Leth’s black and white 12-minute film, behavioral pseudo-investigation made far back in 1967, ‘The Perfect Human’, served Lars von Trier and the aforementioned Jørgen Leth, Trier’s mentor, as a material for extraordinarily innovative and interesting presentation of the film making process. Von Trier managed to persuade Leth to shoot five revisions of his story, but with different obstacles, turns, restrictions and orders. For example, one of the stories was to be shot in one take on Cuba, the other in an impoverished place with pronounced social drama... and in case Leth broke some of the obstacles, von Trier would get the title Marquis (association to de Sade) and get to punish Leth mercilessly. This interesting little s/m story about filmmaking is additionally spiced up with excerpts from the original, with all shot revisions, and is a somewhat voyeuristic insight into the conversation of the two directors.
Jørgen Leth
Jørgen Leth, born in 1937, is a Danish poet and film director who is considered a leading figure in experimental documentary film making. Most notable are his documentary A Sunday in Hell (1977) and his surrealistic short film The Perfect Human (1968). His feature documentary The Five Obstructions (co-directed with Lars von Trier) premiered in Venice in 2003 and was Denmark’s candidate for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier was born in Copenhage, Denmark, in 1956, where he graduated from the Film Aacademy. He is today’s most famous Danish director who imposed himself upon the world with his very first film, a 1984 ‘Forbrydelsens element’, and with the specific approach to film making, set out in the manifesto called Dogma 95 which he had signed together with several other Danish directors. He came into the spotlight in 2000 when he was awarded the Golden Palm for his movie ‘Dancer in the Dark’, featuring Bjork as the main lead, and three years later with an experiment which divided the general audience and the critics, ‘Dogville’.
General sponsor
De fem benspænd
Denmark
2003, 90', 35 mm
Directed by:
Jørgen Leth, Lars von Trier
Screenplay by:
Lars von Trier, Jørgen Leth
Cinematography:
Dan Holmberg
Edited by:
Camilla Skousen, Morten Højbjerg
Producer:
Carsten Holst
