- 16 Maj 2005, 23:52
#280541
With its minimalist set, Manderlay returns to the stage conventions which were the core of Lars Von Trier's preceding film. However, the new film does not star Nicole Kidman (the heroine of Dogville), but Bryce Dallas Howard, the daughter of filmmaker Ron Howard, discovered in The Village by M. Night Shyamalan. "The idea was to make an initiatory trilogy focusing on Grace's character. At the end of Dogville, she begins to have some power, and says that she will use it to make the world a better place," Von Trier explained. The action in Manderlay takes place in the spring of 1933, on a huge Alabama plantation. Grace is amazed to find that the Whites still treat the Blacks like slaves. Fired by a determination to change the situation, the young woman first has to win the confidence of those whose defense she has assumed.
In town for the presentation in competiton of the second film in his trilogy, Lars Von Trier talked about Manderlay with the press, a conference also attended by actors Isaach de Bankolé, Willem Dafoe, Bryce Dallas Howard and Danny Glover as well as producer Vibeke Windelov.
Lars Von Trier on the theatrical side of the film: "Manderlay has theatrical roots, but it is also cinema. The system of black lines on the white floor, the film unfolds, allowing the spectator to place oneself where he wants. The idea is to portray reality humbly.
Lars Von Trier on why a film about America, a country he has never visited: "This film is very similar to the other films I have made. They are dark, they have some sarcasm in them. America is a good subject because such a big, big part of our lives has to do with America. ...America is kind of sitting on the world, there's no question about it. And therefore I'm making films that have to do with America, because America fills about 60% of my brain. All the words in there, all the things I'veexperienced in my life, about 60% of them - and I'm not very happy about that - is American. So in fact I am American, but I can't go there to vote, I can't change anything because I'm from a small country. And that is why I make films about America. I don't think it's so strange."
Danny Glover on the issues of the film: "That's a very large canvas to talk about. Let's take as an example, the fact that the whole idea of democracy in America was built on the backs of slaves, inconclusive, no question about it. The idea of capitalism on the eve of the industrialization is built on the backs of slavery. So all the articles of freedom and democracy come out of that particular context and they remain so.
Lar Von Trier's film takes place within a particular period in the industrial relation and the expansion of capital within the United States. Those are real dualities; at a time that racism - the lynching of Black men, the conscription of Black men into forced labor - was still a major part of the labor pool in the South.
So in that sense if we want to ask questions about what he sees within this reality. The question is that he has brought up these issues and asked us to revisit these issues. And these issues are not purely indigenous to the USA. This film has the courage to bring those questions up and to deal with those questions within a framework that should be comfortable to us as artists, because the realm of our whole existence is our imagination as artists."
Bryce on working with Lars, and following on the heels of Nicole Kidman: "I would amputate my toes to work with Lars again and that's not really an exaggeration, honestly. As far as filling Nicole's shoes, this is really a different side of Grace. If I felt at any point that I had to take over for her, I would have felt crippled, honestly, because she is an actress of such extraordinary talent. To merely survive that, I really had to look at it as she had played a role in the first film of the trilogy and I was playing a role in the second trilogy. I didn't try to do any kind of mimicry."
Izvor: Cannes Film Festival the Official Website
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