“A crying woman is a scheming woman.”
Women are supposed to be natural caregivers. Once we become mothers, we’re expected to put aside our own physical pleasures and dedicate our lives to protecting our young. But what of the mothers who can’t keep their children alive? The women who fail in the one job they were made to fulfill? Even worse, what if this death is an act of neglect? Rather than hover and dote, what if a mother indulges her own physical pleasure at the cost of her child? Would we call that woman evil? Would we call her a witch? Lars von Trier reckons with the expectations we place on women in his controversial film Antichrist. By exploring the natural urges of a grieving mother, he interrogates the patriarchal construction of evil itself.
She (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and He (Willem Dafoe) are a married couple enjoying domestic bliss when an accident tears apart their happy home. In the aftermath of their young son’s death, She displays an atypical grief pattern and He takes it upon himself to treat her. In order to confront her deepest fears, they travel to a remote cabin deep in the woods. But what kind of evil will they find in the sinister forest? As the acorns rain down and the Beggars arrive, She reconnects with a darker source of emotional power in the natural beauty of Satan’s church.
The Lady Killers conclude Murderous Mothers Month by dissecting the root of feminine evil. What is the cost of internalized misogyny and can love withstand incalculable grief? Co-hosts Jenn Adams, Mae Shults, Rocco T. Thompson, and Sammie Kuykendall dig into this harrowing film and a troubled couple on a path to destruction. Is it ethical for a therapist to treat his own spouse? Why would She put her son’s shoes on the wrong feet? Should He kill that sassy crow and who are all those faceless women in the forest? They’ll whip out the scissors and walk between rocks as they wander Von Trier’s forest of relentless nihilism.
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