Tagline: A quiet little town not far from here.
Dogville movie storyline. Late one night, a beautiful and well-dressed young woman, Grace, arrives in the mountainous old mining town of Dogville as a fugitive; following the sound of gunshots in the distance which have been heard by Tom, the self-appointed moral spokesman for the town. Persuaded by Tom, the town agree to hide Grace, and in return she freely helps the locals.
However, when the Sheriff from a neighbouring town posts a Missing notice, advertising a reward for revealing her whereabouts, the townsfolk require a better deal from Grace, in return for their silence; and when the Sheriff returns some weeks later with a Wanted poster, even though the citizens know her to be innocent of the false charges against her, the town’s sense of goodness takes a sinister turn and the price of Grace’s freedom becomes a workload and treatment akin to that of a slave. But Grace has a deadly secret that the townsfolk will eventually encounter.
Dogville is a 2003 internationally co-produced avant-garde crime drama film written and directed by Lars von Trier, and starring an ensemble cast led by Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Paul Bettany, Chloë Sevigny, Stellan Skarsgård, Udo Kier, Ben Gazzara, and James Caan.
The film is the first in von Trier’s projected USA – Land of Opportunities trilogy, which was followed by Manderlay (2005) and is projected to be completed with Washington. The film was in competition for the Palme d’Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival but Gus Van Sant’s Elephant won the award.
It was screened at various film festivals before receiving a limited release in the US on March 26, 2004. Dogville then got a wide release on April 23, 2004. It opened to polarized reviews from critics. Some considered it to be pretentious or exasperating; it was viewed by others as a masterpiece, and has grown in stature since its initial release.
The film grossed $1,535,286 in the US market and $15,145,550 from the rest of the world for a total gross of $16,680,836 worldwide. In the opening US weekend it did poorly, grossing only $88,855. The movie was released in only nine theaters, however, with an average of $9,872 per theater. In Denmark, the film grossed $1,231,984.[30] The highest-grossing country was Italy, with $3,272,119.
According to von Trier, the point of the film is that “evil can arise anywhere, as long as the situation is right”. Ebert and Roeper criticized Dogville as having a strongly anti-American message, citing, for example, the closing credits sequence with images of poverty-stricken Americans [taken from Jacob Holdt’s documentary book American Pictures (1984)] accompanied by David Bowie’s song “Young Americans”.
Dogville (2004)
Directed by: Lars Von Trier
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Stellan Skarsgaard, Siobhan Fallon, Patricia Clarkson, Jeremy Davies, Philip Baker Hall, Thom Hoffman, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Zeljko Ivanek
Screenplay by: Lars Von Trier
Production Design by: Peter Grant
Cinematography by: Anthony Dod Mantle
Film Editing by: Molly Marlene Stensgård
Costume Design by: Manon Rasmussen
Set Decoration by: Simone Grau
MPAA Rating: R for violence and sexual content.
Distributed by: Lionsgate Films
Release Date: April 23, 2004
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