Lars Von Trier's Dares You To Look At 3 New Clips From The Detested 'House That Jack Built'

What more is there to say about Lars von Trier’s “The House That Jack Built?” Going into this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the filmmaker made headlines for being invited back after a seven-year “ban” for comments that were deemed sympathetic to Hitler and Nazis. Rumors abound that Festival chief Thierry Fremaux had to lobby quite hard behind the scenes to get von Trier back at Cannes. And then, we finally got the premiere of the long-awaited serial killer film, and let’s just say the reception was less-than-ideal.

Most of us weren’t able to attend the highly controversial premiere of “The House That Jack Built.” Sadly, we’ll have to wait until later this year for IFC to release it in the US. However, to tide us over, we now have three clips from the film. And as you can see from the footage shown, Matt Dillon is playing Jack as a completely unhinged (to say the least) killer, as he deals with two potential victims and the poor guy behind the counter at the gun store.

Controversy aside, the footage seen definitely shows that Dillon is really acting up a storm in the film. This is a far cry from the guy who made audiences laugh in “There’s Something About Mary” or hit audiences in the feels with “The Outsiders.” This is a Matt Dillon that we haven’t seen before.

“The House That Jack Built” is written and directed by von Trier, and stars Dillon alongside Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Sofie Gråbøl, Riley Keough, and Jeremy Davies.

Here’s the official synopsis for the film:

USA in the 1970s. We follow the highly intelligent Jack through 5 incidents and are introduced to the murders that define Jack’s development as a serial killer. We experience the story from Jack’s point of view. He views each murder as an artwork in itself, even though his dysfunction gives him problems in the outside world. Despite the fact that the final and inevitable police intervention is drawing ever near (which both provokes and puts pressure on Jack) he is – contrary to all logic – set on taking greater and greater chances. The goal is the ultimate artwork: A collection of all his killings manifested in a House that he builds. Along the way we experience Jack’s descriptions of his personal condition, problems and thoughts through a recurring conversation with the unknown Verge – a grotesque mixture of sophistry mixed with an almost childlike self-pity and in-depth explanations of, for Jack, dangerous and difficult manoeuvres.