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Lars Von Trier's Renewal of Film “Lars von Trier’s Renewal of Film is a master- Danish director Lars von Trier has Lars von Trier’s ful study of the full breadth of von Trier’s produced more than 20 films since work. The book presents a chronicle of the his first appearance with The Elements Bodil work, expertly situated in the history of the of Crime in 1984. One of the most Marie Renewal of Film medium of film, in its relation to video and acknowledged – and most controversial Stavning digital media. More than that – and this is – film directors of our time, Trier’s films Thomsen what puts the book in a league of its own often escape the representational 1984-2014 – Thomsen develops an original theory of production of meaning. the image unique enough to merit a new Lars von Trier’s Renewal of Film name: “signaletic materialism” might do. SIGNAL PIXEL DIAGRAM But don’t be misled by the weightiness of In Lars von Trier’s Renewal of Film the term. It signposts an approach uniquely 1984-2014. Signal, Pixel, Diagram equipped to make felt immediacy of the scholar Bodil Marie Stavning Thomsen image, accounting for its embodied nature offers a comprehensive discussion and affective force with both evocative power of Lars von Trier’s collected works. and analytical precision. Thomsen’s in-depth, Examining his experiments with narra- often scene-by-scene, analyses of von Trier’s tive forms, genre, camera usage, light, compositional techniques go beyond formal and colour tones, she shows how analysis to convey how the logic of the Trier’s unique and ethically involving medium is one with an event of perception, style activates the viewer’s entire ever renewed and endlessly varied.” perception apparatus. In understanding Brian Massumi this affective involvement, the author author of Semblance and Event: frames the discussion around concepts Activist Philosophy and the Occurrent Arts from Gilles Deleuze, Alois Riegl, Brian Massumi a.o. on the haptic image, the diagram, affect, and the signaletic “An inspiring and insightful work of passion and scholarly dedication, Bodil Thomsen’s material. thorough analysis of Lars von Trier’s oeuvre is an aesthetic revelation of haptic quality and potentialities. While the Deleuze- 1984 Guattarian inspired concept of the ‘affect diagram’ is the guiding method to navigate Trier’s audio-visual style across pixels, - colors and digital signals, one can almost 2014 feel and touch the images on every page AARHUS UNIVERSITY PRESS that disclose always new senses and Bodil Marie Stavning Thomsen sensations beyond the film’s stories and representations.” Patricia Pisters University of Amsterdam 108027_cover_lars von trier_cc18_r1_.indd 1 11/05/18 07:19 Lars von Trier’s Renewal of Film 1984‑2014 This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed. 108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 1 04/05/18 09:08 This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed. 108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 2 04/05/18 09:08 Lars von Trier’s Renewal of Film 1984‑2014 signal, pixel, diagram Bodil Marie Stavning Thomsen aarhus university press | a This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed. 108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 2 04/05/18 09:08 108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 3 04/05/18 09:08 To Andreas, Malthe and Thomas This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed. 108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 4 04/05/18 09:08 To Andreas, Malthe and Thomas It is common knowledge that photography depends on an atmos‑ pheric perspective, which means that the contrast between light and shadow diminishes towards the background. Maybe an idea for an interesting abstraction lies in a conscious elimination of the atmospheric perspective – or, in other words, in relinquishing the much‑coveted depth – and the effect of distance. Instead one ought to work towards a wholly new construction of pictorial colour surfaces, which all lie on the same plane, forming one large, collated, multi‑coloured surface, so that the notion of the foreground, mid‑ dle ground and background fully disappears. One should, in other words, relinquish the perspectival image and begin working with pure surface effect. In this way it is possible that one will achieve very distinctive aesthetic effects, maybe precisely suited to film. Carl Th. Dreyer: Fantasi og Farve, 1955; in Om Filmen, 1959 One normally chooses a style for a film in order to highlight a story. We’ve done exactly the opposite. We’ve chosen a style that works against the story, which gives it the least opportunity to highlight itself. […] What we’ve done is to take a style and put it over the story like a filter. Like encoding a television signal, when you pay in order to see a film: here we are encoding a signal for the film, which the viewer will later ensure they decode. The raw, documentary style which I’ve laid over the film and which completely annuls and con‑ tests it, means that we accept the story as it is. That is, at any rate, my theory. Lars von Trier on Breaking the Waves in Sight & Sound Magazine, 1996 This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed. 108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 4 04/05/18 09:08 108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 5 04/05/18 09:08 Lars von Trier’s Renewal of Film 1984-2014 © 2018 the author and Aarhus University Press Cover illustration: Lars von Trier on the set of The Idiots. Photo: RGR Collection/Alamy stock Photo. Typesetting: Ryevad Grafisk Translated by Philip Mullarkey from the Danish edition, Lars von Triers fornyelse af filmen 1984-2014, published by Museum Tusculanum Press, 2016 This book is typeset in Vulpa E-book production: by Narayana Press, Denmark ISBN 978 87 7184 637 9 Aarhus University Press Finlandsgade 29 DK-8200 Aarhus N Denmark www.unipress.dk International distributors: Oxbow Books Ltd The Old Music Hall, 106–108 Cowley Road Oxford, OX4 1JE United Kingdom www.oxbowbooks.com ISD 70 Enterprise Drive, Suite 2 Bristol, CT 06010 USA www.isdistribution.com Published with the financial support of: The Aarhus University Research Foundation / In accordance with requirements of the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science, the certification means that a PhD level peer has made a written assessment justifying this book’s scientific quality. This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed. 108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 6 04/05/18 09:13 Lars von Trier’s Renewal of Film 1984-2014 © 2018 the author and Aarhus University Press Contents Cover illustration: Lars von Trier on the set of The Idiots. Photo: RGR Collection/Alamy stock Photo. Typesetting: Ryevad Grafisk Translated by Philip Mullarkey from the Danish edition, Lars von Triers fornyelse af filmen 1984-2014, published by Museum Tusculanum Press, 2016 This book is typeset in Vulpa and printed on Munken Pure 100 g Printed by Narayana Press, Denmark Printed in Denmark 2018 Preface 11 ISBN 978 87 7184 230 2 Introduction 18 CHAPTER 1 Aarhus University Press The theoretical landscape 29 Finlandsgade 29 DK-8200 Aarhus N The »signaletic material« of film 37 Denmark Haptic surfaces and affective effects 39 www.unipress.dk International distributors: CHAPTER 2 Oxbow Books Ltd Haptic surfaces and spatial effects in Trier’s The Old Music Hall, 106–108 Cowley Road films of the 1980s 50 Oxford, OX4 1JE United Kingdom www.oxbowbooks.com CHAPTER 3 A tiger in The Kingdom 64 ISD The transformation from Gothic to grotesque 70 Enterprise Drive, Suite 2 A ghost story 65 Bristol, CT 06010 USA From Gothic eeriness to grotesque laughter on the surface www.isdistribution.com of the TV screen 68 The real‑time effect of electronic signals Published with the financial support of: – introduction to The Kingdom I 75 The Aarhus University Research Foundation Breaching – the conclusion of The Kingdom I 79 The perforation from upper to underside in the narrative’s Möbius strip 86 Grotesque real‑time interfaces: surveillance, scans and X‑ray 90 The technological and mythological credo of the video medium 94 The haptic level in The Kingdom I and II 98 / In accordance with requirements of the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science, the certification »The body without organs« and the »becoming‑animal« 106 means that a PhD level peer has made a written assessment justifying this book’s scientific quality. This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed. 108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 6 04/05/18 09:13 108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 7 04/05/18 09:08 CHAPTER 4 Dogme 95 and The Idiots 112 A new form of realism The »Dogme 95 Manifesto« and the »Vow of Chastity« 115 A diagrammatic production of factual reality in the form of haptic »Figures« 120 The Dogme diagram – a generator of haptic compositions and modes of perception 125 Deformation of the face and the fall of the body 134 CHAPTER 5 Golden Hearts 1 and 3 139 Affective outflow into the landscape and the music The power of the rejected 146 Breaking the Waves and »faciality« 149 Any‑space‑whatever and colours in Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark 155 Dancer in the Dark and »the refrain« 163 CHAPTER 6 America films 175 Verfremdung and diagrammatic production Planes of composition in Dogville 177 Capitalistic segmentarity and terroristic micropolitics in Dogville 184 Microperceptual affect in Dogville 188 Compositional planes in Manderlay 194 Struggle in the binary segmentation 197 Dividual qualitative transformation and an ethics of affect 201 CHAPTER 7 The boss and the performative-biographical 209 The aesthetics of the fall Heterotopy, diagram and divid 219 The one who falls: on Lars’ turning Jørgen into a performative I 227 This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed.
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