Part of A Celebration of Nicole Kidman
Shot on a soundstage with chalk mark subbing for actual walls, Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier’s Brechtian lament to a country he’s never visited is a formally audacious journey through the heart of small-town America via its chief protagonist Grace Mulligan (Nicole Kidman) who, in hiding from her criminal father (James Caan), is taken in by the residents of a Colorado town. But as a search party grows nearer and the perceived threat over the town grows larger, the ennui grows and the citizens of Dogville begin to show their teeth. In challenging America’s vision of itself as a haven for asylum seekers and fostering of community, von Trier — ever cinema’s sneering court jester — utilizes a stacked cast to torch such notions. An exasperating tome or a standing masterpiece of the Aughts, DOGVILLE is ready for its reevaluation. Co-starring Paul Bettany, Lauren Bacall, Patricia Clarkson, Philip Baker Hall, Chloë Sevigny and Stellan Skarsgård, among others.
“There is much to love in this nervy fable about Grace (Kidman), a beautiful fugitive in a fur-collared coat who hides out in Dogville on the run from gangsters — beginning with the star, who once again has followed her instincts to work with a director who will challenge her. However battering the collaboration may have been (at a collegial Cannes press conference, Kidman made no secret of a showdown during production), the resulting performance is exhilarating.” —Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly (Mar 25, 2004) “Kidman gives the most emotionally bruising performance of her career in DOGVILLE, a movie that never met a cliche it didn't stomp on.” —Peter Travers, Rolling Stone “DOGVILLE raises issues that are perhaps more vital in today's world than at any other point in history, then presents them in an intellectually stimulating style. And so by all means argue that von Trier's latest is theatre and not cinema. But at least acknowledge that DOGVILLE, in a didactic and politicised stage tradition, is a great play that shows a deep understanding of human beings as they really are.” —Alan Morrison, Empire Magazine
