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Mood:
- CleverContemplativeOffbeatStylizedWittyTense
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Plot:
- Human NatureIntrospectionFilmmakingArtists and ShowbizMind and SoulArtist's LifeTeachers and StudentsShowbiz more...
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Genres:
- ForeignDocumentaryExperimental
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Praise:
- Critically Acclaimed
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Style:
- Film in Film
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Based on:
- Remake
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Attitudes:
- SeriousRealisticSlow
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The Five Obstructions, 2003
Danish, English, French, Spanish
Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, France
Profile of The Five Obstructions
The mood of The Five Obstructions is clever, contemplative, and offbeat. The plot centers around filmmaking, introspection, and human nature. It is a foreign and documentary movie. Stylistically, The Five Obstructions is a film in a film and is experimental. In approach, it is serious and realistic. The pacing is slow. The Five Obstructions is a remake. The movie is known for being critically acclaimed.
Summary of The Five Obstructions
With The Five Obstructions, notoriously mischievous director Lars von Trier performs yet another cinematic experiment. This time around, the Danish prankster tries to outwit his mentor, director Jorgen Leth, forcing him to remake his classic 1967 short, "The Perfect Human," five different times, with a series of increasingly outlandish guidelines. His goal is to break down the abnormally stable Leth, teaching him a valuable life lesson in the process. In the first film, von Trier sends Leth to Cuba and sets his first seemingly insurmountable rule: make a film that consists of shots that are no longer than twelve frames at a time. Miraculously, Leth uses his forced limitations to create a beautiful work, which obviously irks von Trier. Next up, von Trier challenges Leth to return to Bombay--which he calls the "most wretched place on Earth"--in order to confront some demons from his past. Once again, the clever mentor rises to the challenge. Frustrated and sensing defeat, von Trier's next challenge is deceptively simple: Leth must remake his film with no limitations whatsoever. He travels to Brussels and succeeds once again. After a foray into animation, von Trier creates the final obstruction, a film in which von Trier admits defeat and pays tribute to his mentor. The Five Obstructions is a thoughtful, entertaining meditation on the filmmaking process.
Details
| Language: | Danish, English, French, Spanish |
| Country: | Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, France |
| Release date: | January 2004 |
| Runtime: | 90 min |
Cast and Crew
as Himself - Obstructor / Lars von Trier
as Speaker / Himself - Director / Speaker / The Perfect Man / Speaker / Speaker / Jørgen Leth / The Perfect Human / Speaker
as The Perfect Man - from 'Det perfekte menneske' 1967
as The Perfect Woman, from 'Det perfekte menneske' 1967) (archive footage) (as Maiken Algren)
Photos
Clips
Critics Reviews
Rolling Stone
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- by: Peter Travers
Variety
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- by: David Stratton
