Dogville

"You want the curtains opened? You don't need them anymore."

"I think we should open them. I think it's appropriate."

"Tom: Bingo Grace! Bingo! I have to tell you, your illustration beat the hell out of mine. It's frightening, yes, but so clear. Do you think that I can allow myself to use it as an inspiration in my writing? Grace: Goodbye, Tom."

"Some things you have to do yourself."

"Whether Grace left Dogville or on the contrary, Dogville had left her (and the world in general) is a question of a more artful nature that few would benefit from by asking and even fewer by providing an answer. And nor indeed will it be answered here."

"Shocks, galvanizes, and exhilarates."

"Von Trier's contempt for humanity is becoming harder to hide with stylistic flourish. He doesn't even try here, and his arrogance is topped only by his misanthropy."

"Singular and unforgettable — the work of a brilliant crackpot."

"This examination of selfishness, xenophobia and the human ability to rationalize acts of horror may have audience members squirming not with outrage but recognition."

"Optimistic viewers may debate how much of a handle he has on human nature. But he's clearly got a handle on his own views, and presents them in a way that is impossible to ignore or discount completely. You can loathe Dogville because it represents a concession to the basest ideas of human greed and cruelty, but you can't deny that it makes those ideas feel frighteningly real."

"Dogville isn't for everyone, but there's some intellectually stimulating conversation fodder for those with the patience to navigate the film's rough terrain."

"Brilliant and infuriating, wise and naïve, outrageous yet unforgettable."

"Continuing his stubborn, aesthetically pathbreaking ways, Lars von Trier has produced, in Dogville, a masterpiece that is nearly unwatchable."

"Yes, all the rumours are true. Dogville is vile, hilarious... and essential."

"Lars von Trier is probably a genius. This doesn't stop him from being a jerk."

"The film equivalent of an early 80s West Coast punk rock demo: low budget, unfocused fury from deep within that not everyone will agree with, but with undeniable primal power."

"Rich with meaning or a sublime prank, Dogville gets to you."

"A simple tale, told so well while being so revealing. There are many reasons why it shouldn't work, but because it does, it feels magical."

"Imagine if Jesus Christ came to die for our sins only to discover we weren’t worth the trouble."

"Uncompromising filmmaking that's both artistic and powerfully entertaining."

"It's a pity that the political point-scoring at Cannes, admittedly fired up by Von Trier's provocateur stance, has diminished the perception of Dogvilles artistic worth. Dogville is daunting, non-naturalistic and bold. Von Trier has denied it was intended as an antithesis of Billy Wilder's Our Town; his concerns in the film are bigger than America-bashing. It's a moral parable for our times."

"Dogville is a love-it-or- hate-it experience, but one that will fill a large space in any viewer's imagination."

"For a movie with such bold visual designs and high-flown rhetorical ambitions, it seems almost reactionary to say that it works because the performances are so good."

"We realize we just sat watching a movie for 3 hours that's a little pretentious but didn't really mind — that says something."

"What Lars von Trier has achieved is avant-gardism for idiots. From beginning to end, Dogville is obtuse and dislikable, a whimsical joke wearing cement shoes."

"Von Trier supplies enough of an intellectual apparatus to give Dogville the veneer of art, but at its core this is a hollow, mean-spirited work."

"Dogville can be defended and even praised on pure ideological grounds, but most moviegoers, even those who are sophisticated and have open minds, are going to find it a very dry and unsatisfactory slog through conceits masquerading as ideas."

"It is a valiant but risky attempt and, truth be told, it is only partially successful."

"The acting is ice cold. The dialogue is lethargic. And if we're going to sit through any movie that's 177 minutes, it better have some Hobbits in it. There are no Hobbits here, so stay home."

"For courage and sheer audacity in form and plot, no filmmaker on the world stage currently matches Lars von Trier... Make of the provocation what you will, but don't miss this completely unique and extraordinary movie by one of the world's most adventurous directors on top of his game."

"You don't so much enjoy watching it as you simply appreciate the genius that went into its creation."

"Has rarely been far from my mind in the 10 months following Cannes, during which time it has grown only richer, deeper and more complex than I initially estimated."

"This brilliantly acted film is a highly stylized, surprisingly successful experiment that sits somewhere between theater and cinema."

"The daring, artistic brilliance of Dogville far outshines any negative interpretation we may have of the work. It's to be praised for inspiring varying interpretations and generating debate."

"An experience that's both grueling and, in its way, glorious."

"This acerbic "illustration" of a small town’s curious notions of entitlement unspools as a Christian allegory by way of Mark Twain or Dr. Seuss."

"Slow-moving but engrossing, it feels shorter, and any reservations you may have about the unorthodox approach are washed away by its unexpected and purgative ending."

"Sarcastic humor, inventive staging and a brutal story combine to give Dogville the force of a bonfire, incendiary and beautiful."

"For passion, originality, and sustained chutzpah, this austere allegory of failed Christian charity and Old Testament payback is von Trier's strongest movie — a masterpiece, in fact."

"While you watch the movie, it can seem ridiculously long-winded... But once it's over, its characters' miserable faces remain etched in your memory, and its cynical message lingers."

"Brutally masterful allegory."

"Dogville is as deeply insightful as it is deeply disturbing, a movie that will challenge you intellectually and punish you emotionally. Put as succinctly as possible, Dogville is a "holy fuck!" movie going experience... The first great film of '04."

"Damn if I didn't completely forget to hate Dogville, and if I wasn't, three hours later, completely blown out of my little mind and right into the screening room next door.... You wanna see what our town is like? Here it is, in all its mean, petty, horrible smallness. It's not particularly about American meanness or pettiness or smallness, though some have accused von Trier of being anti-American — it's about human meanness, etc. The only thing "anti" about Dogville is that it might be called an anti-epic — an ambitious movie with a big cast and a marathon runtime that's about how small and insular and selfish people can be, about the miserable depths to which human beings can sink in their cruelty to others. Nationality's got nothing to do with it, though the ability to wield power over other human beings might, and so there might be some pertinent application to America as a whole right now. But everyone will — or should — recognize the universality of this, the worst side of humanity."

"Aesthetically sparse and thematically audacious, the searing work of a genuine provocateur"

"Dogville is no different from von Trier's earlier parables of vulnerability and brutality. And like those works, it is the staggering, infuriating work of a visionary filmmaker."

"It would take a true knucklehead not to understand that Dogville isn’t so much Anywhere, U.S.A., as anywhere. It really is a masterpiece — von Trier’s first, as it happens."

"I hate it, yet I'm fascinated by the magnitude of the ambition and the failure to realize it."

"Who but von Trier could make such a film? Who else would dare?"

"Without a doubt one of the most brilliant films I have had the chance to experience."

"This is a seriously important film and a huge achievement."