All the speculation is now over – Lars von Trier’s “The House That Jack Built” is going to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
The serial killer film, starring Matt Dillon and Uma Thurman, was long thought to be von Trier’s ticket back to the world of Cannes, after being “banned” from the festival in 2011, but when the film wasn’t announced as part of Cannes lineup, people were confused. Now, after all the back and forth, the film was officially announced as an Out-of-Competition selection at this year’s prestigious event.
And to celebrate the announcement, we got our first teaser for the film.
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In the teaser, you don’t get much in the way of footage. At a short 30-second runtime, all that you see is a hint at what is clearly going to be Matt Dillon’s most menacing role yet. The way that Dillon’s character looks at the camera and grins, while blood is spattered all over his face and clothes is enough to sell anyone on this film. All signs point to “The House That Jack Built” being one of the most violent and mean films that the controversial filmmaker has ever had. Rumors are floating around that compare this to one of his more polarizing films, “Antichrist.”
While “The House That Jack Built” isn’t going to be part of the official competition, the fact that it was accepted by Cannes at all is a win for von Trier. The director was officially banned from the competition after some comments made it seem like he was sympathetic to Nazis and Hitler, specifically. Clearly, this isn’t a good look for the French festival, and in 2011, von Trier was told he wasn’t welcome anymore.
However, Cannes officials were quick to say that his banishment wasn’t a lifetime sentence, and perhaps he could return. Now, it seems like the 7-year wait is all that was needed, and all eyes are back on von Trier and his new film.