Review of Manderlay (2005) by Janne K — 22 Nov 2009
What an achievement! Lars von Trier's second installment of his trilogy of American history, values or whatever you want to call it, after "Dogville". The movie basically present one true American, possibly human, premise through the eyes of von Trier, an often-called anti-American and misanthrope: old habits are hard to break - in the case of this movie, racism.
A woman comes to a cotton plantation, around the 1930s, and finds that the landlord has blacks enslaved after they were liberated 70 years ago and, with the help of her father's gangsters, she implememts her own regime, which ends with a beautiful presented ironic ending.
Basically, she tries to free them but they don't know the concept of freedom and democracy, they only know normal: slavery. The visual beauty of this film, just like "Dogville", is that it was film in a sound stage, with the plantation locations stenciled on the floor and the lighting of the movie gives you a sense of depression, just like the ear that the movie story takes place.
In my opinion, a magnificent movie, not to be missed.
This review of Manderlay (2005) was written by Janne K on 22 Nov 2009.
Manderlay has generally received positive reviews.
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