Regardless, was utterly so not prepared for the level of difficulty it engendered, to put it mildly.

For all its sardonic darkness and insidious, the-joke's-on-us finale, I quite appreciated Dogville, albeit on its own very specific terms --still think it contains La Belle Nicole's best work on screen to date, for starters.

So, I didn't go into Antichrist unprepared for difficult material.

Plus, there was wine involved, in a cozy living/home-screening room, with a big HD teevee and longtime friends, which may have made me extra-off-guarded in my responses. Regardless, was utterly so not prepared for the level of difficulty it engendered, to put it mildly.

Film viewing as a test of one's manhood. (or mettle for females?)

J'agree with that.

Well, there's difficult... and then Antichrist takes it to a whole different level, LOL.

LOL - I was at a theater where they were selling "I survived Antichrist t-shirts." It was about then that I started to wonder just how bad it was going to be...

I gotta admit, though - I can and have put up with a LOT onscreen over time, but I couldn't look when she SPOILERS dinged him and then again when she snipped herself, omigod END SPOILERS. I still can't even bring myself to say it in a spoiler.

On a more pleasant note - I really did like how he did the opening. It reminded me of the list of opening scenes I keep thinking I'm going to put together and actually don't. And that I need to bone up on Tartkovsky.

Anyone for a Tarkovsky forum? %^D

Anyone for a Tarkovsky forum? %^D

Someone suggested that since her thesis/search for knowledge is what brings about her madness (her fall), that the shoe incident is just a minor daily transgression (like talking to snakes and eating an apple) that she is punished to death for (in a manner of speaking).

As I said, IMO the violence in Anti-Christ had clear movie edits and cuts to make it seem less real.

I didn't really get the idea of the shoes and the feet and what that was supposed to be all about. She was inattentive? Had the seeds of evil in her? Wasn't a good mother? Was directionless?

You're probably right, but that seems like the boring answer. I was wondering why feet? why shoes? why a switch? Especially because this got brought up a few times, with something about the kid's bones growing wrong or whatever (I wasn't pay enough attention at that point).

I wish the movie was here so I could get into this discussion while it's still hot. The plot of the movie: how a couple react to their child's death that occured while they were making love........relates to the real life episode in Ghandi's life where he was making love with his wife while his father was dying. Supposedly his guilt over this caused him to remain celibate for the rest of his life.

According to the Danish newspaper Politiken, a video game called "Eden," which is based on the film, is in the works. It will start where the film ends. "It will be a self-therapeutic journey into your own darkest fears, and will break the boundaries of what you can and can't do in video games," says video game director Morten Iversen.

Ebert points out this quote from Wikipedia's article on Antichrist:



PS: There's no hyphen in Antichrist.