★ 8 / 10
Powerful message that can be easily twisted
Imdbidia
Manderlay is the second installment of Lars Von Trier's thought-provoking trilogy USA - Land of Opportunities. The story, told in eight episodes, starts where…
Manderlay is the second installment of Lars Von Trier's thought-provoking trilogy USA - Land of Opportunities. The story, told in eight episodes, starts where Dogville ended. Grace, her father, and their bunch of gangsters stop to eat by a place in Alabama called Manderlay Plantation, where slavery persists 70 years after its Abolition. Idealistic Grace decides to stay, free the blacks and start a communal free plantation.
The setting, like in Dogville, is a theatrical set with minimalist elements of architecture and floor drawings marking the different areas of the place. The camera wanders both very close to the characters, as if the viewer was filming them with their own video-camera, but also from above, from bird's view, as if all they were little pieces in a chess table or little dolls. The setting serves the viewer to focus on the story and its message.
Trier is always merciless depicting the human being and Society, not because he is nasty or weird, but because it an artist' obligation -or it should be, because that's the matter of Art- to reflect on the issues that affect the world we live in. You like it or not, Trier is a true artist. In fact, Manderlay's story, is indeed relevant to contemporary Western society.
Three main questions are explored and answered in Manderlay and explicitly posed to the viewer through the events told in the movie: 1/ Is democracy the best political system to have a free society? 2/ Can democracy be preached by using the support of guns? 3/ What is the best solution to the race problem in America, both in the past and in the present? Thus, Grace teaches the blacks the rudiments of democracy, but does so as she is escorted and supported by a bunch of gangsters, therefore, from a position of power and of white superior - the same she believes she's fighting against. Moreover, nobody has elected her, so she shouldn't be preaching democracy. If this wasn't enough, Grace tries -always with the best intention, to teach blacks people how to be black and be free without even asking them what they want, she who is not black and has never been a Slave. Actually, she was a sort of slave in Dogville, but she did not learn from that. The shock that she gets at the end of the movie masterly reflects how a just system can be unjust and oppressive when imposed on people who don't benefit from it and have had no voice in its establishment.
There is not blinder/deaf person that the one who doesn't want to see/hear. The little moral of the story is mentioned at the beginning, when Grace's father reminds her of her childhood and the bird she had in a cage, which she freed thinking that it was the best thing for it, but not being a wild bird, she found it frozen in the window next day. And, once again, she would treat the blacks with affection and love, but also as if she was her owner.
The actors are all good in their respective roles. Bryce Dallas Howard is good as Grace Margaret Mulligan; she looks very sweet and innocent, which helps to convey the naivety and paternalism of her character; however, I found her a little bland sometimes, To be honest, I would have liked seeing Nicole Kidman, as she still looks fragile and naive, but she has a maturity that would have given an extra push to the character; however, I don't think that frigid Nicky would have been good enough in the sex scene. Also very convincing are Isaach De Bankolé as the proud and feisty Timothy, Danny Glover as Wise Elder Wilhelm, and Mona Hammond as lovely but week Old Wilma. However, all the cast is terrific.
The music is terrific as well as the last song by David Bowie, Young Americans, which is really relevant to the story, as well as the photos of the America that would have waited for the Manderlay blacks until well entered the 1970s.
The main flaws of the film are that the story can be easily twisted if interpreted literally to say that the movie supports slavery or that puts the blame on the blacks for not freeing themselves earlier, which is completely the opposite of what the films intends. The movie, moreover, is not engaging enough at the beginning and a little bit of footage could have been cut. Finally, the colors and quality of the film used are very poor, which really makes the watching not as enjoyable as it could have been. Trier was much more careful in Dogville and had better colors, lightening and a sharper contrast.
A very good film, not always engaging.
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★ 8 / 10
it's a von Trier - so what do you expect
wudamay
I have already several years ago decided that Lars von Trier's movies can neither be called good or bad, they are always different and thought provoking but…
I have already several years ago decided that Lars von Trier's movies can neither be called good or bad, they are always different and thought provoking but most certainly also irritating and annoying. Manderlay is no exception.
Our heroin spots a dictator on the axis of evil, storms in with light sabers and an ever-optimistic smile, brushes away the dictator and her regime, and is proud of having brought freedom and democracy to yet another place (any similarities with other persons - living or dead - are fully intentional and of course debatable).
But how do you make democracy work when people have not learned it through practice and the collective memory of democracy's fallacies since the ancient Greek city states. How do you make people value their freedom and be responsible for their own fortune, when it is much more comfortable to blame someone else for their fate.
Von Trier brilliantly and ironically discusses these issues with surprising twists in the plot. But he will most definitely offend all kinds of Americans who will be too rash to judge this movie as anything between a misunderstanding and an insult of the American people of whatever color.
Bryce Dallas Howard (Grace) delivers a great performance.
To make a movie on an almost naked stage with imaginary doors etc. is very different from anything else and it actually could contribute to focus more on the actors performance (as on a theater stage). But I think that the hasty cutting of scenes and the annoyingly shaky hand-held camera actually diminish the actors chances of delivering a forceful performance. I don't mind the hand-held camera of the Dogma movies, but this is no Dogma movie. It has "artificial" music, sound effects, lightning, requisites, etc. So why bother to have a hand-held camera.
Manderlay is an excellent movie for anybody who enjoys being provoked or how wants to confirm her/his prejudice about von Trier as a weird director with tendencies to be proud-to-be-old-Europe.
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Lars Von Trier has become some kinds of a Woody Allen figure of Denmark.