Those who find Danish auteur Lars Von Trier (Dancer in the Dark, Dogville) to be an insufferable, egomaniacal pain-in-the-ass will undoubtedly find much to loath about The Five Obstructions, a fascinating (and oft-times infuriating) documentary in which Von Trier instructs filmmaker Jorgen Leth to remake his abstract short film The Perfect Human (which Von Trier puzzlingly finds to be “perfect”) five different times under varying sets of difficult circumstances. The point of this cruel experiment is twofold – to torture the mild-mannered Leth (not unlike how Von Trier reportedly likes to torment his own actors and actresses), and to help Leth transcend his safe, comfortable artistic space. Von Trier’s conditions range from demanding that no shot by more than 12 frames long to making Leth shoot in the most miserable place he can imagine (a Bombay ghetto, apparently) and forcing him to recreate his short as a cartoon, but much of the film’s tension comes from Leth’s regular attempts to slyly circumnavigate Von Trier’s rules. That Leth’s new films seem to improve upon his original confirms The Five Obstructions’ position that artistic inspiration frequently flourishes not in an environment of complete freedom but, rather, one of sometimes-severe restrictions, but it also subtly stands as Von Trier’s “told you so” rebuke to critics who decry his harsh work methods.
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