responsible for the five obstructions?
-who made the five obstructions?
-who made 'The Five Obstructions'?
As Lars von Trier came up with the idea, he is responsible for the five obstructions. Leth however, went to the locations and filmed the obstructions which would make him the creator of them. But who made the final result? who's name is above the title? i argue that it is a combined effort of these two directors, but the decision is yours.

Some interesting points in this thread. I think the movie works on several levels, but is in the first line about filmmaking itself. The film industry always sets limits and tells you what to do, like: take this actor, add a love story, explosions and so on. You are not free when making a film that has to be paid by a producer.

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They don't give you the leads, they don't give you the support, they don't give you dick. (Dave Moss)

The way it was explained to me is that von Trier studied under Leth and took some issue with him (he never gave time for individual meetings or something like that) and so, once von Trier was established as a maker, he contacted Leth and The Five Obstructions was a playful way of exacting revenge on his former teacher.