It would be easy to consign “The Five Obstructions” to the film-festival-only circuit, and indeed this Danish movie premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival earlier this year.
Probably the film’s main audience is movie mavens, for sure. But non-movie buffs with a keen interest in psychology should find it compelling, too.
At the center of “The Five Obstructions” is the genius-crackpot director Lars von Trier, the godfather of Denmark’s ongoing cinematic resurgence. Still under 50, von Trier has compiled a provocative body of work (including “Breaking the Waves” and the recent “Dogville”), and he’s also the mischief-maker behind the stripped-down Dogma movement in filmmaking.
“The Five Obstructions” began with von Trier’s high regard for a 1967 short film, “The Perfect Human,” made by Jorgen Leth a former teacher of von Trier.
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“The Five Obstructions”
Psychological prizefight: How Danish cinema guru Lars von Trier challenged his former mentor Jorgen Leth to remake a classic 1967 short film, but with wicked restrictions dictated by von Trier. The shorts are all right, but the real interest is in the cagey relationship between the two men. (Danish, English subtitles.) Rated: Not rated; probably PG-13 for nudity.
Now showing: Varsity.
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So von Trier challenges his old mentor to re-make “The Perfect Human,” but with severe restrictions that would be chosen (sometimes completely whimsically) by von Trier. Oh, and Leth has to remake it five times, with a different set of restrictions each time.
This challenge is at the center of “The Five Obstructions.” We see the conversations between the two directors, we watch Leth’s shooting process, and we see the completed shorts.
The first challenge sets the tone. Von Trier informs Leth that the first remake must contain no shot longer than 12 frames. That’s about a half a second, an almost impossible task. Oh, and the film must be made in Cuba. Why? Because Leth casually mentioned he’d never been there.
The sequences of Leth on location for his various challenges (he goes to India, too, and makes an animated film) are interesting. But the real meat is the cagey relationship between student and former teacher, their roles now dramatically reversed.
The grinning, slit-eyed von Trier plays the part of evil sprite, pushing his elder to extremes (his avowed purpose is to shake Leth’s air of detachment from the world). Leth, blithe and charming, parries von Trier’s thrusts, but he does look panicked at times about what he’s gotten himself into.
Von Trier can come across as a puppetmaster, and a sadistic edge creeps into his manner. Yet by the time we reach the end, especially with a statement that von Trier asks Leth to read aloud, we may suspect that the puppetmaster’s strings are attached to his own back. This is a deconstruction not just of Leth’s original movie but also of von Trier’s own psyche.
The remakes are all right, but they are not the reason to see this movie. This is a psychological prizefighting match, in which one of the boxers is also the referee.
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