Danish director Lars von Trier screened his latest film “Antichrist,” which apparently was conceived during the director’s two-year struggle with severe depression, to less than enthusiastic responses from a few critics. Roger Ebert called the film “the most despairing film I’ve ever have seen,” and Tom McCarthy of Variety started off his review of the film with “Lars von Trier cuts a big fat art-film fart with ‘Antichrist.’…”
The negative response has been such that Von Trier was even booed at his press conference this afternoon prompting him to responded with over-the-top provacative statements. “It’s the hand of God,” Von Trier said of the film and continued on with the statement, “I am the best film director in the world. I’m not sure if God is the best God in the world.”
Is “Antichrist,” with its on-screen genitalia mutilation, the final sign of the eccentric Dane cracking up and going off the deep-end? Or despite his adamant denials is the sly-auteur playing a big, disgusting joke on the American movie-going audiences he so despises? He is a trickster and he does like to provoke. [THR]