The Idiots [1999] [DVD]

 

 

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Never one to shy from a bit of controversy, Danish director Lars Von Trier caused a storm in 1998 with The Idiots. Since then, he has started making American movies that seem almost misogynistic in it's attitudes to women. His films put their female protagonist through horrifying and gruelling psychological and physical abuse. But the controversy stirred up by The Idiots wasn't because of its portrayal of women, but its apparently sadistic mockery of the mentally disabled.

The film follows a bunch of young men and women, living together in a large house owned by the uncle of Stoffer (Jens Albinus), who spend their time pretending to be mentally ill and finding their 'inner idiot'. They pick up an apparently lost woman Karen (Bodil Jorgensen) at a restaurant and she joins them, equally fascinated and repulsed by their acts. As Karen searches for her inner idiot, the group continue to 'spas' (Danish equivalent of 'spaz') at various locations, seemingly for their own amusement. Stoffer is meant to be selling the house for his uncle, but since the group has settled their, he uses the group as a means to scare away any potential buyers. However, tensions start to develop in the group, mainly due to the increasingly aggressive and unpredictable behaviour of the unstable Stoffer.

It's difficult to work out who exactly Von Trier is poking fun at. It could be the group themselves, who claim to be anti-bourgeois and anti-middle class, yet seem to only use this claim when it frees them from responsibility. A member of the group, who has run away from his wife and his child, thinks about returning, only to describe the thought of pushing his child around in a pram as 'so middle class'. Or the film could be making fun of society's attitudes to the mentally disabled. When a potential buyer for the house is told by Stoffer that a house for the mentally ill has opened next door, the woman is clearly uncomfortable at the idea of them encroaching on their ideal middle class existence. When the group surrounds her, she panics and flees, most likely never to return.

It is not a film that lays out its purpose as clear as day. If there is a social message in the film at all is again unclear. What is clear is that The Idiots is a challenging, frustrating, funny, intelligent and extremely uncomfortable film. Von Trier's desire to be as controversial as possible has been evident in the majority of his films - the clitoris removal in Antichrist, the cold, brutal ending of Dancer In The Dark. I usually find annoying in a filmmaker (Gaspar Noe comes to mind, apart from his exceptional Irreversible), but Von Trier's ability to genuinely unsettle is the work of an extremely interesting and gifted filmmaker.

Although it breaks many of the rules, The Idiots is the second film in the Dogme '95 manifesto, started by Thomas Vinterberg's Festen, using natural light, hand-held cameras, and avoiding anything implicating genre or superficial action. The film also depicts apparently un-simulated hardcore sex, in a highly controversial scene in which the group take place in a gang-bang while in their 'idiot' character-mode.

A love-it-or-hate-it film, but I found it truly original and fascinating.

(...)

It is a shame that more publicity has been made about the Dogma 95 experiment than about the products they rendered. So try looking beyond the Dogma stamp. The Idiots is an amazing film built upon a complex story and reveals elements of the human condition rarely revealed on the big screen. Von Trier is an expert at creating shocking cinema. Not only is it shocking because it is filmed differently than almost any other film you've seen, but it is also shocking because it is filled with nudity, vulgarity and controversial themes. It makes fun of mentally retarded adults under the guise of a serious social experiment. It has violent fights, an orgy scene... Despite all this, try looking beyond the shocking elements. What you will find beyond all the things that many critics chose not to look past is an emotionally powerful portrayal of a group of individuals searching for a way in which to view their identity in a way that is devoid of all social artifices. It is a story of a people trying to actively live out an idea that there is something essential about their being which can be reached through an extreme modification of their behaviour. It becomes increasingly clear throughout the narrative that these people are running away from who they are rather than finding something essential. The emotional tension that is being withheld slowly rises to the surface and culminates in one of the most devastating scenes I've ever witnessed. It is moving not just because it deals with death, but because it illuminates in an exaggerated fashion the way in which people in society today hide from themselves and subsequently reveal themselves to be frail and insecure. Of course, all of the elements that go into making this such a shocking film are inextricably incorporated into the emotional power created. You need to watch this film while withholding moral judgements and consider the issues that are being so skilfully portrayed in a way no other director was able to do before Dogma 95.

It's easy to confuse the adjectives "controversial" and "thought-provoking". The difference is that the former is a concept manufactured by the media and the latter is the raison d'etre of film-makers like Lars von Trier. Ostensibly this is a film about a group of people pretending to have cerebral palsy. But obviously that's not what it's really about; and I think that only those without the inclination to seek one of many possible meanings would label it "controversial" on this basis. It's classic knee-jerk.

The Idiots is a challenging indictment of middle-class hypocrisies and an enthralling deconstruction of the bohemian ideal.

Early in the film the question keeps being asked: Why is what we're doing wrong? "Because you're poking fun." But who really comes out of the narrative looking idiotic? The stuttering patio-owner, fearful of a potential insurance claim? Josephine's father, who tears his weeping daughter away from her friends? Rarely it's The Idiots themselves, whose motivations are subtly sketched out as Stoffer's commune collapses around him.

Stoffer himself is "anti-middle-class", suggesting he's simply afraid of growing up. There's the doctor, constantly writing notes, who may be treating the whole affair as some kind of social experiment. There's the marketing man, using the commune as an escape from the superficiality of his truly idiotic occupation. And there's Karen, our silent observer, whose own reasons for falling in love with The Idiots comes to flatten us in the final reel. This leads to a gripe: certain characters remain nothing MORE than sketches. I would have liked to see von Trier eschew some of the social confrontation scenes in favour of further narrative episodes.

Some scenes - such as the door-to-door Christmas decoration sale, or the house-buyers' tour - may come across as crass and cruel, but they're fascinating insofar as they present the hypocrisies that lie in the heart of us all.

Perhaps the impact of The Idiots' public "spassing" is softened somewhat in these post-Borat/Bruno days. But von Trier is a trickier customer than Baron Cohen. As such, we laugh aloud, but we're never quite sure of who we're laughing - or, indeed, if we should be laughing at all. Watch this, and then watch how all other films seem quaint by comparison.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Idiotic
For many a month I have been waiting to see Lars von Trier's Dogme 95 debut feature `The Idiots'. For me, von Trier has been responsible for some of the most intelligent, thought... Read more

Published 18 months ago by Mr. D. Gumble

1.0 out of 5 stars emperors new clothes
I read a review of this dvd in a magazine, then the reviews on amazon, and thought it sounded interesting. Read more

Published on 2 Jan 2010 by smallman

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!!
In my opinion, Trier is a ground breaking director. The Idiots is a touching and original movie.

Published on 30 July 2009 by E. Paldam

4.0 out of 5 stars Quick Reviews!
Another impressive outing for Von Trier, and again one surrounded by controversy. The plot about a group of people acting like they are mentally retarded for various reasons is... Read more

Published on 15 Dec 2007 by carlosnightman

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and unique
This was the second film made according to the 10 "Vows of Chastity" of the Dogme 95 manifesto, penned by von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg (who directed the first Dogme film,... Read more

Published on 16 April 2006 by David Welsh

5.0 out of 5 stars As important, in a cinematic sense, as À bout de soufflé.
Most people are drawn to this film simply because of the chic (though quickly diminishing) appeal of the Dogme 95 manifesto, and through the curiosity factor raised by the... Read more

Published on 28 Feb 2006 by Jonathan James Romley

2.0 out of 5 stars not up to the hype
I found this film dissapointing. I suspect most people who read this and have seen the film will either agree with me, or say that I missed the point. Read more

Published on 17 Feb 2005

5.0 out of 5 stars Mental Heath Warning
There are some good reviews of the film here already but I'd just like to add one point of warning.

This story is essentially about exploring life through an invention that... Read more

Published on 10 April 2003 by yetanothernickname

5.0 out of 5 stars Fans would love it very much
For those still wondrin' whether to buy and thinkin of comparisons...Let's put it this way, the previous Von Trier film Breaking The Waves may be better-known, but The Idiots is... Read more

Published on 20 Sep 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Discover your inner idiot
A group of 30-something's living together in Copenhagen spend their spare time pretending to be 'Idiots' (kinda), hence the name of the film. Read more

Published on 24 Jun 2002 by W. G. Hardy

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