Lars von Trier has been controversial for a long time, but hinting at an understanding for the Nazis and Hitler at a 2011 press conference in Cannes definitively made him a persona non grata and a cheap provocateur. He seems to want to confirm this opinion in his most recent film THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT in a markedly offensive way. The film is about Jack, played by Matt Dillon, who commits extremely brutal murders that von Trier mostly shows in a way that leaves nothing to the imagination.

But is it really about a serial killer or is it about much more? The film is structured in long flashbacks that only take place on an acoustic level for long stretches of time. You can hear Jack talking to a person (unmistakable Bruno Ganz) whom he soon calls Verge. If you have the know the reference, you‘d recognize Verge as Vergil, the Roman poet who accompanies the narrator on the way to hell, purgatory, and heaven in Dante‘s “Divine Comedy.“ It‘s the same here, Jack tells Verge about his murders, his work that he views as art, and the cycle ends: Jack as an extreme artist who disturbs, provokes, and scandalises with his art, just like von Trier himself. He doesn‘t commit these crimes in reality, but on screen, and gets a lot of hostility and is often misunderstood. You can view THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT as a reflection of an artist about his own creation and moreover as cinematic psychoanalysis in which von Trier questions himself and his obsessions. This is all shown in breath-takingingly tight montage sequences and the end, when Jack and Verge go to hell, is filled with incredible images. Whatever you may think of von Trier, it‘s hard to find idiosyncratic films today.

Michael Meyns

Translation: Elinor Lewy