Criterion Catch-Up 2, Part 5: Antichrist

Alright, after all those stoic documentaries and artsy dramas, I think it's time for something wilder.  How about a crazy psychodrama horror from Lars von Trier?  Criterion certainly has a release to fit that bill: 2009's Antichrist, starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg (Nymphomaniac, Melancholia).  There's a lot being explored in this one, with thoughtful writing, candid performances, gorgeous photography contrasted with some seriously gnarly images.

Whether or not this is a horror film depends how literally you take what you see on the screen.  I don't think Trier thinks witchcraft is real, naturally, but I also don't think he's trying to convince us they are within the world of his film either (in the sense that Tom Holland presumably doesn't actually believe in vampires, but within the context of Fright Night, he's telling us they're very real and just waiting to be invited into your home).  Here, He and She discuss the way women were perceived and persecuted as witches, and ultimately stumble into that perspective.

In the audio commentary, Trier and a film critic talk about how Antichrist deals with both the psychology of the characters and this mythology.  But I think our critic misses the central, unifying factor that the mythology was created, and recurs throughout different cultures, because it's born of our psychology.  So they aren't two separate poles on a spectrum which the film slides along in between.  The characters descend into the mythology because of our seemingly universal psychological nature.  To some degree, we're wired to slip into these belief systems.  ...Still, if you're after horror mood, gore and imagery, you'll certainly find some of the very best in Antichrist.

As to charges of misogyny, well, he obviously identifies with the female character here, not the male.  I mean, in one sense, this film is about how therapists are arrogant hypocrites who think they can understand and fix people whose issues are actually quite beyond them.  I mean, I certainly wouldn't presume to absolve Trier of whatever personal issues people accuse him of having.  But just in terms of this film, I think you're off base if you believe any finger he's pointing is directed at anyone but himself.

Now, it took a little while for Antichrist to hit DVD in the USA.  Maybe the controversy around the film had a hand in that, but that tends to be the way it goes for Trier's films.  So I imported Chelsea Cinema's 2010 DVD from the UK, which was a pretty loaded special edition.  Then, later in the year, Criterion announced their US edition, which I (eventually) wound up double-dipping for so I could own the film in HD.

2010 Chelsea DVD top; 2010 Criterion BD bottom.

So we're clearly using the same master, struck from the same digital DCP here.  Both transfers are 2.35; the color timing and everything else is identical.  The sole difference is the step up to HD.  This film was shot in 4k (meaning a UHD upgrade in the future wouldn't be an unreasonable hope), so there is definitely room to improve on the DVD.  There's no film grain to spy, but fine detail, like the hairs around Gainsbourg's face above, are distinct on the blu-ray, where they just kinda blur together into a common fuzz on Chelsea's release.  This is an often elegantly photographed film, with extreme close-ups and slow motion, asking you to really take in the image, making it a key film to see in high definition.

Chelsea's DVD has a Dolby 5.1 track plus, surprisingly an Italian dub with Italian and Danish subtitles (that's right, no English subs).  Criterion bumps the same 5.1 mix up to DTS-HD and replaces the two foreign sub tracks with optional English ones.

Chelsea's DVD was pretty packed with special features.  There's the commentary I mentioned earlier.  Trier always does great, insightful commentaries, and this is no exception.  And it has nine 'making of' featurettes, which you could essentially take as one feature-length (roughly 80 minutes) documentary broken up into nine chapters.  It also has on-camera interviews with both stars, Dafoe and Gainsbourg, and the trailer.  Criterion preserves all of that, and also conducts three additional on-camera interviews with Trier, Gainsburg (this one's almost 45 minutes) and Dafoe.  They also add two additional trailers and a 32-page booklet with an essay by British film scholar Ian Christie.

I mentioned it earlier, but I honestly don't see Criterion swinging back around to issue this on UHD (prove me wrong!).  Curzon might be more likely in the UK, but I don't hold out a lot of hope, and they probably wouldn't be able to license Criterion's exclusive interviews even if they did.  So if you don't already have this, you really can't miss.  Unless, of course, you just absolutely hate this movie.