The Five Obstructions is directed by two Danish men. In one corner is Lars Von Trier, a filmmaker that seems to be focused as much on revolutionizing the method of filmmaking as making good films. I have seen two of his other movies that were pretty amazing; Breaking the Waves (1996) and Dancing in the Dark (2000). These two movies put Von Trier on the map, in addition to his development of a filmmaking philosophy called Dogme '95, which lays out certain edicts on a restrictive style of filmmaking. These restrictions include limited artificial lighting, no musical score, etc. I don't believe any of Von Trier's film strictly follow Dogme '95, but the ground rules of the philosophy serve as a foundation for his filmmaking, in which the variations on Dogme '95's "pure" technique of filmmaking serve as an illustration of how challenging it is to constrict his cinematic visions. In the other directorial corner for this movie is Jorgen Leth, a maker of documentary and experimental films whom I had not heard of until I picked up this movie. In the 1960s Leth made a short film called "The Perfect Human", which is Von Trier's favorite film.
In The Five Obstructions, Von Trier challenges his mentor to remake "The Perfect Human" five times, with each remake being made in a style with deliberate conditions set by Von Trier. The first condition is to set the remake in a country Leth has not visited before, using shots of only 15 frames. The results are unconventional to say the least. And the obstructions get more demanding from that point on.
An indie filmmaker infamous for focusing on methodology over spectacle, challenging an even more obscure filmmaker in a cinematic exercise that on the surface seems more appropriate for a bunch of film school buddies that a casual filmgoer... is there a place for any general audience to find this engaging or even relevant?
As obtuse as the premise of the movie is, it is surprisingly compelling. The film projects are assigned to Leth by Von Trier not with an authoritarian's coldness, but with a glee in being able to use his generation of film-making style and concepts to infect and warp the filmmaking mind of one his mentors. There isn't a lot of backstory on the history of Leth and Von Trier's relationship, but from Leth's reactions and subtle expressions he seems to feel like a hesitant but willing lab rat for this exercise. As the obstructions become more severe and force Leth to sacrifice a comfortable creative distance from his film remakes, glimpses emerge of a person with a troubled past. This isn't a Leth biopic, but it's fascinating how this movie reveals a personal story beyond the narrow exercise and rules of the filmmaking obstructions.
What's interesting about this movie is that it involves an extreme form of artistic navel-gazing, as two directors working in the same demanding and non-commercial world of experimental films look further and further inward into several deep layers of the creative process. It's hard to tie the movie to universal themes with this insular premise. Yet it almost serves as one of the truest tests of film tastes out there. If you can find something fascinating about this discussion and presentation on the methods of filmmaking... if you can see a compelling experience in this cinematic experiment, then you're in good shape to be appreciate all sorts of films in unique and deep ways.
With future films on this list that play with narrative structure, cinematic expectations and often good taste, I find myself needing the wisdom of professional film critic or scholar to give me an appropriate context in which to understand a movie is trying to do. With The Five Obstructions, neither a pure documentary nor a collection of short films, the lines of understanding why the film exists is never unclear. It's the diversions of the film from that central strict exercise of The Obstructions that drive the film to enriching post-modern directions that go beyond the film medium and speak to something more universal about the process of creating.
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