If you’re mid-breakfast, you might want to skip this post. One of the films that debuted at this week’s Cannes Film Festival is “Antichrist,” the latest from director Lars Von Trier. Since the screening yesterday, everyone has been talking about how the movie crosses the line of what’s appropriate for “mainstream” cinema. Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe, the film is about a couple who, while mourning the death of their young son, mutilate each other in vile, graphic, despicable ways.
“Gainsbourg hits Dafoe so hard in the testicles with a plank of wood that he lapses into a coma. He ejaculates blood when she masturbates him. She drills a hole through his leg before tying him to a rock. But the scene that has caused the most disquiet is the close-up of Gainsbourg’s character cutting off her clitoris with a rusty pair of scissors.”
