The creeping pace of the onscreen action here as elsewhere heightens the sense of the action being dictated by an outside and sinister force, but without the masterful lighting, it wouldn’t be half as effective. This is most apparent in a magnificent super-slo-mo shot of Charlotte Gainsbourg crossing a wooden bridge as she approaches Eden. And from the opening scene of Antichrist, it’s clear that he hasn’t lost the gift. Von Trier and his longtime collaborator, the great cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle.Įver since his infamous Dogme 95 manifestor, Von Trier’s films have become associated with a seemingly slapdash handheld aesthetic, yet a quick look at his early work reveals that he has a unique flair for combining classical framing with unconventional lighting choices to create haunting images. No, it was the early scenes in which we first arrive at the scene of the future crimes - the forest retreat of Eden - that really got under my skin.

As I lay there for minute after agonizing minute, it eventually dawned on me that while the film’s much-publicized scenes of brutality certainly delivered on the hype, it wasn’t these scenes that haunted me. “The night I saw Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, I lay awake in my bed for several hours with my eyes slammed shut, afraid of what I might see if I opened them, yet too shaken by the film to sleep. (A very dark horse.) Behold:Īnthony Dod Mantle, Antichrist One of our tighter races results in an unexpected dark-horse winner.

Best cinematography shots in a circus