At first sight, seeing Dogville might not seem an appealing prospect. 3 hours long, set in a mining town in the Rocky Mountains during the Depression, shot on a stage with chalk lines marking out houses - the cinematic and other benefits may not be immediately obvious. But, argues ALIX PALMER, if you do make the trip you'll be richly rewarded with one of the most interesting and thought-provoking films you're likely to see this year.
she tale is a simple one. Grace
arrives in the isolated township of Dogville on the run from a team of gangsters. With some encouragement from Tom (Paul Bettany), the self-appointed town spokesman, the little community agrees to hide her. In return Grace agrees to work for them.
However, when the police start searching for Grace and the pressure and incentives to turn her in increase, the people of Dogville demand a better deal in exchange for the risk of harbouring her.
She is reduced to being the town's skiwy, then its slave; a sex slave for the men, and blamed by the town's women for this sexual exploitation.
The poverty of the town is stressed from the outset and the refrain of "we're not wealthy here" becomes more and more important as time goes on - for the poor people of Dogville, at the bottom end of what capitalism has to offer, monetary incentives to turn Grace in are a powerful lever and mean that logically they want more from her in return for her continuing 'protection'. As Tom says, there's a clear 'business perspective'
It's a good old American town, with a "fine sense of community". The tale is one of honest respectable American folk, living good old American lives -until Grace's arrival shows how shaky the equilibrium really is and how bogus and exclusionary community values are. We quickly see husbands and wives who hate each other living in poverty and small-town claustrophobia -there's a mountain at one side and only one road in and out. "Dogville got you fooled yet?" Chuck, the first to rape Grace, asks.
Liz is glad of the arrival of another young woman because it means the men spend less time pestering her. Chuck rapes Grace because, he says, he "wants her respect", a familiar cry of misogyny under capitalism.
The set becomes part of the action when the rapes) of Grace can be "seen' through the walls - clearly visible to the 'community.
The staging becomes a powerful metaphor for how a community can shut its eyes and ears to the suffering going on right next door - it intensifies the collusion. Readings
Dogville is a film open to many readings, some far from socialist or progressive. It has, for example, been seen to demonstrate the universal awfulness of 'human nature'. It could also be claimed to put forward the hypothesis of the inevitable failure of liberal attempts at 'tolerance. However, for a socialist feminist it did hold plenty to be interested in, including a critique of American capitalism and its consequences, thoughts about the impact of mass psychology and how groups find it possible to justify brutal acts (think justifications for war and phony narratives of WMDs?). Nicole Kidman as Grace being only the start?).
Grace agreeing to do more for less could be seen as a comment on the capitalist bosses who want more and more for less and less - taking the concessions by stages to wear down resistance (or those £3000 top-up fees
The theme of treatment of the 'outsider is hardly veiled and necessarily suggests a critique of American society. As the treatment of Grace becomes more extreme she is told "Don't think of this as punishment" when a dog's collar is put around her neck and she is forced to drag an old flywheel behind her on a chain, "it's nothing personal." This could and does allude to slavery and the treatment of immigrants. It could apply equally to a country that today bombs and imprisons indiscriminately, profits from exploited labour around the world, turns a blind eye to its own poverty, and executes those it sees as undesirable.
in good capitalist tradition Grace is commodified, turned into an object, dehumanised
Sadistic pleasure as the twist in the tail unfolds is clearly Von Trier's intention - and hard to fight initially, particularly for a feminist (akin to the excitement of Susan Sarandon wielding her gun in Thelma and Louise). Guilt inevitably follows.
The ending could be anti-Americandream, revenge of the big capitalists on the common people or descent into nihilism but in no way negates the power of what's gone before. This isn't a film that's amenable to neutral response.
Love it or hate it, you've got to see it.
page 11 of the scan
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