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Manderlay

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For the fictional estate, seeManderley.For the Burmese city, seeMandalay.

Manderlay
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLars von Trier
Written byLars von Trier
Produced byVibeke Windeløv
Starring
Narrated byJohn Hurt
CinematographyAnthony Dod Mantle
Edited byMolly Marlene Stensgård
Music byJoachim Holbek
Production
companies
Distributed byDistributionsselskabet (Denmark)
Nordisk Film[1](Denmark; through Nordisk-Constantin-Fox[2])
Sony Pictures Releasing(Sweden)[2]
A-Film Distribution (Netherlands)[3]
Les films du losange(France)[2]
Neue Visionen (Germany)[2]
Metrodome Distribution (United Kingdom)[2]
01 Distribution(Italy)[3]
Release dates
  • 16 May 2005(2005-05-16)(Cannes)
  • 3 June 2005(2005-06-03)(Denmark)
Running time
138 minutes[4]
Countries
  • Denmark
  • Sweden
  • Netherlands
  • France
  • Germany
  • United Kingdom
  • Italy
LanguageEnglish
Budget$14.2 million[3]
Box office$675,000[3]

Manderlayis a 2005avant-gardedrama filmwritten and directed byLars von Trier,the second and final part of von Trier's projectedUSA – Land of Opportunitiestrilogy. It starsBryce Dallas Howard,who replacesNicole Kidmanin the role of Grace Mulligan. The film co-starsWillem Dafoe,replacingJames Caan.Lauren Bacall,Željko Ivanek,Jeremy Davies,andChloë Sevignyreturn portraying different characters from those inDogville. OnlyJohn Hurt,Udo Kier,andJean-Marc Barrreprise their roles. The film wasinternationally co-producedwith seven different European countries.

The staging is very similar toDogville,which was shot on a sparsely dressedsound stageakin toblack box theater.As in the case ofDogville,Manderlay's action is confined to a small geographic area, in this case aplantation.The film is dedicated in memory of a French film producer,Humbert Balsan(1954-2005).

Plot

[edit]

The film is told in eight straight chapters:

  1. In which we happen upon Manderlay and meet the people there
  2. "The freed enterprise of Manderlay"
  3. "The Old Lady's Garden"
  4. In which Grace means business
  5. "Shoulder to Shoulder"
  6. Hard times at Manderlay
  7. "Harvest"
  8. In which Grace settles with Manderlay and the film ends

Set in 1933, the film takes up the story of Grace and her father after burning the town of Dogville at the end of the previous film. Grace and her father travel in convoy with a number of gunmen through ruralAlabamawhere they stop briefly outside a plantation called Manderlay. As the gangsters converse, a black woman emerges from Manderlay's front gates complaining that someone is about to be whipped for stealing a bottle of wine.

Grace enters the plantation and learns that within it,slaverypersists, roughly 70 years after theAmerican Civil Warand theEmancipation Proclamation.Grace is appalled and insists on staying at the plantation with a small contingent of gunmen and her father's lawyer, Joseph, in order to guarantee the slaves' safe transition to freedom. Shortly after Grace's father and the remaining gangsters depart, Mam, the master of the house, dies, but not before asking Grace to burn a notebook containing "Mam's Law," an exhaustive code of conduct for the entire plantation and all its inhabitants, free and slave. She reads the descriptions of each variety of slave that can be encountered, which include:

  • Group 1: ProudyNigger
  • Group 2: Talkin' Nigger
  • Group 3: Weepin' Nigger
  • Group 4: Hittin' Nigger
  • Group 5: Clownin' Nigger
  • Group 6: Losin' Nigger
  • Group 7: Pleasin' Nigger (also known as achameleon,a person of the kind who can transform himself into exactly the type the beholder would like to see)

The principal seven divisions are each populated by a single adult slave at Manderlay, who congregate daily and converse on a "parade ground," with Roman numerals of the numbers 1 through 7 designating where each slave stands. "Mam's Law" contains further provisions against the use of cash by slaves, or the felling of trees on the property for timber.

All of this information disgusts Grace and inspires her to take charge of the plantation in order to punish the slave owners and prepare the slaves for life as free individuals. In order to guarantee that the former slaves will not continue to be exploited, no longer as slaves but instead assharecroppers,Grace orders Joseph to draw up contracts for all Manderlay's inhabitants, institutionalizing a form of cooperative living in which the white family works as slaves and the blacks collectively own the plantation and its crops. Throughout this process, Grace lectures all those present about the notions offreedomand democracy, using rhetoric entirely in keeping with the ideology ofracial equalitywhich most contemporary Americans had yet to embrace.

However, as the film progresses, Grace fails to embed these principles in Manderlay's community in a form she considers satisfactory. Furthermore, her suggestions for improving the conditions of the community backfire on several occasions, such as using the surrounding trees for timber, which leaves the crops vulnerable to dust storms. After a year of such tribulations, the community harvests its cotton and successfully sells it, marking the high point of Grace's involvement. Subsequently, she un-enthusiastically has sex with one of the ex-slaves who also steals and gambles away all of the cotton profits. Finally admitting her failure, Grace contacts her father and attempts to leave the plantation only to be stopped by the plantation's blacks. At this point it is revealed that "Mam's Law" was not conceived and enforced by Mam or any of the other whites, but instead by Wilhelm, the community's eldest member, as a means of maintaining the status quo after the abolition of slavery, protecting the blacks from a hostile outside world. As in many von Trier films, theidealisticmain character becomes frustrated by the reality he or she encounters.

Cast

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Production

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Nicole KidmanandJames Caan,who had appeared in earlier chapter of the trilogy, did not return for this film; Kidman was unable to return due to scheduling conflicts, while Caan disapproved of the film's depiction ofanti-American cultureandslavery.

Fearful about her sex scene,Bryce Dallas Howardsaid she approached it in a hypnotic state. After the first take, she excused herself and went to the bathroom to collect her thoughts, then started to think of it as a sort of comedic scene. "Just in my head. And interestingly enough, Lars kind of felt that. The scene wasn't written funny at all, but there are some really eccentric and absurd moments in that scene that people tend to chuckle at."[5]

Donkey killing

[edit]

During production, adonkeywas slaughtered for dramatic purposes resulting inJohn C. Reilly,the actor originally cast as Dr. Hector, quitting in protest.[6][7]The scene was cut from the film before it was released.[8]

Reception

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Critical reception

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Manderlayreceived mixed reviews from critics. As of March 2022,the film holds a 50% approval rating on review aggregation siteRotten Tomatoes,based on 103 reviews with an average rating of 5.70/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Manderlaymay work better as a political statement than as a film, making its points at the expense of telling a compelling story. "[9]OnMetacritic,the film has aweighted averagescore of 46 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[10]

Anthony Lane ofThe New Yorkersaid, "Von Trier is not so much a filmmaker as a misanthropic mesmerist, who uses movies to bend the viewer to his humorless will,"[11]while Josh Kun of theLos Angeles Timesadded, "Trier gets lost in his own rhetoric."[12]

Conversely,The Guardianfilm criticPeter BradshawandRoger Ebertboth gave the film mildly positive reviews. While noting, "Many moviegoers are likely to like the film less than the discussion it drags them into," Ebert opined, "The crucial difference betweenManderlayand the almost unbearableDogvilleis not that [von Trier's] politics have changed, but that his sense of mercy for the audience has been awakened. "[13]Peter Bradshaw claimed thatManderlay"is a wind-up, but an effective wind-up," and wrote of von Trier's Land of Opportunities trilogy, "My guess is you can throw away the first and third movies and keep this one."[14]

Box office

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The film took a total of $674,918 from 12 countries.[3]

Accolades

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Manderlaywas entered into the2005 Cannes Film Festival.[15]

Soundtrack

[edit]

TheManderlaysoundtrack, including songs from the filmDogville,was arranged by composer Joachim Holbek, and released through Milan Records.

  1. "Dogville Overture" – (VivaldiConcert in G Major)
  2. "Thoughts of Tom" – (HandelConcerto Grosso in D Major)
  3. "Happy at Work" – (Oboe Concerto Albinoni Concerto For Oboe in D Minor)
  4. "Dogville Theme" – (Vivaldi Concert in G Major)
  5. "The Gifts" – (Flute And Cembalo Vivaldi Concerto For Flute in D Minor)
  6. "Happy Times in Dogville" – (AlbinoniConcerto For Oboe in D Minor)
  7. "Fast Motion" – (Vivaldi Concert in G Major)
  8. "The Fog" – (Vivaldi "Madrigalesco" RV 139)
  9. "Grace Gets Angry" – (Vivaldi "Nisi Dominus" RV 608)
  10. "Change of Time" – (Pergolesi"Stabat Mater" )
  11. "Manderlay Theme" – (Vivaldi Concerto For Basson in a Minor)
  12. "Mam's Death" – (Vivaldi Concert in G Minor)
  13. "The Child" – (Vivaldi "Al Santo Sepolcro" and Pergolesi "Quando Corpus Morietur" )
  14. "The Swallows Arrive" – (Handel Aria)
  15. "Young Americans" –David Bowie

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Manderlay (2005)".Danish Film Database.Retrieved16 November2021.
  2. ^abcde"Film #20040: Manderlay".Lumiere.Retrieved3 April2021.
  3. ^abcde"Manderlay (2006)".Box Office Mojo.Retrieved24 April2016.
  4. ^"Manderlay".British Board of Film Classification.Retrieved20 May2013.
  5. ^"'Prude' Howard fills in for Kidman ".www.deseret.com.22 May 2005.Retrieved9 February2022.
  6. ^Brooks, Xan; Tempest, Matthew (29 April 2004)."Reilly drops out over dead donkey".The Guardian.Retrieved1 September2023.
  7. ^Smith, Neil (19 May 2011)."Lars Von Trier's controversial career".BBC News.Retrieved1 September2023.
  8. ^"Cruelty to Animals in the Entertainment Business: Cruel Camera – Cruelty on Film: the fifth estate: CBC News".CBC News.Archived fromthe originalon 25 March 2010.
  9. ^"Manderlay (2006)".Retrieved22 June2020– via www.rottentomatoes.com.
  10. ^Manderlay Reviews,Metacritic,retrieved20 March2022
  11. ^Lane, Anthony (29 January 2006)."Job Discrimination".The New Yorker– via www.newyorker.com.
  12. ^Kun, Josh (3 February 2006)."Manderlay".Los Angeles Times.Archived fromthe originalon 6 February 2006.Retrieved24 April2016.
  13. ^Manderlay– Roger Ebert
  14. ^Bradshaw, Peter (3 March 2006)."Manderlay".The Guardian.Retrieved24 April2016.
  15. ^"Festival de Cannes: Manderlay".festival-cannes.com.Retrieved6 December2009.
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