Manderlay

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An analysis of Lars von Trier’s Manderlay.
Dodgeville and Manderlay by Lars von Trier form the first two sections of the ‘USA Films’ planned trilogy, with the third segment, Washington that is yet to be realised. Both of these movies tell the story of a woman named Grace Mulligan, a cultured gangster’s daughter that is fiercely moral and attempts to change the miserable lives of the poor people around her, often under with hefty circumstances. Set in the year 1933, Grace stumbles upon a group of African American slaves that had not been informed that slavery had been abolished by their ‘masters.’ She promptly lets them know that slavery was banned and they are free. She then takes over the plantation to help them transition from slavery to freedom. Nonetheless, the former slaves are sort of in a ‘culture shock,’ and do not know how to act and what to do now that they are free. Accordingly, the end up doing the same things as they did before. However, Grace does not lose hope and rounds the former slaves up and lectures the entire group on democratic citizenship. This talk, together with time, helps the community come together and act as one. With this unity, they plant crops, harvest and get a good price for their produce. Nonetheless, the money is stolen, and it is discovered that Timothy, Grace’s husband took the money. In a climatic end, Grace is forced to punish Timothy, but Timothy blames her for turning him into what he is (Manderlay).

Generally, Lars von Trier’s Manderlay covers issues of modern freedom and slavery. The paper herein will analyse Lars von Trier’s Manderlay based on the main theme, characterization, setting, genre and the film techniques.
The primary theme of this film: the ascent by which the former slaves want to go on as slaves, as well as the failure by Grace to cure these slaves of that enslaved and perverted type of freedom. In the end, this defeat accosts Grace – as it accosts the fact the modern freedom that we all have – with Grace’s dark side, the slaves and our own will to become liberated. This is an encounter with the secretly at work wish in modern freedom. Accordingly, this theme is what Lars von Trier’s Manderlay is after through mirroring slavery into modern freedom and it’s apparently tragic arrangement.
On the other hand, the minimalist setting of Manderlay, with its conservative photography and staging have a hypnotic effect, similar to the calamitous Jacob Holdt photo montage that shows the devastation of the lives of blacks in Southern states after slavery’s abolition. This setting utilised by Lars von Trier’s abates down cinematic language and characterization in such a way that we see them as minimalist stereotypes. The time in which the movie was set, 1933, also helps in making the film more realistic in that slavery was abolished in the US in 1833, a gap of precisely a decade between when the movie is set (HistoryNet).
Von trier has become known for his film techniques by his reputation of a provocateur as well as a recreational. He has the ability of ambivalently portraying a controversial subject matter. On a sincere basis or not, he further casts his choice to form particular films as contradictions of the evaluations made of his earlier works. On one or two occasions Von Trier’s approach to film making is somewhat in the form of a protest substantively. As a reaction to the criticism brought forward regarding the negative way in which he had portrayed a country which he had never been to, America, the film director made a decision to pursue his trilogy. Trier’s proposed that the films, Manderlay, Dogville, and Dancer in the dark were a set of sermons about America’s trespasses and hypocrisy. Moreover, it was as an answer to the criticism of cultural imperialism of American film-making. To him, this was an industry that had produced numerous films about places that their filmmakers had also not traveled. Without concern of the kind of substance he reasons with, or the fact that he is an arthouse equivalent to the much impulsive rattles of perceptions, there still stands so much to be appreciated about his desire to make films. Daringly, his methods commonly approach forbidden territories (Palmer, 2).
The film genre is that of drama as it begins in a plantation where slavery has never been abolished. The mam rules with an iron fist with assistance from her foreman, Wilhelm. Wilhelm, in the film believes that his people are still not ready for freedom and continues to assist his boss. On the other hand, Grace and her father are astonished to find out that slavery still exists. She declares that it cannot be as the plantation should have been well informed of prior events as the civil war and emancipation proclamation. She further imposes her father, a gangster to leave behind a lawyer and four other armed thugs in case she needs to use brute force to bring forth democracy in that place. In the ending, the character, Grace who comes to fight for the democracy of the slaves, is appointed to be the mam as they prefer Manderlay return to its olden ways.

Work cited
Palmer, Landon. “6 Filmmaking Tips from Lars Von Trier”. Film School Rejects. N.p., 2014. Web. 7 Dec. 2016.
HistoryNet, “Slavery in America | Historynet”. HistoryNet. N.p., 2016. Web. 7 Dec. 2016. Manderlay. Lars von Trier’s, 2005. DVD.