There can be but one response to this sad and confused world - a world so topsy-turvy that the likes of Hannah Montana can dominate the box office - and that response is violence and misogyny. That's arguably two responses, I know, but you get the point I'm trying to make and, no, it's not a reference to the date rape scene in Observe And Report. For now, set aside any thoughts you may have about Seth Rogen - other than maybe "What the hell were you thinking?" - and instead turn your thoughts to Lars Von Trier and Willem Dafoe.
Love him or hate him there's no denying that Von Trier - the man behind Dogville, Breaking The Waves and Dancer In The Dark - is one of the most influential and polarizing film makers in the world. He launched the international no-fi Dogme movement. He made Bjork so angry that she took off her own shirt and ate it. He spent entire days on the set of The Idiots in the nude. And he's also hard up for cash.
Art for art's sake doesn't pay so well, you see, and it's been a while since ol' Lars made a film that actually made money. This is why he sold the rights to his Danish horror miniseries The Kingdom to American television where it was rendered unwatchable by Stephen King. And this is also why he's putting aside his no-fi ways and returning both to a conventional style of film making - which he's rather good at - and his genre roots, with Antichrist.
The story is simple: Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg star as a married couple retreating to the woods to get over the death of their child. And while the film has been cloaked in secrecy throughout production, there are a good number of odd rumours floating around it. It's widely considered a lock to premiere at Cannes, for one thing. And word is that those who hate Von Trier's treatment of women will have plenty more ammo here. (I personally think those arguments miss the point of what he's actually doing, which is criticizing the society that treats women that way rather than endorsing said treatment, but that's another topic for another day.) But the weirdest rumors revolve around the animals that you see in the just-released trailer.
Back when they announced the cast for this thing people got a good chuckle over the fact that alongside the photos of the human stars Von Trier also released images of their animal co-stars: a deer, two crows and a fox. Oh, Lars, you're just wacky. But apparently he kind of means it and the animals play a very prominent role with some rumors floating that they actually speak and interact with the humans at different points. Something tells me he's not taking the Disney approach, though ... hit that trailer link and see for yourself.