Wednesday 29 May 2013

Manderlay (2005)



Manderlay (2005) [Den / Swe / Fr / UK / Ger / Neth / It  : 132min.] Written and directed by Lars Von Trier



A companion piece to the same directors Dogville (2003) and intended as the middle part of a trilogy - it picks up the story where the first film left off. Grace has left the township of Dogville in the company of her gangster father and his small army of hoodlums.
Attempting to stay one step ahead of the law they are motoring through the southern states of the US and come to a stop at the gates of an ancient plantation, the Manderlay of the title.

Grace intervenes to prevent the whipping of a young black man (Timothy) and is shocked to discover that the estate is staffed by slaves, despite slavery having been abolished more than 70 years previously.

She persuades her father to allow her to remain at Manderlay with a handful of his men, and sets about reforming the closed society.

Nicole Kidman took the role of Grace in the first film and was excellent ; here she is replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard who, will not quite in the same league, makes a brave and dignified effort to portray Grace's burning idealism and essentially liberal outlook.

Willem Dafoe replaces James Caan in the role of Grace's father and is perfectly fine. Lauren Bacall appears (briefly) as the matriarch of the Estate and Danny Glover is her head of household staff in a performance of quiet strength.

However, despite the acting talent on show it's von Trier and his director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle and their cameras who are the true stars.

As with Dogville von Trier reduces the set to a collection of blocking lines on the studio floor and a handful of props. This could have had the efect of reducing the film to something approaching a filmed version of the rehersal stage of a theatrical play, instead of which Manderlay is bracingly cinematic.

It's filled with intense close-ups and two-shots, dizzying overhead and crane shots and some very smart use of filters.

Dod Mantle and von Trier are the only credited camera operators and it's obvious that an immense amount of thought has gone into the positioning of the cameras and their subsequent movements.

It's a shame, therefore, that given the care that's gone into the presentation and look of the film that the script is a bit too weak for the subject matter and too often reaches for the cliche of memelodrama where a stronger, more social-realist or satirical approach would have served better.

It's a great looking film and a remarkable technical achievement - I'd have liked a bit more meat on the bare bones of the script though.

The end credits sequence, however, almost makes up for this weakness : a powerful set of images that will burn themselves into your brain.

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