#Rise of the antichrist movie series#
Simmons provides a thoughtful, meticulous analysis in this slim 90-page volume, part of a series exploring classics of horror cinema in detail, which includes studies of Carrie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Suspiria. She encourages us to see Gainsbourg’s “She” as a female character of depth and complexity in a film that demands much more than knee-jerk reactions. Her reading accounts for von Trier’s most controversial film as one that actually takes a scalpel to patriarchy and misogyny itself. From Björk’s Selma in Dancer in the Dark (2000) to Nicole Kidman’s Grace in Dogville (2003), von Trier’s conception of femininity is often one that must be martyred or punished women with no agency or control of their own.Īmy Simmons, in her study of Antichrist for the Devil’s Advocates series, promotes an alternative view. We have, after all, witnessed other von Trier women in comparable states of mental and physical distress. With its scenes of abject sexual violence and the endless, harrowing emotional suffering endured by Charlotte Gainsbourg’s unnamed protagonist (simply referred to as “She” in the film’s credits), it certainly lends itself to this decisive response. Misogyny has been the most frequent accusation thrown at Lars von Trier’s Antichrist since its debut at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
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