Lars von Trier loves controversy, so he’s probably getting a massive kick out of the fact that The House That Jack Built is being panned by critics and moviegoers alike.

Mass walkouts from the screening in Cannes, disgust on social media, and words like “vomitive” and “pathetic” – all in a day’s work for the Danish director.

Lars was actually banned from Cannes back in 2011, after a ‘joke’ he cracked was interpreted as being pro-Nazi, but now he is back with a bang.

To start, the trailer:

Not afraid of a little gratuitous violence.

The Daily Beast investigate how Lars went from being “one of the most respected art house directors of the early 21st century to a near-pariah in the film community”:

The evolution of von Trier’s current pariah status can be traced to his contradictory, seemingly muddled view of his female protagonists. Although von Trier gave many of his most prized roles to actresses—Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves, Nicole Kidman in Dogville, and Björk in Dancer in the Dark—and was at one time even deemed something of a feminist, critics were split as to whether he venerated, or identified with, women or merely wanted to feature them in his movies in order to torture them…

Of course, with the arrival of Björk’s 2017 accusations that von Trier sexually harassed her on the set of Dancer in the Dark, there are few feminist defenders of the embattled Dane. Some commentators have even been astounded that von Trier is considered deserving of an invitation to Cannes.

And let’s get a little artsy:

The movie’s central conundrum, call it philosophical or call it perverse devil’s advocacy, is whether murder can be deemed art…

It’s true that most of Jack’s victims are children or women, and it’s more than understandable that Cannes audiences have been repelled by scenes of Uma Thurmanbeing pummeled to death or a sequence in which Riley Keough’s breast is mutilated and removed.

Where’s the outrage and condemnation, man?

Don’t stress – a summary from Stuff:

Variety’s Ramin Setoodah called it “one of the most unpleasant movie-going experiences of my life.” He counted more than 100 people walking out of the film.

Showbiz 411’s Roger Friedman was one of the walkouts, calling The House That Jack Built a “vile movie. Should not have been made. Actors culpable.”

Al Jazeera reporter Charlie Angela also left midway, “because seeing children being shot and killed is not art or entertainment,” she wrote on Twitter.

New York magazine’s Kyle Buchanan observed crowd reaction to the depths of violence depicted on screen.

“Talked to someone who walked out of the Lars von Trier film at Cannes: ‘He mutilates Riley Keough, he mutilates children … and we are all there in formal dress expected to watch it?’ “

There’s the outrage.

I haven’t watched this yet, and I don’t reckon I will.

I’m still recovering from watching the first eight minutes of Stephen King’s new IT movie.

[sources:dailybeast&stuff]