Dark places

Antichrist
18, Nationwide

As you probably already know, Antichrist has been called ‘disgusting’ and ‘depraved’ and ‘the most offensive film ever made’, although I don’t personally get what all the fuss is about. Yes, there is extreme violence. Yes, there is explicit, penetrative sex. Yes, there is a genital mutilation scene involving rusty scissors. But, come on, doesn’t this happen in homes up and down the country all the time? Just the other day, in fact, I found my teenage son lounging on the sofa — as usual! — while mutilating his genitals — as usual! — and I had to say to him, ‘Can’t you ever think of anything else to do? What do you think we bought that PlayStation for? To gather dust? Now, I’m off to have explicit, penetrative sex with your father before hammering a bolt though his shin, and I expect those scissors to be gone by the time I get back.’ Or is it just our home?

OK, joking aside, is it ‘depraved’ and so on? To give you some context, it’s written and directed by Lars von Trier who also made Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark and Dogville; films which have always been compelling and intriguing if not especially likeable. According to my press notes, von Trier wrote this while in the midst of a terrible depression, although I think I might have guessed as much. It opens with a couple having wild sex as their toddler son accidentally falls to his death through an open window. This, actually, is rather stunningly done. It’s all in slo-mo black and white as opera plays in the background and falling snow drifts in at the window, like confetti. It’s as if a perfume ad had gone grotesquely wrong.