The typically maverick filmmaker Lars von Trier is entering more common territory. Following the premiere of his latest "automavision" film, The Boss of it All, at the Copenhagen International Film Festival last Thursday, he announced plans to make a horror film called Antichrist. He didn't give anything away in terms of the plot, but did mention an affinity for Asian films like The Ring and Dark Water. He also said that it would be in English, will feature three main characters, and is likely to begin shooting next summer if financing goes as planned. He added that, "anything can happen in a horror film," suggesting that nothing about the project is definite. According to the report by ScreenDaily, producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen gave away too much plot info two years ago, prompting von Trier to completely rewrite the script and keep most of the details a secret from him.

Von Trier dabbled in horror a bit with his miniseries The Kingdom, which was recently remade for U.S. television by Stephen King, but it was more weird than scary (I know people who disagree with me there), and in that sense it shares with Asian horror the lack of slashing and hacking that is common with the American brand. I would prefer to see what the filmmaker would do with killings more than with hauntings, the latter being too permitting of free-form, surreal randomness, but hopefully he'll have something interesting to add to the genre no matter what he has in store.

As for Wasington, the third installment of von Trier's "America the Beautiful" trilogy (Dogville; Manderlay), which he previously said wouldn't happen, the film is not completely dead yet. He told reporters,"I'm quite sure it will happen one day," but says that right now it is an avoidable project.

I am a huge fan and an even bigger defender of Lars Von Trier, the controversial filmmaker who has been the cause of much polarization among film critics since he began making films that take place in, but are not filmed in, the United States, earning him a reputation for being anti-American. Now I anticipate him being criticized for backing down. He is supposedly giving up on his "America the Beautiful" trilogy (Dogville and Manderlay were the first two installments), having said that the third in the series, Wasington, had too many script problems. Now, his latest, The Boss of it All, a comedy in the Dogme 95 style, is going to premiere at the less-prestigious Copenhagen International Film Festival instead of Cannes, where his films are usually unveiled.

Some people will probably say that Von Trier is hiding out from his attackers, but I don't imagine that he would ever, ever let his critics affect him in such a way. As far as Wasington goes, I assume he is probably bored with the concept and has realized he doesn't need anything more to say in its context. The festival thing could simply be his recognition that Denmark is his home and he has nothing to prove by being in the spotlight of Cannes once again. Besides, if the film is finished now, why wait until May to screen it? Copenhagen began yesterday and runs until October 1st.

As I was flying back to New York from Park City on Sunday, Lars von Trier was also flying into the city – via a T1 line. The famously flight-phobic filmmaker (who has been making pictures highly critical of US cultural history for almost ten years, but has – legendarily – never set foot in the States) made an appearance at the IFC Center this weekend via iChat, timed to coincide with the NY premiere of his latest, Manderlay. The audience asked questions, and Uncle Lars, speaking into a webcam from the basement of his home in Denmark, answered. Von Trier claimed to be excited about the pure technological aspect of the chat, although no amount of futurism could apparently cure the fact that, as he puts it, he "hate(s) talking to people". indieWIRE has a full report on the event; the digital Lars' most interesting revelation? He's calling the America the Beautiful trilogy short. Manderlay was to have been the Brechtian series' second film of three (Dogville got the thorny ball rolling), but its planned follow-up, Wasington, has apparently been canned due to script problems. Even better news: Von Trier plans to make a Danish comedy instead.

You'll notice (the five of you who read this feature) that, each week, I try to find some sort of theme to go along with the featured trailers. This is no easy task. I have to research all of the newest trailers out and somehow find five of them that share something. Sometimes it's easy, and a quick search with provide tons of content. And then other times, well, this is my entire night.  

As we're about to enter, what I like to call, the mid-winter crapfest, I must warn you that the level of complaining going on within Trailer Park will be at its highest peak. This is fun for me because I love complaing. And if I piss someone off while doing so, it's like the best feeling ever. Why? I guess I have issues, who knows? Anyway, I figured I'd kick off the new year by showcasing films about women.

I mean, how can you complain about women? Women are beautiful creatures who were magically placed on this earth so that man would have something to love, hate and fight over a television remote with. The women in this week's films will no doubt leave a taste in your mouth. Be it sweet or sour, that's up to you. That's right, it's all about the ladies on this week's Trailer Park...

 

"How in the world," Manohla wonders, will Cannes jury member Toni Morrison (author of Beloved, The Bluest Eye, etc etc) respond to Lars Von Trier's Manderlay, a film whose subject is "white-on-black racism"? Dargis finds it "predictably ... every bit as boring as Dogville" (oooh ... no she didn't), but Todd McCarthy at Variety goes the other way with it. The "self-appointed American history professor" Von Trier has made "a leaner, better constructed and 40-minutes shorter picture" than Dogville, one which McCarthy seems generally in favor of (Dargis, for her part, says she's leaving the full review to Tony Scott). Manderlay deals with a plantation full of black slaves held by white owners in the 1920s, a good 70 years after the Civil War. Bryce Dallas Howard's Grace, (a role originally slated for Nicole Kidman, and which is apparently incarnation of the character she played in Dogville) stumbles opon the plantation and organises emancipation, which causes its own set of problems.