"Antichrist" at Cannes

After reading roughly twenty articles about/reactions to the screening of Lars Von Trier's latest film, Antichrist, at the Cannes Film Festival, I can now say with utter certainty that it is my most anticipated film of the year.

I first read about the film when its premise ("...the English language pic is set in nature and based on the theory that it was Satan, not God, who created the world") was announced on, of all things, a website dedicated to horror movies. Now, I've never seen any of Von Trier's films (I know, I know), but being somewhat familiar with his reputation as an iconoclast and provocateur, coupling that knowledge with the title and brief write-up, I was pretty sure that it would be far from a typical horror film.

Further plot details, the casting of Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, the trailer and teaser stills confirmed this. It very quickly ended up high on my list of films I'm looking forward to this year.

Now, with news of the genuine uproar the film caused this weekend at Cannes (booings at the screening, the extremely uncomfortable press conference that followed, the critical consensus that it's, well, not very good to say the least), I officially can't wait to see this movie. I love that Von Trier made it as a reaction to a two-year-long depression, something a modern American director would never do (or would never admit to doing). I love that he considers it "the most important film of my entire career!", though to be fair, in the aforementioned press conference he repeatedly claimed to be the "greatest living filmmaker," so who's to say how serious he is about this. But mostly I love how up in arms the critics have been about it. They're pissed. Extremely pissed. Some of them, I think, feel personally attacked. And this is awesome to me.

I think I'm going to hold off on watching any of his earlier films so this can be my first.

Somehow, it just seems right.