Politics as Form in Lars von Trier: A Post-Brechtian Reading

Cover
Contents
Preface and acknowledgments
Notes to the text
Introduction: Looking back
1 From Brechtian to Post-Brechtian Cinema: Lars von Trier and the Post-Brechtian
Brecht on the film medium
Brecht’s critique of the institution of cinema
What is post-Brechtian cinema?
Locating von Trier in the post-Brechtian
Challenging the cinematic institution
Artaudian cruelty as Verfremdungseffekt
2 Historical Fragments in the Europa Trilogy
Europe is painful
Beyond the Fabel
Audiovisual plenitude: The individual in crisis
Dialectical images
Literalization of the medium: The essay as film form
History as transition
On film voyeurism
3 The Primacy of the Apparatus
Back to the 1970s? Dogme 95: Realism and anti-illusionism
Technology and productivity
The Idiots—“Performant” function and performative camera
Interrupting the narrative
Performance as form
Performing out of character
Reflections on the primacy of the apparatus: Post-Dogme developments, rules, and Automavision
4 Dogville and Manderlay: Experimentation and Dialectical Negations
Representation as an experiment
Experimentation as pedagogy
Theatricality: Attitudes in space
Performative contradictions
Narrative openness as negative dialectics
Epilogue: Dialogue with the “Dissensual” Past
Appendix
Interview with Lars von Trier
Interview with Jørgen Leth
Manifestoes
Manifesto 1
Manifesto 2
Manifesto 3—I Confess!
The dimension manifesto
The Dogme 95 manifesto and the vow of chastity
Selma’s manifesto
The Dogumentary manifesto
Bibliography
Index