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Please note: this 6 hour course with Mary Wild has already taken place, tickets are for recording access only. You will receive your individual access details at the bottom of your Eventbrite confirmation email. You will have access for 28 days from purchase.
This course was held over three 2-hour sessions in June 2020.
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Lars von Trier’s reputation precedes him; he’s been called a trickster, a troll, a provocateur, and a punk. His cinema sparks debate and controversy around the world, representing the darkest recesses of the human soul. He has been a darling of art film circles, and infamously declared “persona non grata” by the Cannes Film Festival. This livestream series is dedicated to the Danish director’s penchant for film trilogies, deconstructing the Golden Heart, Depression and USA: Land of Opportunities triptychs from a psychoanalytic perspective to gain a deeper understanding of his singularly beautiful vision that always prompts impassioned opinions. “I know that I cannot be with a person for three hours without saying at least ten things that would kill me.”Lars von Trier
Session 1 – GOLDEN HEART
Von Trier first achieved international success with his Golden Heart trilogy, which portrays naive heroines who preserve their ‘hearts of gold’ despite the misfortunes and adversity they face. Breaking the Waves (1996), The Idiots (1998) and Dancer in the Dark (2000) are sometimes associated with the Dogme 95 movement, but only The Idiots is a certified Dogme 95 film.
Session 2 – DEPRESSION
Antichrist (2009), Melancholia (2011) and Nymphomaniac (2013) emerge from the genres of horror, disaster movies and erotic cinema respectively to form the Depression trilogy, driven by complex female characters battling grief, despair, and isolation. Von Trier utilises the creative process, capturing raw depictions of mental illness, to work through his own struggle with clinical depression. He once said, “I’m afraid of everything in life, except filmmaking.”
Session 3 – USA: LAND OF OPPORTUNITIES
Von Trier is fascinated by American culture and society, despite having never travelled to the United States due to a phobia of flying. He investigates the so-called Land of Opportunities in Dogville (2003), Manderlay (2005) and The House That Jack Built (2018) – exploring the volatility of group dynamics, discontents of civilization, and all manner of human brutality. Lars von Trier believes that the Golden Age of democracy is over – his cinema is a useful resource in critiquing the current era of bombastic political posturing.
Advanced viewing is optional; brief scenes and bespoke video montages will be shown.
PROJECTIONS is psychoanalysis for film interpretation. PROJECTIONS empowers film spectators to express subjective associations they consider to be meaningful. Expertise in psychoanalytic theory is not necessary – the only prerequisite is the desire to enter and inhabit the imaginary world of film, which is itself a psychoanalytic act. MARY WILD, a Freudian cinephile from Montreal, is the creator of PROJECTIONS.
