Lars von Trier is no stranger to controversy, and his latest effort, The House that Jack Built, may be his most controversial film to date. The film, which prompted about 100 walkouts in Cannes, has the Danish filmmaker tackling the horror genre in his most audacious film to date. When it comes to auteurs, no one in my opinion personifies this term more than the eccentric von Trier, who while sometimes problematic, is still responsible for some the best cinema of last two decades. House originally screened for one night only in its uncut Director’s Cut form, which got IFC, who is partnering with Scream Factory for this release, in some hot water. But now you can finally enjoy not only the Unrated Director’s Cut, but the R-rated version in this release that hits shelves today.
The Film
The on the nose meta exercise follows Jack (Matt Dillion) aka “Mr. Sophistication,” a serial killer operating in the pacific Northwest in the 1970s. Jack’s MO here is after a killing, he typically will stage photos of the bodies, and these photos are part of the art he believes his killings represent. This is the film’s meta connection as it spends a hefty chunk of its running time discussing art theory and the creative process in a thinly veiled parallel to the eccentric filmmaker. Lars von Trier may not be a serial killer, but how Jack discusses his painful relationship with creating art and making a new “masterpiece” makes it easy to see what’s going on here. If you had trouble picking up on that not so subtle subtext, actual clips from von Trier’s filmography are used as examples in Jack’s arguments. The film is a textbook example of gallows humor, as Jack’s attempts to create his art often go horribly wrong, and the brazenness of some of his later “works” intensifies the hope to generate notoriety.
The House that Jack Built is basically an inside joke for fans that share the director’s macabre sense of humor that will just appear as a grisly exercise in tolerance to the casual film goer. Matt Dillon is tasked with what is probably one of the greatest challenges of his acting career as the titular Jack. An equal-opportunity killer — women, men, children, and animals — Jack is an unlikable neurotic psychopath plagued by OCD who suffers from the need to wax poetic at length about dessert wines and the difference between engineers and architects. The film’s structure, with each murder a separate vignette, feels like the director recounting his films one by one. Given the director’s tendency for female protagonists, a fun game is actually trying to figure out which victim would correlate to which leading lady. It’s a sick and bizarre game, but it’s also pretty damn hilarious at the same time.
The Extras
Both cuts here are presented on two separate Blu-rays for the completists. I won’t bore you with the differences, since www.movie-censorship.com did an excellent rundown on the differences between the US R-rated cut, which previously hit US iTunes, and the Director’s Cut that previously hit disc in the UK. I will say if you’re a fan of von Trier, the Director’s Cut is probably the way to go here. Accompanying the Director’s Cut is The House that Jack Built Announcement — announcing the shooting of the film, the US screening intro by a grizzled von Trier, and the Cannes teaser. The highlight of these extras is an Interview with the Director conducted during post production on Jack, as he discusses the metaphor of his business as an artist, which is at the core of Jack and his plans going forward. The director here appears overweight and anxious as he discusses these topics along with his continued struggles with alcoholism in respect to making his latest film.
Presentation
The film was shot digitally on the Arri Alexa Mini, so the HD master presented on the Blu-ray is probably what most folks caught in the cinemas. It’s hard to really dig into the presentation on a film like Jack given its collage-like nature in some sequences, but it looks and sounds great, when it needs to, which is all that matters.
Final Thoughts
If you’re not a fan of Lars von Trier, I would suggest you steer clear of this film. As a fan I got it and found it an extremely self-aware and fascinating deconstruction of the creative process as it pertains to the genesis of some of my favorite films. Lars von Trier proves he’s still the bad boy of the arthouse, turning in a film that makes Antichrist feel like a Disney film. The House That Jack Built is the best kind of cinema, the kind that provokes and challenges the viewer to digest the horrors on screen and deconstruct them layer by disturbing layer to discover the filmmaker’s true message, that making good art is murder and sometimes can be a messy endeavor.
