Another Superior Import (x2): Lars von Trier's Dogville

In 2003, Lars von Trier's latest film, Dogville, was released in theaters and later DVD. Except in the USA, where it didn't arrive until late 2004. But hey, it was worth the wait, because that time allowed the studio to gather... fewer extras? A lot fewer? What label put this... oh. Lions Gate. Well, it's Trier, so thankfully there's always a Nordisk option!

Update 2/4/16 - 11/18/20: And even better, now there's a blu-ray option!  But you're still gonna want to hang onto that Nordisk DVD...

a telltale shot from the Nordisk extras.

Dogville is often misidentified as being another of Trier's Dogme95 films, meaning one of the films that adheres to the coda to not use opticals, un-synced sound, artificial lighting, camera mounts, props that didn't originate on the filming location, etc. You can read the complete "vow of chastity" here. That's because this film has a unique, minimalist style where all of the drama takes place on a single stage with the locations simply written in what looks like chalk. But this film's actually about as far in opposition to the dogme rules as you can get. It's a highly technical film shot with an elaborate rig of 156 cameras mounted to the ceiling of a fully green-screened soundstage, cameras on cranes, CGI, sound effects, masterfully artificial light, etc.

It's got to be the most artificial film to establish the fact that artifice isn't necessary to make a compelling film. Nicole Kidman has the showy lead, but the drama's really elevated by the incredible ensemble cast, including Lauren Bacall, Stellan Skarsgard, Paul Bettany, Ben Gazzara, James Caan, Bergman regular Harriet Andersson, Chloe Sevigny, Jeremy Davies, Philip Baker Hall, John Hurt as the narrator and everybody's favorite: Udo Kier. Who needs fancy backdrops when these guys are on screen? It's one hell of a gripping story about the residents of a small town who wind up with far too much power over an individual person, Kidman, who's on the run from mobsters and relying on them to keep her hidden. It's written by Trier, so as you can imagine, the psychology veers into some very dark and surprisingly honest territory.

Roger Ebert famously accused this film of being anti-American, as it's set here and the characters get pretty unlikable, but I find it very in keeping with the kinds of stories he regularly tells set everywhere else; and I the fact that he took it so personally really got in the way of appreciating what he was seeing. In fact, frankly, I think his review's rather silly. I know the anti-American reputation spread a lot further than that one review, but I'd really encourage my fellow countrymen not to let that reactionary stance put you off seeing this film for yourself.

So, I went with the Nordisk 2-disc set straight from Denmark, but this film was released in plenty of countries, and they almost all far outshine the US DVD from Lions Gate. Korea, France, Holland... Although looking it up on dvdcompare just now, it seems the UK disc came up quite short, too. Even the 2010 re-release comes up just as light. So Brits, you're going to have to import, too, I'm afraid.

But that's in regards to extras.  For nearly ever, Dogville has been DVD-only, so that's been the primary distinction.  But in 2019, Germany's Concorde released the film on blu - first exclusive to their 5-disc 'Lars von Trier Collection', and then separately a few months later - making it the easily definitive version, at least in some respects.

1) 2003 Nordisk DVD; 2) 2004 LG DVD; 3) 2019 Concorde BD.

Some of the differences are more subtle than others, but none of these discs are truly alike.  Lions Gate's DVD is matted to 2.34:1, Nordisk's is slightly wider at 2.36:1 and Concorde's is most accurate at 2.39:1.  Neither DVD is interlaced or anything, and they're seemingly working from the same master (which makes sense, since it was a new release at the time), but Nordisk's image is decidedly sharper, while Lions Gate is softer and smoother, missing a bit of detail. That might not be such a criticism, though, when you look at them up close...

2004 Lions Gate DVD left; 2003 Nordisk DVD right.

...And we see that so much of that extra crispness is edge enhancement halos and artifacting. It looks like Nordisk created the haloing by trying to sharpen the image, whereas Lions Gate when the opposite direction and smoothed away all the compression smudging, giving us a softer image (and it still has the haloing, it's just subtler). So there's not much genuine detail that we're losing. Luckily, we no longer have to worry our pretty little heads about it, because the new dual-layered blu is sharper and much more detailed than either option, with none of the compression noise or haloing.

The color timing is certainly different, too, clearly leaning into the sepia.  It's definitely different, but just watching this on my TV, it doesn't feel wrong necessarily, and the it's not so strong that it overrides blues and other colors (except in a few scenes, where the coloring is meant to get more extreme) as much as these two shots suggest in isolation.  Without Lars sitting here beside me, I can't authoritatively decree which is correct, so despite the difference being so obvious in these shots, I don't see a clear winner.  Except, of course, for the HD being naturally superior in every other aspect.

1) 2003 Nordisk DVD; 2) 2019 Concorde BD.

One thing to note about Concorde's blu, though, is that the title cards that break the film into chapters are in German on their disc.  Yes, they're in English on the Nordisk DVD just like the US release.  But, fortunately, the Concorde has a subtitle track dedicated to just subtitling the cards into English without displaying anything during the spoken dialogue.

All three discs offer the English language 5.1 mixes, but the Nordisk also has a 2.0 stereo track, plus a French 5.1 mix besides.  Concorde's blu bumps the English audio up to DTS-HD and also includes German dubs, both 5.1 DTS-HD and 2.0 Dolby Digital.  The US disc has English and Spanish subs, while Nordisk has English, French and Danish subs. Concorde's blu only has German subs, except for the English title card subs mentioned above.

The US DVD has one real, substantial extra: an enlightening select commentary by Lars and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle. "Select" means that they only give an audio commentary for select portions of the film, not the entire run. But it adds up to a good sized chunk of it, and frankly I'd rather not have a longer commentary if they'd be stammering and filling the rest of the dead air with nothing really to say. It's a very good commentary, and it doesn't take the full two and a half hours to watch; great. But that and the trailer is all Lions Gate's got.

It's all Nordisk's got, too... on disc 1. Yes, it's got the same commentary and trailer, and what's more, it's got a whole second DVD of terrific extras. It's got an excellent, comprehensive one-hour documentary called Dogville Confessions. A featurette titled Trier, Kidman & Cannes, which looks like it was made for Danish television, and a six minute test film Trier made before shooting Dogville. Then there are on-camera interviews with Nicole Kidman, Stellan Skarsgard, assistant director Anders Refn, producer Vibeke Windelov and two with Trier.

After that, there's the "Confessions," where cast and crew talk and vent to a camera that was set up in a photo booth on set. Pretty much all of the cast contribute to that. There's a short featurette on the computer effects and the technical way the film was shot and pieced together. And finally, there's footage of three press conference interviews, including one where we see Trier getting Kidman to promise in front of everyone that she would absolutely return to star in Manderlay. And if all of that wasn't enough, Trier and Mantle, along with effects supervisor Peter Hjorth, also provide audio commentary for some of the features, including the test film and the visual effects featurette. It's a hell of a comprehensive package with a ton of interesting stuff.

Concorde? Unfortunately, they mirror Lions Gate in that they just have the commentary and the trailer.  One small bonus, though, is that the cover art is reversible, so you can hide the giant ratings icon.

So Concorde's blu is the way to go for watching the film itself. And yes, it's all region. But even if you're not a "big extras guy" and tend to skip a lot of the special features, I'd recommend the Nordisk or a similar import as a companion piece. Because this bonus content here is really good and substantial, more in line with the Lord of the Ring appendixes than the usual little promotional featurette.

Also Importing Lars von Trier's Manderlay

Ever since I covered Lars von Trier's Dogville, I've been meaning to swing back and take a look at Manderlay. It's kind of the same situation, where there is no blu-ray, only DVDs, and the US DVD is missing a bunch of features from the previously released native Denmark set from Zentropa and Nordisk Films. And Zentropa beat them by a large margin of almost a year. I remember people were buzzing about Manderlay opening up in theaters soon, and I was surprised because I already had the DVD at home. But is this import DVD truly 100% superior? Should you track it down and replace your IFC Films DVD?

Manderlay is the second part of his "Land of Opportunities" trilogy (Dogville being the first), and it's interesting to note that both of Trier's narrative trilogies to date - the other being The Kingdom - have only made it to the second chapter. Fortunately, unlike The Kingdom I & II, these are more distinct stand-alone stories, so you don't feel like you're left at a dangling cliffhanger by the end of this film. But the connection to the first film is strong. It's presented in the same style, with all the actors placed on a mostly blank stage with only the props essential to the story and locations marked on the floor. And while Nicole Kidman has been replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard (who isn't quite as compelling in the part, but still more than adequately lives up to the film's dramatic challenges), the lead character persists, having left the town of Dogville and arrived on the estate of Manderlay.  Lauren Bacall, Chloë Sevigny, Jeremy Davies and Udo Kier are all back, and John Hurt once again narrates.

If Dogville offended some Americans, Manderlay doubled-down, this time tackling race issues and slavery, and not necessarily in the most politically correct way. Leaving Dogville, Howard and her gangster family drive into Manderlay and stop to take a rest at what they discover to be a plantation where slavery exists despite the film taking place in the 1930s, long after it had been abolished in this country. Howard is appalled and decides to stay with her lawyer and a few of her family's gunmen long enough to set things right at Manderlay. But obviously things don't fall into place as smoothly as she'd imagined, and we delve into commentary on cultures imposing their way of life on other cultures (i.e. spreading Democracy), the contemporary state of African Americans being in some ways worse than slavery, and of course all the wild layers of interpersonal drama that you can expect in a Trier film.

We've got some great additions to the cast this time around, including Danny Glover, Isaach de Bankolé and Willem DaFoe. And while reactions to this film weren't quite as strong as the previous, because the look and style of the film wasn't so new and innovative, I think that actually puts us in a better place to appreciate both films. Now we're left in a position to appreciate the film on its narrative and other qualities, as opposed to its novelty value. And fortunately, it's a pretty smart and engaging film underneath its unusual presentation.

2006 IFC DVD on top; 2005 Zentropa DVD on the bottom.

These transfers look pretty dang similar. Both are anamorphic widescreen images, although IFC's is a smidgen more open, at 2.32:1, giving us a sliver extra vertical information. Although Zentropa's framing is probably the more accurate composition. The main difference, though, is that IFC's DVD is a hair brighter and redder, and Zentropa's is a touch smoother and more yellow. Whether that smoothness is a pro or a con, though, is a tough call, because it's not faithful grain that we're getting on the IFC disc, since this film was shot digitally. So is Zentropa better for having less digital noise, or is it too scrubbed? I'm inclined to say the former, because they both still have digital artifacting and haloing, so it's nothing good that we're losing. And the difference is pretty minimal, anyway, to the point that you'd only notice it in direct close-up comparisons like this anyway. It's basically just like the differences between the two Dogville discs, except they're more subtle and minimal here. Basically, for SD transfers, they're both fine and would rate basically the same grade on a scorecard.

Both discs offer 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks, though only Zentropa also offers a 5.1 DTS mix. On the other hand, only the US disc offers English subtitles, whereas Zentropa has optional Swedish and Danish subs.

Oh, and did I refer to Zentropa's release as a "set" earlier? Yeah, that's because, unlike IFC's release, theirs is a 2-disc set, with an entire second disc devoted to additional special features. And the US DVD has bupkis. Bub. Kis. At least the US DVD of Dogville had the commentary, but not Manderlay. We didn't even get the trailer.

And there is a commentary. Lars von Trier and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle jump onto the Zentropa DVD for a great forthcoming and irreverent discussion, that drifts from the technical to anecdotes with the cast and themes behind the story. You get that, brief interviews with Bryce Dallas Howard, Isaach de Bankolé, Danny Glover and Willem Dafoe, plus, yes, the trailer, all on disc 1. Again, the US DVD has nothing.

And disc 1 is just the beginning! Open up the case for the Zentropa set and staring you in the face is a second disc cheerfully labeled "ADDED VALUE." And I'll certainly go along with that, because this disc is packed. First we get two documentaries, which combined add up to feature length: The Road to Manderlay, a traditional but in-depth 'making of,' and The Cannes Experience: Manderlay, which is pretty self-explanatory. Then there's an excellent featurette showcasing the complex shooting method they used to film this picture using cameras in arrays. There's another featurette on the set design (uniquely important, of course, in the case of Dogville and Manderlay), and a short silly one about actor Jeremy Davies running around fetching coffee for everybody on set.

And don't get up yet, there's plenty more. There are short, on-camera interviews with Danny Glover (not the same one as on disc 1), Willem Dafoe (also different from disc 1), Lauren Bacall, Joseph Mydell, Anthony Dod Mantle and producer Vibeke Windelov, plus a long one (23 minutes) with Trier himself. Then there's a half-hour Danish television piece on Manderlay, which is essentially one giant sit-down interview between Trier and their host. And finally, there's a collection of three filmed press conferences for the film, one with Trier, one with Howard, and one with Bankole, Glover and DaFoe all together, which add up to about 50 minutes of additional interviews. There is so much here, you are not going to want to attempt it in a single evening.

Manderlay was shot with HD cameras, so a blu-ray would be nice to see sometime in the future. But there's nothing on the horizon so far, and I imagine this title's pretty low on anyone's list of priorities. After all, if the studio considered this a high profile title, they would've bothered to at least include the extras that were already created and released for this film. So we'll have to make due with DVDs, but we don't have to make do with a boring, plain old barebones American DVD. The Danish set is the very definition of a fully loaded special edition, and the differences between the two transfers are so subtle you have to push yourself to pick a side. So unless you need English subtitles, there's really no reason to hang onto the cheap native disc. And even then, I'd recommend double-dipping.

Better To Import: Melancholia, Plus Filmbyen (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

Just about every Lars von Trier film will make for an interesting DVD comparison, since he tends to come out with so many varied editions all around the world. 2011's Melancholia is probably actually one of the tamer ones. But on the other hand, it's a great example of cases where it's better to import than settle for the domestic US release. It may not be one of the most extreme cases, but it's at least one of the most clear-cut. ...Or is it?

Melancholia stars the underrated Kristen Dunst as Justine, a newlywed bride who suffers from such crushing depression, it physically manifests itself as a giant planet on a collision course with the Earth, creating a looming deadline for the entire human race. Of course, Dunst isn't alone; she's supported by an excellent cast, including Charlotte Gainsbourg, Charlotte Rampling, Stellan Skarsgard, John Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland and Udo Kier. In fact, you could argue that Gainsbourg shares leading role duty, as halfway through the film, a title card appears, "Part Two: Claire," and the focus shifts to her character, Justine's sister. It's only really in this second half where everyone starts to acknowledge their impending doom, and the film becomes a terribly powerful and emotionally realistic, even while the central conceit is distinctly science fiction and metaphorical. Death is looming for us all, and we all have to decide how and why to go on with the finer details of our lives.

This movie is a real slow burn, and hopefully you're going in expecting a meditation on emotion rather than a sci-fi thriller. And even then it's not perfect; Trier seems to be showing off stylistically at points, at the expense of effective storytelling. For example, he makes references to other films (Solaris is one I spotted) that don't seem to serve much purpose but to wink at viewers who recognize it. It seems pretty widely accepted that the cinematography, performances and technique of this film are all top notch. But it's extremely divisive when it comes to relating to the story and characters. As a person deep in the throes of depression, Justine becomes very difficult to love, constantly making drastically selfish, destructive choices. You're either going to recognize that and relate or be frustrated to no end that you're being asked to identify with a lead character who's so conventionally and extremely unlikable. Just look how stringently those who reject this film do so - to me, that's a good indicator that a film is worth seeing.  heh heh

So, since Melancholia came out in 2011, it was a new release when it hit DVD and blu-ray, eliminating most of the transfer-related concerns we get with catalog titles. It's a safe bet the film will look and sound as it should on whichever release you pick up. It first arrived from Nordisk at the end of 2011, and reached the rest of the world, including the USA, Canada and France, in 2012. Since I couldn't wait, I got the Danish Nordisk blu; but it turns out it's better that I didn't wait, because the US version from Magnolia came up a little short. Actually, the UK's Artificial Eye disc would've been the best choice of all, but we'll get into all of that. I've got both the US DVD and blu-ray here, along with the Nordisk blu to compare. And then we'll get into the extras which really make all the difference.

Magnolia's 2012 DVD on top; Magnolia's 2012 blu middle; Nordisk's 2011 blu bottom.

So far, so good, right? The film's 2.35:1 framing is preserved identically on all three discs. Before buying it, I'd read a few reports that the Nordisk disc was 1080i and interlaced, but thankfully this wasn't the case. Both discs are dual-layered. Except for the DVD being softer and more compressed, as a standard definition image has to be, right? And both blus have lossless English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio (even the DVD is 5.1), plus optional English subs. It's a tie. Oh but wait, there is one little thing. The Nordisk is a little brighter, with Magnolia's disc having the truer blacks. You probably wouldn't notice it just watching one disc after the other, but now that I've got them side by side like this, you spot it right away. It's not major, but it complicates things. Now we have to make a decision.

Because when it comes to extras, it's an easy choice to turn down the US disc. Not that it's barebones. Pretty much every release of Melancholia around the world features four short but interesting featurettes: About Melancholia, The Visual Style, About the Universe and VFX Featurette. The titles change slightly on different releases, but it's the same four. They feature interviews with Trier, Dunst and others, and they're all in the 5-11 minute range. They do feature clips from the film, but they're still a little deeper than your average promotional featurette, and therefore worth the watch.

Then the Magnolia disc has one unique extra: HDNet Look at Melancholia. This is a little five-minute piece, which viewed by itself is alright. But once you realize it's just made up of clips from the other four featurettes, re-edited into more of a promo piece, it's entirely skippable. That, the trailer, and a couple bonus trailers wrap up the Magnolia disc. Oh, and the DVD and blu feature the same extras, just to be clear.

Now Nordisk has all that stuff, plus one big additional feature... which actually, just about every international version has except the US disc, an audio commentary by Trier and film professor Peter Schepelern. And it's a really good track. Trier is very forthcoming and honest, even pointing out criticisms of his own work. And Schepelern mainly acts as a moderator, but has some good thoughts on the film from an outsider's perspective and isn't afraid to challenge Lars and disagree with him. Even knowledgeable fans will learn a lot. In fact, I found out I only caught about half the Solaris references - ha ha!

But now we come to the Artificial Eye blu, which I don't own, but have researched. First of all, it does have the truer blacks of the Magnolia disc (check out blu-ray.com's review and see for yourself). And it also has all the all the extras of the US and Danish discs... plus more! Most notably, it has an almost hour long documentary called Filmbyen, named after and about Trier's film studio. Buuuut, if you're a really dedicated fan, there's actually a better way to see Filmbyen: it's own DVD from La Luna Productions.

Filmbyen, full-title: Filmbyen: La Nouvelle Mecque du Cinema? (The New Mecca of Cinema? in English), is a 2007 French documentary by Pablo Trehin-Marcot about the Filmbyen, the filmmaking city Lars co-owned with Peter Aalbek Jensen. It mostly consists of talking heads, as its DVD cover suggests, with Trier, Jensen and tons of the other filmmakers of all departments talking about the studio's history and what it's like making films there. One thing I was pleased to discover as I watched it is that it wasn't made in-house by Filmbyen's people as a promotional thing. I mean, it's hardly an indictment or condemnation, it's fairly enthusiastic and fawning, but it's still an objective documentary. It shows you around, there are some good anecdotes (and even full frontal nudity!) and it's pretty neat for fans interested in talking shop. Frankly however, casual viewers will probably find it boring.

This isn't just a standard def DVD, it's a film that was clearly shot on an old, standard definition camcorder, and despite being 1.68:1, given a non-anamorphic transfer to boot. It does not look impressive. However, it's presented in SD on the Artificial Eye blu-ray, too, because there's nothing more you can really do with this footage. But the DVD from La Luna comes with over an hour's worth of extras, which are unique to the DVD, and actually add quite a lot of value.

First up is Filming Filmbyen, the 'making of' for the documentary. It focuses primarily on a first-person interview with the director. The actual documentary gives us a much more detailed history and look at the workings of the studio, but this 'making of' actually gives us more of the feeling of actually being there, with more first person footage of the director exploring the various buildings. We also find out that, despite Trier being one of the talking heads of the film just like any other; he actually refused to give an interview for a long time, and getting him on camera was like a mini-Roger & Me situation. It also updates us on what happened to Filmbyen after the doc.

Yes, that's a real tank in their parking lot.

Then there's the complete, unedited interview with Lars. It offers us a few extra insights, and we see why Lars was reluctant to give the interview; he's really uncomfortable being unscripted on camera. And finally, there's another short film called One Day With Peter. Bits of this short are actually used in Filmbyen, but here it's its own distinct film, where the filmmaker follows Jensen around for an entire day, from him singing with his staff to sleeping in his private sauna. It's also full-screen, so at least there's not a problem with it being non-anamorphic.

None of those extras are on the Artificial Eye disc. So if you're interested, you have to buy the La Luna DVD. But, like I said, it's all pretty far down the rabbit hole... meaning most viewers who aren't deeply engrossed by extras could probably skip the whole thing. And the Artificial Eye disc does have one other set of extras - three short interviews with Trier, Dunst and Gainsbourg, extending the ones we saw in the previous featurettes - that none of the other discs have. They're very short, about five minutes each, and some of is repeating what we already heard, but still. More is better than less.

So ultimately, yes, even though I haven't got it, I'd say the Artificial Eye blu-ray from the UK is the best release of Melancholia. But the main thing you don't want to miss out on is the commentary, which is on the German, Danish, British... pretty much every country's blu except the USA. Personally, I'm content with my Nordisk/ La Luna DVD combo, even though AE's is admittedly even better (so long as you still also get the Filmbyen DVD, because those exclusive extras handily trump AE's exclusive extras), it's at least close enough. But if you only have the US disc, I would upgrade. I don't think that's close enough.