THE IDIOTS
by Don Larsson

One of the recurring conflicts of modern times has been the question of what price civilization has extracted. From Rosseau, dreaming of noble savages, to Thoreau, urging us to "Simplify, simplify!" to Whitman, hankering to live with animals ("They are so placid and self-contained"), poets and thinkers have decried the artificial rules and trappings that confine us. Even Sigmund Freud, no believer in the nobility of savages, saw the costs of industrial, urban life. And, of course, there were many in my generation who tried to life off the land and get their souls free (as the song goes), only to be trapped in the devil's bargain after all.

Lars Von Trier's THE IDIOTS depicts another group making the attempt. Karen, an apparently single, maybe homeless, woman orders a meager lunch at a nice restaurant in the Tivoli Gardens but is distracted when a group of mentally retarded people begin to raise a fuss. Leaving the restaurant with them, she discovers that they are not retarded at all. They are part of a group, living communally, who seek to mock and exploit society's hypocrisy while getting in touch with their "inner idiot." Karen is taken aback at first, then angry, but eventually finds the community they offer to be so enticing that she decides she wants to find her own inner idiot.

The group's goal is only one of the many disturbing elements in the film, which is often quite funny. Almost every day, I ride the bus with a group of cafeteria workers who act in ways copied by these would-be intellectuals, and I can't help but feel that the reality of their lives is being exploited by the film's commune, if not the film itself.

That is part of the point, though, I think. In spite of the farcical tone of their goal, it is quite serious - and it is easy to mistake the film as attempting a bit of Adam Sandler-ish nihilsitic comedy. As they try to rediscover the simple physical joys of existence - the warmth of sunshine, the tactile experience of food - they also begin to face an array of challenges. They react awkwardly when introduced to a group of the truly retarded. They find themselves torn between simplicity and the call of jobs and families. They find their own personalities beginning to encroach on each other, leading to the threat of a personality-dominated cult. And, one by one, we begin to learn some of their pasts and discover some of their motives - what they seek to escape from as much as what they long to go towards. At the end, it is left to Karen, the newest member, to continue the dream and the quest, but whether she is able to do that, or even if she should, becomes doubtful as we learn more about her life as well.

The Idiots, like The Celebration (which was made after, but released before, this film) is a product of the DOGME 95 group, which includes von Trier and other Danish directors who reject much of what is taken for granted in contemporary movie-making. The rules include that there must be no printed credits, no artificial sound effects, not even any constructed sets or props not found on the scene. In its way, as von Trier recognizes, the collective is trying to do on film what the Idiots are trying to do in their lives - efforts that turn out to be equally contradictory and difficult. I've had very mixed feelings about the Dogme Manifesto, but I have to say that, for all its apparently simplicity, The Idiots is the most emotionally complex and challenging film that I have seen in some time.

 

CineScene, 2000