The Five Obstructions

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Movie
German title The Five Obstructions
Original title De fem benspænd
Country of production Denmark , Belgium , Switzerland , France
original language Danish , English , French , Spanish
Publishing year 2003
length 90 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Lars von Trier ,
Jørgen Leth
script Lars von Trier,
Jørgen Leth
production Carsten Holst ,
Marc-Henri Wajnberg ,
Gérald Morin ,
Nicole Mora
music Henning Christiansen ,
Fridolin Nordsø,
Kristian Leth
camera Dan Holmberg
cut Camilla Skousen ,
Morten Højbjerg
occupation

The Five Obstructions (original title: De fem benspænd ) is a cinematic experiment that the Danish film director Lars von Trier undertook from 2002–2003 with his older colleague and friend Jørgen Leth . Leth was supposed to re-shoot his short film The Perfect Person ( Det Perfekt menneske ) from 1967 five times and for each version to comply with conditions set by von Trier. The film contains discussions between Leth and von Trier, recordings of Leth searching for a location and actor, as well as the five new short films. It premiered on September 11, 2003 at the Toronto International Film Festival .

The five conditions

The first film has to be made in a location that Leth has never been to before (the choice will be Cuba), without a stage, the questions from the original film have to be answered and no take can contain more than 12 pictures, that is, the Cuts follow every half a second. Von Trier is satisfied with the result.

For the second film, von Trier sets the conditions of a desolate setting where Leth has to perform himself, a meal occurs and other people are not allowed to be visible. Leth opts for the red light district of Mumbai , where he has a large meal alone in front of a semi-transparent wall on the street, in the midst of the poorest people.

Von Trier regards the fact that people are partially visible behind the wall in Mumbai as a violation and punishes Leth by not giving him any conditions for the third film. Leth is shooting scenes with an elegant elderly gentleman and a noble whore in an advertising aesthetic in Brussels.

Since von Trier and Leth both find animated films hideous, the only condition for the fourth film is that it must be an animated film.

Von Trier himself put together the fifth film from snippets of the previously wacky documentation material. Leth only has to agree to be named in the opening credits as a director and read a text written by Lars von Trier for the soundtrack as if it were his opinion.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for The Five Obstructions . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2005 (PDF; test number: 103 790 K).
  2. ^ First performances of The Five Obstructions on imdb.com