Sightlines · reception
How Dogville was received
2003 · Lars von Trier · Dogville on Sightlines
The arc
Booed by some and branded anti-American by US critics at Cannes 2003 — where its Palme d'Or snub was itself a scandal — it's since climbed to become perhaps von Trier's most acclaimed film, a fixture on best-of-the-2000s lists.
What’s debated
The forever fight: searing moral parable or smug misanthropy — with a side debate over whether the anti-Americanism charge was ever fair coming from a director who'd never set foot in the country.
Its footprint
The chalk-outline town on a bare black soundstage is one of the most instantly recognizable images in 2000s cinema, endlessly referenced and parodied, and the David Bowie 'Young Americans' end credits remain a much-argued-over mic drop.
Where it stands
A cinephile rite of passage — the three-hour Brechtian gauntlet that's become a Letterboxd favorite and the standard 'start here' answer for von Trier.
Did you know? Von Trier's fear of flying means he has never visited the United States — his entire 'USA: Land of Opportunities' trilogy about America was shot in a warehouse studio in Trollhättan, Sweden.
Named by the director
- Bertolt Brecht — Von Trier said the film grew out of hearing 'Pirate Jenny' from Brecht and Weill's Threepenny Opera, and the bare-stage alienation style is his declared Brechtian debt.
- The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1982) — He cited the televised Royal Shakespeare Company stage production as inspiration for telling a story on a nearly bare set.