The Five Obstructions
Picture: C-
Sound: C+ Extras: C Main Program: C-
Lars Von Trier and Dogme have been a deadly combination
wearing away at cinema as we know it.
It is a painful task to sit through anything he is associated with and
even after leaving the confines of Dogme, he has been as pretentious as
ever. Except for his Nicole Kidman
collaborations, which will be addressed at a later date, his non-cinema has no
real value except for a narrow audience easily impressed. The Five Obstructions (2003) has
director Jorgen Leth remaking his 1967 short film The Perfect Human.
Unfortunately, he will remake it five times! Furthermore, he will do this with Von Trier
co-directing. In what is the most
obnoxious ego trip since Wim Wenders kept annoying Nicholas Ray, the original
film is redone (on videotape mind you) as if it were in some kind of
Pat-Boone-doing-a-Hip-Hop-remix project.
My apologies to Mr. Boone, who would have certainly done a better job if
taught Final Cut Pro.
The original film is here and is a fine short, but this
“expansion” is a disaster, making a joke of the original (as everything Von
Trier is involved in deteriorates into) and being an amazing waste of
time. Leth got suckered into this
project and you feel bad for him the more you watch, as bad as you will feel
yourself if you get to the end of this torture test. Get this only to see the short.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is bad, shot on
tape, with serious detail and color trouble throughout. The Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo with
limited Pro Logic surrounds only spread the sound from the taping around. The added music does not help things
either. Extras include the original
short letterboxed at 1.66 X 1 and looking far better than this, trailers for
this and other Koch DVDs and a commentary by Leth that did not save anything.
Von Trier is an obstruction stronger than any of the
distractions or pseudo-intellectualizations this film offers could hope to
match. There is one word to describe The
Five Obstructions and his guiding force in it: YAWN!
- Nicholas Sheffo
