Ep. 52 Dogville

Join me today as I we go to the 1930s Rocky Mountains and the avant-garde world of Lars von Trier’s film, Dogville. With the magic of digital video, minimalist setting, and an unforgettable performance from Nicole Kidman and Paul Bettany, we promise you'll find yourself captivated by this remarkable cinematic experience.

Feel the pulse of Dogville as we dissect the life of a fugitive, Grace, who finds sanctuary in this small town. Immerse yourself in a narrative that blurs the lines between greed and acceptance. I highlight the standout performances and the unique visual style of this movie. 

Whether you're a film enthusiast or a casual viewer, this deep dive into Dogville promises to be an engaging and rewarding journey.

Warning: Spoilers as always!

Transcript

Preview: 0:01

The fun ninja game is getting more and more acne-straff. Acord the Gifts of Samino. This is the sad tale of the township of Dogville. Dogville was in the Rocky Mountains in the US of A Up here where the road came to its definitive end near the entrance to the old, abandoned Silver Mine. The residents of Dogville were good, honest folks and they liked their township, and while a sentimental soul from the East Coast had once dubbed their main street Elm Street though no Elm had ever cast its shadow in Dogville, they saw no reason to change anything. Most of the buildings were pretty wretched, more like shacks. Frankly, the house in which Tom lived was the best though, and in good times might almost have passed for presentable. That afternoon the radio was playing softly, for in his dotage Thomas Edison Sr had developed a weakness for music of the lighter kind.

Vito: 1:34

Alright, today we are going to talk a little bit about Dogville. Actually, I've seen this once, a long time ago, when it first came out in 2003, and I watched it. I believe it was either on IFC or Sundance Channel back in the day. But yeah, this was. I love it, want to talk about it a little bit. I'm alone today, so a little change of pace, anyways. But I do want to say we've been doing this for now, now that we're in August, we started back in September of last year, so this has been about a year now. Well, I say August. Now I'm recording this. I think that's why I'll post it, but we've been doing this now for about a year and we've done over 50 episodes and you know I love it. This has been super fun talking about movies and I do appreciate it. But you can also. You know we're pretty much streaming on most of the platforms and we also have our website, thegatechaminocom you can check us out there if you want to get in contact as well has our links and so forth, and there's actually a little donate section on the website and if anybody wants to give me some money for doing this, feel free to. I will take it. No problem at all there. Also, you might notice, I actually updated the Gates of Chimino logo before it just had just said Gates of Chimino and now I added Bobby D from the Dear Hunter putting the gun to his head. But it's been fun talking movies and having our guests come on. But the other day I was on movie and I was, you know, watching and I saw Dogville on there and they have a lot of Lars Venturer's movies on there right now streaming. So I was like you know what? I'm going to give Dogville another shot, because it's been years and I remember what I loved about it was just the setup, how it was done in this little stage play, minimalist setting, and nobody lived in a home, it was just drawn out and I just that was really what stood out for me back in the day, just that avant-garde setting. And I knew who Lars Venturer was, mostly because of Dance for in the Dark and he was really getting into that digital video era and then obviously, the dog must off he was doing. So I thought Dogville was just.

Vito: 3:52

I don't know if it's my favorite Nicole Kidman movie, but it is my favorite performance of hers. This is just, I don't know, it's great. So basically give it a little bit of a rundown of the story. But Nicole Kidman, she shows up at this town Well, actually, with Paul Bettany, plays a guy named Tom Edison and him and his dad live in Dogville, colorado, and it's this little poor town in the supposed to be Great Depression, 1930s America.

Vito: 4:20

It's in Colorado, little, I don't think a mining town or whatever, but there's just not a lot of people there. And the cool Kidman shows up, paul Bettany's out at night one time walking around, and I love the street, the street called Elm Street, this little tiny, you know chalk draw street in the middle of this. It definitely feels like a stage play, but it's not. He just chose the film it this way and it could have been. It could have been an equally effective movie if it was done regular. But you know you get sucked into this setup really fast. And the digital video usually I hate it. I hate the look back then, early 2000s, you know, because it really it wasn't Ready to. You know, look like real movies yet. But that was the video and the setting.

Vito: 5:02

You, you are in this movie within 10 minutes, you're just stuck. And the cool Kidman she plays a woman named grace, who shows up in this town. Paul Betney finds her hiding out and she's, like you know, got to help me, hide me there. They're after me and he, you could tell he's instantly just attracted to her. And, and this, these mobsters show up and they're like yeah, we're looking for a girl. And he sticks up for and says I can't, we Don't know where she's at. And then this mobster pulls down the window a tiny bit, you don't see who he is. And he hands a card to Tom Tom medicine, and he tells him do you call me if you find this girl? And then they take off and that's kind of the setting of the movie. Now the movie's done in. Like the plot of it all is done in nine chapters and and in every time and it goes on for a few minutes and a new chapter will pop up and at the end and it goes to chapter 9 and that's how it closes out.

Vito: 5:56

The movies narrated by John Hertz John Hertz, you know you have when you hear people narrating movies you always have these distinct voices. But this voice, john hurt. And also the assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford. That's my other favorite narration. I just love these it's a little bit more of an offbeat voice and you just get kind of sucked into it. But to get back into the story, so it's just weird talking about myself now, used to having people on with me but I just wanted to talk about dogville. I just I love it and I wanted to just to dive into it. But but the movie itself is so.

Vito: 6:35

Anyways, they take her in and all the, all the the people in town are just at first they're kind of intrigued with her. They, they like her, they can tell she's beautiful Chloe Semnier, hoping it put your name, girl hoping it. But her character is really funny. She plays a Girl named Liz and she was like the good-looking hot one in town before Before grace shows up and she's kind of funny. But they all take her in and Everybody is. I mean just this ensemble cast from Benghaza, filler, big Philip Baker Hall, patricia Clarkson, I mean there's just like big, giant characters, actors in this movie and it was Let me who else was in this move? I mean Lauren Bacall is in it and I mean it's just Gigantic and they take her in but as and so they all know she's on the run, but they're intrigued by it and it's. You know, if you work for us in this town, we'll let you hide out.

Vito: 7:33

Here is the plot, and you know in short. So Gray stays in in dogville and just starts working with everybody and and then it seems like it's going well for a while. She starts making money there, making friends, and then, as it keeps going, it just gets fucking nuts, this movie. And they start, you know, the men are all slowly getting attracted to her and it goes nuts. Um, still, in Scarsguard is a place I got named Chuck and he is like completely in love with her and they're all of a sudden Like he rapes her and it's just fucking nuts. Because you're watching it, I mean they show the town all doing their thing, but since there isn't any real homes, no buildings, no walls there, you see him in the background With his ass going up and down and they're all like talking, not knowing what's going on in this house. It's just fucking bizarre. But then after that it slowly starts happening where all like the men are just taking advantage of her. All the women hate her.

Vito: 8:33

Patricia Clarkson, who plays Stella, scarsguard's wife, is just like. She starts off as a sweet lady and then just starts turning really vicious and and so all the men are raping her and the women are torturing her. They end up putting a chain like dogcaller around her so she can't run away totally off the fucking wall. Paul Bettany is the only one who she's having a little bit of like some kind of emotional attachment to, but as it goes on, he's a little bit of a weasel and he never threw away that card that was given to him.

Vito: 9:07

And you know, in I don't I'm not gonna give away the ending. Since I'm by myself now I don't want to give away the ending, but it's one of my favorite endings ever. Eventually I won't give away how it ends, but Paul Bettany ends up calling the mobsters. But well, actually, throughout the movie cops are showing up in dogville putting up signs saying you know this woman's wanted for a bank robbery and all this kind of stuff. So everyone's freaking out more and more, but they're really no better than than grace. I mean, right from the beat up. It's fucking insane.

Vito: 9:38

I have not myself thinking about this. It's just crazy how they chain her up and it's and you're like what life Did she? Is she running from that? She would want to live like this, letting the women treat her like this. The men Are doing this to her. Paul Bettany's the only one that's not and you think there is something he's gonna redeem with her. But in the end he's really turns into the biggest ride of a mall and he calls the mobsters back the mob. So the mobsters all show up. She's trying to hide. You think they're gonna whack her, you know, and it ends up it's James Codd, is the is the head dog and he's the main mobster who handed his car at the beginning.

Preview: 10:15

And I'm like, fucking awesome, start by shooting the dog now like a tool wall, need that lamp, for example? Well, it might help. It sometimes does. It would only make the town more frightened. Would hardly make it a better place.

Vito: 10:36

It's fucking so cool seeing Jimmy Khan showing up as the dad. So it ends up being that he's the father of grace and that's what she ran away she just running away from the life of the mob. She just doesn't like it and he starts talking to her and they're had to have this great dialogue in the car and that's whenever, like the climax of the movie, happens. It's fucking insane. You gotta watch this movie. If you haven't, it's on movie, I'm sure it's. It can be rented online somewhere else. Dreaming it's one of the great endings. This long movie Few hours, I mean, I don't know exactly how long it is, but it felt like it was close to three hours and but it's worth it, it's. It's definitely Just an insane and insane movie to just I don't know, fuck, it's crazy, it's just a crazy ending. Now I was reading up a little bit after I watched it that the you know Paul Betten. He actually didn't even want to be in the movie and he actually Kind of got duped into doing it from the still in the scars guard who he's friends with, and kind of I guess he lied to him and told him how fun Lars Ranchers movies were to be on and it's just the greatest time on set. So when he got there like a few weeks into the movie, it was like a disaster, disaster. But he you know you get kind of treated rough by him and the scars guard told him that he was just lying and went to be on the movie because he knew it was going to be a good project. So I thought that was kind of funny that he did that to him. And I also found out that director Jennifer Kent, who did Bob a Duke a few years back, she actually ended up, instead of going to film school, she ended up contacting Lars Ventura, wanted to be his assistant and I came on to this movie and she said she learned more from this than any film school could have taught her. I mean that's a really cool, that's a really cool story to hear and I think that's awesome that she did that.

Vito: 12:25

And Quentin Tarantino was always a big advocate of the film and and I also guess it was supposed to be a regular movie. You know it was supposed to be, you know with with the regular setting and everything. But I guess he wasn't when I was reading his large venture, wasn't happy with the way the pre production was going over the setups he was coming up with and then it just he turned it into this like primitive set that I mean it for a second it might throw you off, but it really it doesn't. It's, it's fucking, it's insane. But, like I said, I've only seen it twice, saw it back when it first came out years ago and I've always liked it. But it was more of a setting that that took me in.

Vito: 13:04

I was, you know, it's kind of new filmmaker at that time and it was all about, like the execution that I was really into. So I just love the setup and I loved, you know, because I was a big fan of like the dog, my guys and I just, you know, being a low budget filmmaker, you just get into that. And when I watch it this time it was all story. It was all story and the cool Kidman and she, just she blows me away in this one and I love her and I thought it was great. Again, it's my favorite performance of hers. Might be my favorite Lars Venturer movie as well. Anyways, it's a good one and I wanted to share my thoughts with you guys and check it out. It's a fun one, it's a great movie. Watch it dogville, and until next time.

Preview: 13:50

I see a beautiful little town in the midst of magnificent mountains, a place where people have hopes and dreams.

Vito: 14:11

What if I said you could stay here, but I've got?

Preview: 14:14

nothing to offer them in return? No, I think you have plenty to offer, Davo. We all have the right to make the most of our lives. Stay with us as long as you damn please. Hey, we're looking for somebody. I am in a position to offer a considerable reward.

Vito: 14:39

You think we should give?

Preview: 14:40

sanctuary to a fugitive. If I was trying to fool anyone, God only knows what that woman is capable of. I really don't want to put any of you in jeopardy. You're one of us now. Dogville has it got you fooled. Yet People are the same all over Greedy as animals. If people in this town don't like me, there's nothing I can do about that. Dogville's got everything you ever dreamed of.