The Idiots (Dogme 2)
Written and Directed by Lars Von Trier
Based on socially rebellious ideals, a group of adults from various backgrounds and professions decide to live together in a large detached house in suburban Denmark. The group spend their time trying to find their ‘inner idiot’ by letting go of social constraint and ‘spassing out’ whenever they see fit.
The group organise trips to swimming pools, insulation material factories and local restaurants, where they dribble, strip, shout, fight and cause general disturbance amongst the ‘bourgeoisie’ middle class. The group share a rota to decide who acts as ‘minder’ when ‘the idiots’ go out and ‘spazz’ in public.
Glued together by documentary-esque interviews with individual group members, the plot follows ‘the idiots’ as they slowly fall out and drift apart after challenging each other’s dedication to their cause.
The film made me think about social perception and the presentation of the self in everyday life (to drop an Erving Goffman title). The idea of being able to act as ‘the idiots’ do in everyday situations would obviously be a troublesome affair. Is their behaviour that dissimilar from various recent prankster ‘comedy’ series on MTV? The fact that the characters in the film label their antics as ‘spazzing’, opens their beliefs (and the entire film) up for extreme condemnation and criticism, and that is what I liked about it most.
As utterly demented, critical and explicit as the film is, it’s the dialogue, on screen chemistry and absurd visuals that give the final production the drive it needs. The Idiots is indeed an utterly queer viewing experience and, although part of me enjoyed the craziness (I’m a little scared to deduce which part exactly), it is not the kind of film I will be able to return to time and time again for wholesome viewing. This film is an experiment.
The Idiots is the first Dogme95 film by Lars Von Trier, co-founder of the Dogme95 movement, and it is apparent while watching The Idiots that he has gone out of his way to make the rules in his manifesto abundantly clear. I repeat, this film is an experiment.
Copyright Daniel Emmerson 2008 all rights reserved
