The Five Obstructions

Starring:Jacqueline Arenal, Patrick Bauchau, Bent Christensen, Marie Dejaer, Stina Ekblad, Daniel Hernandez Rodriguez, Anders Hove, JÃ¸rgen Leth, Majken Algren Nielsen, Claus Nissen, Jan Nowicki, Meschell Perez, Pascal Perez, Vivian Rosa, Bob Sabiston, Charlotte Sieling, Alexandra Vandernoot
Director: JÃ¸rgen Leth
Studio: Koch Lorber Films
Product Type: DVD

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Once upon a time--1967, to be precise--Danish director Jørgen Leth released The Perfect Human. In The Five Obstructions, fellow countryman Lars von Trier (Breaking the Waves) challenges his "hero" to remake the short five times and provides a different set of "obstructions" for each. Because Leth likes cigars, von Trier suggests the first be made in Cuba. For the second, however, he sends Leth to "the worst place on earth"--Bombay's red light district. The obstructions keep coming, interspersed with conversation and clips from the original film, in which actors engage in a variety of activities, like eating and dancing, while the narrator posits oblique questions like "Why is joy so whimsical?" (Von Trier claims to have watched it "at least 20 times.") In the end, the two Danes have whipped up an unclassifiable concoction that plays less like documentary and more like a duel between friendly adversaries. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews:

play in the creative process.......2007-04-17

Anyone involved in any creative activity would do well to watch this one. Von Trier sets up a series of seemingly insurmountable challenges for his hero Jorgen Leth, and each of these challenges, in turn, is ingeniously subverted by Leth to create one mini-masterpiece after another, much to the astonishment and delight of the two of them. Each production of Mr. Leth is more astonishing than the last, and you begin to wonder how he can top himself. The sense of play is evoked most strongly by the fact that Mr. Leth can follow the letter of the rules laid down by Von Trier, yet each time playfully break those rules in essence.

It is a delightful and touching surprise, then, to become gradually aware of another story behind these exercises, a tender story of generosity. A great film about people who play with light for a living.

one of a kind.......2007-01-25

The Five Obstructions is a pretty unique film in conception and structure, moving between footage of Leth at work trying to cope with von Trier's peculiar rules, the resulting completed shorts, and von Trier's periodic brief appearances playing impish provocateur and critic. It is hard to think of another recent film that is so thought-provokingly centered around the challenge of artistic production. And the film becomes genuinely quite moving as it moves to a conclusion and as von Trier's motives for the game come more clearly into focus.

One odd (and perhaps telling) question raised by the DVD release is when one should watch actually the original short "The Perfect Human." The short itself is only seen in snippets throughout The Five Obstructions and I dare say that the chances of any American viewer already having seen it are close to absolute zero. It's my assumption, given that they certainly could have squeezed it in, that von Trier and Leth decided not to include the full original short in the theatrical film release in order to keep you from focusing on the details of comparison between the versions. That is, by not showing it, they remind you that the real point of this film is not really to dwell on the resulting remakes against the original but rather, by following Leth making these films, to focus on the human struggle to invest life with meaning through the creative process. So I suggest that you resist the temptation to watch the short first: although in some ways not knowing the original short makes you feel a bit slow and out of the loop at times, I think their choice not to feature it is the right one.

Of course, von Trier exhibits a bit of his renowned fiendishly sadistic streak that many of his critics have complained of in his own films. But I honestly think von Trier conclusively demonstrates here that this aspect of his work comes out of love really, his desire to push Leth to rise to the challenge, and I take the similar streak in his narrative films to reflect the same love of his audience. As with Hitchcock, von Trier's toying with his audience is not just to demonstrate mastery over the film viewer but to push our buttons into a cathartic emotional reaction, to make us think and work harder. It's a good thing, not a bad one.

brilliant.......2007-01-25

In 1967 the Danish director Jorgen Leth made a 12-minute film called The Perfect Human (be sure to get the DVD that includes this as an extra, and watch it first). In this documentary the controversial director Lars von Trier challenges his mentor to remake the film, which captivated him so much that he viewed it twenty times, but to do so following five different "obstructions" that he stipulates. First, he must film in Cuba with no set and no shot longer than 12 frames (about half a second). Next, he must go to wherever Leth feels is "the most miserable place on earth" and remake the film with himself playing the lead role, and so that it does not reveal the location. Third, Leth is given complete freedom to do as he pleases. Next, he must remake the film as an animated cartoon, since that is a medium both of them despise. Finally, in the most poignant part of the film, Leth must simply narrate a script written by von Trier, that is, the master must relinquish all control to his imperious student.

At one level this film is a fascinating look inside the aesthetic process, and how ostensible limitations can provoke rather than diminish creativity, for Leth does not, in fact, produce what von Trier predicts will be "a piece of crap" that "ruins a little gem." I was reminded, for example, of the strictures imposed by, say, eighteenth century musical style, which music is immediately recognizable because of that style, and yet on the other hand the limitless creativity that Mozart used to explore and expand the genre. At a second level, the film explores the ethics of the relationship between the subjective film maker and both his local context and the "objects" he films (often people, of course). Can Leth really make a film in the red light district of Bombay without being impacted by that context, or by ignoring it altogether? Would it be false to try such? Does he not have any personal qualms about filming a sumptuous dinner amidst starving masses? Third, we have here a contest between two different film styles, in which the iconoclastic von Trier tries to demolish the classical style of his teacher. Finally, von Trier admits that he is trying to "banalize" Leth, to force him to make a film that "marks" him or gets under his skin so that he cannot hide his true self behind the safety of the camera. He wants Leth to squirm like a turtle wriggling on its back. That is, he wants to prove that his mentor and idol is not "the perfect human." Leth intimates that von Trier fails, because he does in fact realize that he is merely an "abject, human human." Rather than reveal something about Leth, von Trier reveals that it is he who is the ultimate "obstruction" when he projects onto Leth something that is not there. In Danish with English subtitles.

VON TRIER VS. LETH.......2007-01-03

Unabashed hero worship can be tricky, but cinema provacateur Lars Von Trier wears his influences on his sleeve with this unique documentary showcasing the creativity and mind of Danish director Jorgen Leth. He challenges Leth to re-imagine his 1967 short film "The Perfect Human." He does this five times, each time time adding a set of maddening "obstructions" to make the task more difficult. The surprise is not that the obstructions create unexpected results (they do), but that something like sweetness emerges from the relationship of the two directors, an honest affection that's rarely been seen in Von Trier's other work. This is a wonderful film about the love of creativity, film, and art.

larrs admire yorgen leth.......2006-08-01

THIS FILM WAS COMPLIYLI ABOUT YORGEN LETH and it was very goodm
and i think this was the best way to admaye yorgen
each obstructin was good idea and each one made best pictuer ny leth.i think the screen ply was eacellant

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