obstruction1: no single edit may be longer than 12 frames (answers, Cuba, no set)
obstruction2: a miserable place, don’t show it (failed to do so), Jorgen Leth is the man, the meal
obstruction3: complete freedom (make a film with no rules from Lars Von Trier), or back to Bombay
obstruction4: cartoon
obstruction5: Lars Von Trier will make the last obstruction, Jorgen Leth will be credited as director, Jorgen Leth will read a text written by Lars Von Trier
For the first obstruction, Jorgen investigated what the perfect human looks like and can do. To accomplish the second obstruction, he went to the red light district, Bombay, where it was so horrifying that triggered his nightmares. Jorgen put up a transparent screen in front of chaotic, miserable local people and dined elegantly. In the third task, he isolated places and the things that he wants to examine precisely. In terms of the fourth obstruction, although he hated cartoons, he made great efforts to try it out by gaining inspiration from Bob Sabiston and using old filmed clips actively. After shooting this movie, he confidently thought that he’ll be able to create something interesting this time, the significant shift of emotions indicated that he started to accept different forms of media.
I was surprised by the fact that Lars viewed the entire project to be a ‘help Jorgen Leth’ project. He considered himself as an expert in Jorgen and intended to impose self-flagellation on him through imposing the five obstructions, as he seemed to be trying to hide his true self, behind his provocative, perverse perfection. It was also inspiring to see how Jorgen reacted to different obstructions. In the first two cases, he had explicit ideas in mind regarding the specific requirements. However, when he was endowed the freedom to shoot a film without any restrictions, he considered it as a diabolical command and was at a loss. Most importantly, both filmmakers viewed this as a punishment, which means that a certain theme or obstruction may inversely provide artists with more inspiration.