Here is the address of our project:
http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~yy2572/video_project/1
The disciplines of the second obstruction are:
- shot in a miserable place
- don’t show where it is
- Leth is the man in the film
- Leave out the woman in the film but retain the meal
It may be one of the most obstructions among all five ones, both techniques and emotions. Leth needs not only to convey a sorrowful feeling which he tries to get away from, but also has to show that feeling with his own acting. Moreover, since he is not allowed to show the place or people there, he has to interpret the atmosphere there and tries to bring it to the audience on himself.
However, Leth plays a trick, he did block the people and place, but he did this with a transparent curtain. Thus even it provides a feeling of isolation, audience can see the people around and the street there. Though Trier doesn’t think this film satisfy his request, he admits it is a good work.
In this film, Leth acts as a traditional European just as Claus Nissen does in the original one. He deletes the woman part and largely reduces the man part. He only uses a little time to do the movements part and the meal takes most of its time.
I think by doing this, Leth was trying to point out why that place is miserable, why the people behind the curtain is not perfect. It is not because they don’t have eyes or ears or mouse, and it is not because they do not how to act as a human. It is because they don’t have material insurance. Also, considering the isolated empty white space in the original film, the transparent curtain is a intermediate state between isolated and not isolated. It shows the secret place outside that perfect white world, with blocking the imperfect people out of the place. And this ingenious set also makes Leth and the local people contrast with each other.