Sightlines · reception
How Antichrist was received
2009 · Lars von Trier · Antichrist on Sightlines
The arc
Booed and walked out of at Cannes 2009 — where an Ecumenical Jury even handed it a special 'anti-award' — it has since been reclaimed as the harrowing first chapter of von Trier's Depression Trilogy and a founding text of modern art-horror.
What’s debated
The forever-fight: is it a sincere scream from von Trier's depression or misogynist provocation dressed up as art — and is he trolling either way?
Its footprint
'Chaos reigns,' growled by a self-disemboweling fox, escaped the film entirely to become one of cinephile internet's most durable memes — quoted by people who've never dared watch the movie.
Where it stands
A rite-of-passage watch in the extreme-cinema canon — the von Trier that Letterboxd users log with a shaking-hands review and a badge of survival.
Did you know? At the Cannes premiere, Charlotte Gainsbourg won Best Actress even as the film was booed — and von Trier, needled at the press conference, declared himself 'the best film director in the world.'
Named by the director
- Andrei Tarkovsky — Von Trier dedicated Antichrist to Tarkovsky with an end-title card, citing him as the master whose imagery haunts the film — a dedication that drew derisive laughter at Cannes.