The Lars von Trier movie he compared to ‘The Lord of the Rings’
The work of Lars von Trier is, thematically speaking anyway, worthy of consideration as some of the most daring and adventurous there is in modern cinema. Provocative, philosophical, and outright scandalous at times, whether you love or hate the Danish filmmaker, his work provides an experience that is hard to rival both in terms of how thought-provoking it might be and how uncomfortable it can be to watch.
Naturally, the last thing you would associate von Trier with is major Hollywood blockbusters like The Lord Of The Rings, but hey, don’t accuse us of trying to shoehorn in a comparison here. Despite how ridiculous this discussion might seem, our source comes straight from the man himself in a past interview.
While discussing his work on the extremely controversial horror film The House That Jack Built, von Trier gave some interesting tidbits about his influences on one of the greatest depictions of hell in film and in particular, where he drew significant inspiration from: The Barque of Dante, by famed French artist Eugène Delacroix, is recreated in the movie and according to von Trier: “It was staged in a swimming pool with a big backdrop. It was quite fulfilling to do that in a way where you can actually see what’s happening”.
Where does the link to The Lord Of The Rings come in, you ask? How does such a brutally violent film compare to a universally beloved adaptation of one of the greatest fantasy book series of all time? For von Trier, it’s all about the approach to the film itself, as confirmed by the follow-up exchange with the interviewer: “What were some other ideas for hell that you considered? You start with an almost lo-fi look, like a horror movie, and then it gets grander as you go down deeper… Yeah. It becomes Lord of the Rings.”
While throughout this entire interview, the Danish auteur marks himself as a man of very few words, through this exchange we can actually understand exactly what the director is talking about, despite not touching on the subject again for the rest of the interview. The Fellowship of The Ring (excusing the massive opening battle sequence in the prologue) starts off in the thoroughly ordinary yet, idyllic setting in The Shire, similar to how The House That Jack Built begins within the humble forest backdrop of what is meant to be, Washington State in the USA.
From the initial opening into the blissful rolling green hills in TFOTR, we see our characters pulled into increasingly fantastical settings. As the trilogy progresses, this ultimately leads Frodo and Sam to the fiery ‘hell’ of Morder in The Return of The King. The House That Jack Built takes us on less of a physical journey (aside from an ending scene that uses the Kola Superdeep Borehole, also known as the infamous ‘Gateway to Hell’), but no less grandiose descent echoing Dante’s journey into hell through various psychological motifs and, impressive backdrops like von Trier talked about filming, eliciting a very strange, yet thought-provoking comparison.
Despite enormous-budget films not being his first port of call, it’s interesting that a filmmaker like Lars von Trier would compare his own work with such a major landmark in popular cinema (and culture). However, what it inevitably points out is how similar stories follow the same journey, narratively speaking, and draw on similar influences.
The House That Jack Built may have been, thematically and tonally, the complete opposite on screen to Lord Of The Rings, but the scale at which it went to portray the journey of the characters going through the unthinkable, unseemingly horrific progression of both literal and metaphorical ‘hell’ is a more profound comparison then we ever thought of making between these two films before now.
Although, we’re not sure how J.R.R. Tolkien would have felt about von Trier comparing his magnum opus to a filmmaker who depicted a woman slicing off her clitoris.
