Friday | March 26, 2004 7:00 pm

The Five Obstructions

Screening on Film

Directed by Jørgen Leth and Lars von Trier.
Denmark/Switzerland/Belgium/France, 2003, 35mm, color and b&w, 90 min.
Danish, English, French, Spanish with English subtitles.

Documentarian Jørgen Leth’s 1967 experimental film The Perfect Human provides the inspiration for this unusual collaboration with Lars von Trier. In The Five Obstructions, von Trier challenges Leth to remake this seminal work five different times. Each remake is constricted by an arbitrary set of limitations determined by the impish von Trier. As Leth becomes increasingly frustrated with his counterpart’s whims, von Trier documents the breakdown of the creative process. This inspired tête-a tête gives an intriguing perspective on the odd manipulations between filmmaker and subject.