Politics as Form in Lars von Trier

Angelos Koutsourakis is Professor in Film and Cultural Studies at the Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures, University of Leeds, UK. He is the author of Kafkaesque Cinema (2024), Rethinking Brechtian Film Theory and Cinema (2018), Politics as Form in Lars von Trier (Bloomsbury, 2013) and the co-editor of Cinema of Crisis: Film and Contemporary Europe (2020), and The Cinema of Theo Angelopoulos (2015).

Koutsourakis's examination of the often-examined Lars von Trier is refreshing for a couple of reasons. First, Koutsourakis (research fellow, Centre for Modernism Studies, Univ. of New South Wales, Australia) foregoes biographical attention to von Trier the man in the interest of restoring focus on the formal complexities of the films themselves. Second, Koutsourakis interprets the films through a postmodern rethinking of Bertolt Brecht, and he dedicates the first chapter, 50 pages or so, to Brecht and defining "post-Brechtian"--which should interest scholars of theater, performance studies, and contemporary cinema. The book is strongly argued and will prove useful to those interested in von Trier. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

• Preface and AcknowledgementsNotes to the TextForeword: Looking Back 1. From Brechtian to Post-Brechtian Cinema. Lars von Trier and the Post-Brechtian Brecht on the Film MediumBrecht’s Critique of the Institution of CinemaWhat is Post-Brechtian Cinema?Locating von Trier in the post-BrechtianChallenging the Cinematic InstitutionArtaudian Cruelty as Verfremdungseffekt 2. Historical Fragments in the Europa Trilogy Europe is PainfulBeyond the FabelAudiovisual Plenitude: the Individual in Crisis Dialectical Images Literalization of the Medium: the Essay as FormHistory as TransitionOn Film Voyeurism 3. The Primacy of the ApparatusBack to the 1970s? Dogme 95 Realism and Anti-Illusionism Technology and ProductivityThe Idiots: Performant Function and Performative CameraInterrupting the NarrativePerformance as FormCharacters as Bodily EffectsPerforming out of CharacterReflections on the Primacy of the Apparatus: Post-Dogme Developments, Rules and Automavision 4. Dogville and Manderlay: Experimentation and Dialectical NegationsRepresentation as an ExperimentExperimentation as PedagogyTheatricality: Attitudes in SpacePerformative ContradictionsNarrative Openness as Negative DialecticsEpilogue: Dialogue with the ‘Dissensual’ PastAppendix:Interview with Lars von TrierInterview with Jørgen LethManifestos Filmography and BibliographyIndex