The Idiots

Look I know jack about Dogme, but I know what I like and I like 'The Idiots'! A LOT.

I find it hard to understand how so much has been said about the "lack" of production values or the nudity in this movie, which to me aren't even worth mentioning, but hardly anyone comments about how astounding the ACTING is! The actors in this, and in Von Triers' previous 'Breaking The Waves', display completely realistic acting very rarely (if ever!) seen in Hollywood. So next time some Hollywood mediocre "actor" is up on the podium clutching their Oscar, force 'em to watch 'The Idiots' and see if they can pull off performances of this calibre! The "biker scene" in itself is one of the bravest, most funny/scary sequences I've ever seen in all my years of move watching!

While I think all the actors involved are faultless, I would single out Jens Albinus as Stoffer as being particularly outstanding. I hope to see him go on to bigger and better things. I say "better", but you won't find many contemporary movies "better" than 'The Idiots'!

While not quite at the same level as _Breaking the Waves_, the only other Lars von Trier I have seen (his films are quite hard to come by in Midwestern American video stores, you understand), _The Idiots_ is still a great film, and, in some ways, is just as important.

I have to comment on a lot of the reviews I've seen for this movie. A lot of viewers judge the film by the theories and views about the group's existence (particularly the view spoken by the most outspoken of the Idiots, Stoffer). This is surely not the way von Trier meant his audience to take the film. If you paid any attention to the film, you'll notice that the Idiots' lifestyle is never glamorized. Everyone's experience in the group ends in embarrassment and despair. You should also note that none of the Idiots has the same opinion of why they like to act the idiot. Stoffer might say that they do it to upset the bourgeosie (I don't pretend to know how to spell that word), but the next person might be doing it just to play around. The artist (whose name escapes me at the moment) is doing it to become a better artist, and the doctor is doing it almost for experiment. There is never a reason for the groups' existence that the entire group agrees upon. This is extremely important for understanding this film.

The way _The Idiots_ particularly hit me was in the characterizations. The actors are so great in this film that they hit the level of: "Is this really acting, or is it just being?" von Trier hit the same level in _Breaking the Waves_. These actors were so good, their characters just jumped out of the script. There are many characters, and only a few of them are characterized in the script extensively. Stoffer, although not the main character, is the most prominent character in the script. Many of the characters don't have all that many lines or screen time, but I felt I knew them all well.

I also appreciated that it actually entertained me. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it so much. It is often very, very funny (if offensive). It also gripped me emotionally. I did not particularly comprehend the ending's meaning, but it left me with a powerful emotion. I did have tears in my eyes when I left the theater, and a lot of thoughts in my head. When a man outside the theater stopped me to ask me how I liked it, my lips and my brain were too dry to actually answer anything but, "I liked it. I liked it a lot." 9/10

This misunderstood and wildly underappreciated film is up there with Riget and Zentropa in the Von Trier canon, and in my opinion better than Breaking the Waves. Critics focussed on the film's perceived cruel attitude towards the mentally handicapped. Idioterne is actually a very personal film about revolution, healing and Danish society's attitude towards the 'retarded'. It is an incredibly brave and moving film that will have you dabbing your eyes by the end.

Whoever decided that American filmgoers could not be exposed to the sight of penises, however, needs to lose their job. The absurdity of being exposed to full frontal female nudity--while being protected by big black floating boxes whenever a John Thomas is on screen--is an outrage. Did someone REALLY think this film would break through at the box office if these appendages were obscured? Were they concerned that Joe Six Pack was going to take the wife and kids to that new movie by that famed Danish director that's such a big hit with the arthouse crowd? The mind boggles.

"Idioterne" is a good and enjoyable to watch Dogma movie. The style (or better said; the lack of style) and storytelling are unique and help to make "Idioterne" a one of a kind movie experience. Just like the story in the movie; it's a successful experiment.

As a sort of a social experiment, a group of people decides to release the 'idiot' in themselves to see how the environments responds to them. Sounds like good enough material to make a hilarious comedy with but "Idioterne" never goes over-the-top and always retains a sort of realistic feeling. The movie is made in documentary style with some mixed results as a direct result of this. For most part the movie is realistic and it has an improvised feeling over it but some of the sequences are obviously planned and acted out. In those sequences it becomes painfully obvious that the actors in this movie aren't really first-rate. It makes those sequence feel forced and ridiculous. Those sequences are in contrast with the rest of the movie its style and overall feeling.

Yet the movie remains perfectly good to watch. It never becomes really great or hilarious but the movie is simply perfectly entertaining to watch nevertheless.

The movie has some interesting sequences and confrontations in it that all helps to make this movie quite a memorable one. It's a movie that confronts at times and makes us as viewers think about how we would respond and act if we were in one of the situations as portrayed in the movie.

For fans of Dogma this is an absolute must-see. It has everything in it what makes Dogma movies so great. It's perhaps not the best Dogma movie but it certainly is one of the most enjoyable- and more light to watch ones.

7/10

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I'm surprised that no one commented on the pseudo documentary's shaky reality as mirroring the problematic reality of the Idiots in the movie. Their attempts to be real idiots so as to appreciate their "inner idiots" parallels the feature film's attempt to mimic the documentary format so as to achieve credibility. By showing the overacting and crew shots in the movie, perhaps it was the director's way of commenting on the the shaky reality of the Idiots existence.

But even though we know that it's a feature film trying to be a documentary, we are still drawn to the vicarious experience of the movie - we still enjoy it as a movie. Perhaps another statement about finding happiness in a fake reality?

Like Idiots, the audience goes into an escaped reality when they go to the cinema, hoping to experience what the protagonists feel on screen. But like the idiots, the denial is only temporary. The final fate of Karen seems to warn the the audience that at the end of the day, this escaped formed of reality is no match to the "real" world that is out there.