European Films

Lars von Trier is known as much for his provocative films as for his, shall we say, eccentric persona. The man who is afraid of flying (he famously drives to Cannes each year in his camper) is also a gifted filmmaker. In De fem benspænd (The Five Obstructions) we get to know him in close-up. The subject of this hybrid work is a total of five remakes of the short film Det perfekte menneske (The Perfect Human) from fellow Danish director Jørgen Leth, whom Trier considers to be his mentor. To make matters more interesting, all remakes are made by Leth himself and each remake has to be made taking into account some obstructions that von Trier thinks up for his mentor. A camera team follows von Trier and Leth as they go from remake to remake.

Thus it becomes hard to qualify De fem benspænd as any one genre, since it contains five complete shorts, behind-the-scenes footage and making of material of all five as well as footage from the original black and white film. The whole idea, according to von Trier, is to humanise what he considers a perfect work. In the process he hopes to humanise Leth as a filmmaker as well, though in practice what we learn from De fem benspænd is that Leth is still as innovative a filmmaker as he was in 1967 (when Det perfekte menneske was made) despite some obstinate obstructions thrown up by a stubborn von Trier.

 

For the first of the five obstructions, von Trier dictates Leth to film in Cuba (where he has never been, despite living next door in Haiti), to use shots that are composed of 12 images maximum (which is half a second of screen time) and to give answers to the questions raised in the original short film. While the task sees impossible, Leth answers von Trier with a daringly original remake of Det perfekte menneske, which for the occasion has been rebaptised El hombre perfecto. And on the cruelty goes; von Trier, staying firmly put in his office in Denmark (remember: he hates planes), sends Leth across the continents for his other remakes, imposing different rules every time. Leth, who lets the events befall him as if he could not care less, visits the capital of Europe, a dingy house of an animator in Texas and "the worst place on earth" all the while touching base every now and again both in Haiti and in Denmark.

 

Despite its wealth of material from different sources, including digital footage 35 mm cinematography, animation and 1967 archive footage, the result of the collaboration between the two Danes feels coherent at all times, even though their exact purpose is all but clear for most, if not the entire film. Leth seems to enjoy the style exercises and his musings about the 7th art are often startlingly insightful. Von Trier clearly loves his role as a wicked obstructer; his gleeful grimaces say as much about his persona as his morning ritual of washing his caviar down with shots of vodka. In fact, this unique work does humanise the two directors, but also shows that these two fallible humans are capable of making wonderful if not perfect cinematic works.

 

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