The film is a test of Jorgen Leth’s sanity, thanks to the pretentious Lars von Trier. Von Trier pretends to know more about Leth then Leth knows about himself, but he just comes off as an asshole. While Von Trier’s goal is to destroy his idol, his favorite director, Leth, he instead makes him stronger. In Von Trier’s eyes, Leth is the one that needs help because he’s been spending more time in Haiti then anywhere else. Leth has slunk away from filming due to this depression, and this is Von Trier’s way of breaking his shell. Von Trier assigns Leth 5 tasks with different obstructions. What all the tasks have in common: remake ‘The Perfect Human’. Von Trier believes that this will be a therapeutic session for Leth, by breaking down his already perfect piece and creating something horrible out of it. I find it ironic that Von Trier wants Leth to remake ‘The Perfect Human’ 5 different times in order for him to ruin his original film. To Von Trier, the film was already perfect, and the purpose of the obstructions is to stain it. Von Trier’s tasks prove to be unsuccessful when each of Leth’s remakes are unique and breathtaking, all different interpretations of the same film. For the final obstruction, Von Trier takes over the film, writing a letter to himself that Leth is to read (pretending to be Leth to Von Trier) and the film ends abruptly after it. Von Trier has managed to make the film all about him and how he’s the better person because this was his ‘Help Jorgen Leth’ project. Von Trier might be a brilliant filmmaker, but anyone that is willing to tear down their idol in order for them to feel better, is one twisted human being in my book.
The 5 Obstructions is an interesting film. It’s unlike any I have ever seen before. It’s a documentary experimental hybrid. It’s all about this movie that Jorden Leth made in the 60s, titled The Perfect Human. This film is featured throughout The 5 Obstructions because Lars Von Trier has challenged Jorden Leth to remake The Perfect Human five times, hence the name. Or in Von Trier’s words: it is “a gem now we will ruin”, otherwise known as the “help Jorden Leth Project” since Leth has been battling depression lately. Throughout the movie, there’s a fascinating combination of documentary about film making, new shorts and the original work. I really enjoyed the meta-film. Most audiences don’t consider re-makes and originals together. The film does a fantastic job editing them together so the audience considers what has changed. I walked away from the movie determined to look more closely at originals and remakes. I had two favorite obstructions. The first obstruction where the rules were: no single edit must be longer than twelve frames, Leth must answer the questions from the original work, he must shoot in Cuba and there can be no built set. I loved the way the twelve frame rule made the film run. I agreed with Leth originally, that the rule would make the work impossible, but he made it run very smoothly. Plus, as an American citizen, going to Cuba is very difficult. I liked seeing the surroundings and scenery while they were shooting in Cuba. I also enjoyed the bits of Spanish thrown in. It made a foreign film (Danish) more foreign, with the Spanish parts added. My other favorite obstruction was the cartoon. I am a HUGE cartoon fan. I grew up watching them every Saturday morning. So, usually I have some high standards for the cartoons I watch. I really liked the cartoon one. Granted I hated the robo-film part, but I think that’s just because I am biased no matter what toward that type of cartoon. I think the artist did a great job with different angles of the main character, the close-up and the middle distance sketches were my favorite.
When I first heard about the premise of "The Five Obstructions", I thought it sounded like an interesting concept for a documentary: have a director remake his short film five different ways with five different obstructions to his process. Little did I know how poorly it would turn out once two Danish filmmakers were the ones involved in the process. Admittedly, most of the fault lies with Lars von Trier: not only does he come off as arrogant and self-absorbed, but his supposed "insight" into filmmaking is pretentious and irrelevant rather than insightful. Jorgen Leth, on the other hand, seems devoid of personality; most of the time he barely offers a response to von Trier's endless babbling. So, while one would expect such a challenge of filmmaking to spark witty dialogues and creativity between the directors, this film drags on through conversations in which Lars von Trier drones on about his pretentious views on films, while Leth mumbles lame responses. My other problem with "The Five Obstructions" is the nature of the short film itself, "The Perfect Human". While von Trier's goal seems to be to ruin the film by remaking it, in my opinion, it had nowhere to go but up. The original is boring, dull, and seems created for snooty film critics (or people like von Trier). Quite frankly, it also made absolutely no sense. Despite all of my criticisms, I do have to admit that two of the obstructions did become interesting films. I found the cartoon version (which of course, von Trier and Leth both said they disliked from the start) to be absolutely beautiful. The colors and shots really added to the abstract, surreal themes. The film made in Cuba also turned out fascinatingly; something about the faster cuts made the narrations seem less dull and absurd. However, ultimately "The Perfect Human" and "The Five Obstructions" only demonstrated to me that for a film to be considered "art", it must be in a foreign language and it must make absolutely no sense. And possibly contain random scenes of overt sexuality. That is something in a few days I will probably never understand.
In hopes of ridding his friend and favorite director, Jorgen Leth, of his current writers block and depressive state, Lars Von Trier attempts to put Leth to the test to recreate his previous 1967 film “The Perfect Human” five different times with limiting obstructions. However, these “limiting” obstacles that Von Trier feels will obstruct Leth’s ability to remake the film only encourages Leth’s creative freedom allowing for Leth to overall obstruct Lars in the end. Out of all the five obstructions that Leth was told to conquer, some of which included the amount of frames, location issues, the creation of a cartoon and the option of no rules, I thought that the one Leth would have most difficulty with would be the option of complete creative freedom which Von Trier saw as a punishment. I as well saw this as a difficult task and felt sympathetic for Leth. However I think after watching what he produced, this option gave Leth more time for self discovery and much more free time to experiment with in his film. This documentary made me think a lot about obstacles in life and whether they help or hinder the creativity that goes into the filmmaking process. I guess Von Trier is teaching Leth a valuable lesson throughout his obstructions but as the documentary went on I started to dislike Von Trier more and more. I found it cool to watch what Leth came up with after just being given a rule and then found it very un-cool to see Von Trier attack what he came up with referring to it as “crap”. I felt that Leth always rose to the challenge in attempts to perfect everything. In speaking of perfect I felt that Leth had already perfected “The Perfect Human” and these obstructions were just to keep him busy with other projects. I think that Von Trier “understood” this already and created the five obstructions to merely “help” Leth. However in my opinion, this only depicts Von Trier as being arrogant and better than Leth when it should be the other way around.
After watching this film, its creativity and restrictions interest me. The 5 obstructions are given by Von Trier to test Jagen Leth. He wants Jagen Leth to remake the “Perfect Man”. The first obstruction is to use only 12 frames. The second one is make the film at a miserable place. The third one is to make “freedom” without any restriction. The fourth one is to make cartoon Perfect Man. The last one is about Von Trier to shoot the motion picture, but Jagen Leth acts and dubs to the film. Von Trier actually wants to test Jagen Leth, and want him to make an even better “Perfect Man” under those restrictions. Especially at the third obstruction-freedom, which makes Jagan Leth feel kind of hard to shoot it under no restriction. If something without restriction or “title”, that means you have to make something meaningful with your own requirements and restrictions. In my point of view, the first obstruction-12 frames that is used to destruct the film’s body only, whereas, the obstruction of miserable place is going to damage the position of director. There are four factors which are a miserable place, not showing the source of pain, Jagan Leth is the main character and he is eating his meal without female character. All of these four condtions have been focusing on destroying the Jagen leth’s director position. I admire Jagen Leth and his team for their impressive work, because they are always seeking changes among those obstructions and getting each new “Perfect Man” done beautifully.
I watched The 5 Obstructions without seeing The Perfect Human first. At first, I was confused with what the Perfect Human was about and why Lars von Trier was asking Jorgen Leth to recreate the film. Von Trier was testing Leth to see how he could recreate The Perfect Human using five obstructions. Even though von Trier gives Leth random tasks such as re-filming the Perfect Human in Cuba and creating a cartoon, Leth handles each obstruction very well. He is able to re-film the Perfect Human successfully with whatever obstruction is thrown his way. I felt like Von Trier's personality was too harsh for Leth but by the end of the film, I realized Von Trier was only doing these obstructions for Leth's good. He wanted to test Leth and push him farther. Leth was already a good documentary filmmaker but these obstructions made him realize he can truly film anything beautifully even if there are obstructions in the way.
I didn’t expect to like The Five Obstructions, but it ended up being an intriguing documentary. It introduced me to one of Leth’s earliest films, ‘The Perfect Human’, a thirteen minute short, which was interspersed in clips throughout the documentary. Leth’s modern re-makes of the film were quite different than the original, as they were in color, and the restrictions resulted in very different styles. The Five Obstructions is one of the most intriguing films I have seen, in terms of thinking about the creative process. While it was enjoyable to watch the films that Leth made in response to the obstructions, it was equally exciting to listen in on the directors’ discussions, finding out which obstructions von Trier would come up with, and why, and imagining how they would affect the final film. The Five Obstructions is the sort of film that makes you want to think more deeply about the creative process, and experiment more with your own work. My favorite of Jorgen's obstructions was his first, filmed in Cuba. I enjoyed the brightness of the piece, and the color generally seemed very warm. I feel like the short edits forced Leth to pay particular attention to the importance of all of his shots as well as play with different angles. Overall I felt that his first obstruction was the most upbeat and playful. My least favorite of the obstructions was the 2nd, filmed in India. While I appreciate the thought behind the idea, I did not feel like the execution of the screen behind Leth worked as effectively as he had hoped.
I watched many movies in my past; however, I never experienced before that I almost fall asleep during the film. “The Five Obstructions” did not touch me; it did not affect me at all. I do not understand what the film wants to tell me and why the poor Jorgen Leth was treated so badly from Lars von Trier, who was more than arrogant in his position as the “perfect director who will transform Leth in a perfect director with a few tricks, too”. But, why does he want to achieve it by recreating a short film of what he thinks is perfect anyway? I cannot get any sense in there because Length had to fail anyway! Moreover, he gave him once the order to transform it into a comic, although Leth and Trier hate this presentation form. Why has he done this? It makes no sense. And this is my biggest issue. Sure, the story was organized logically by the five obstructions. It followed the events chronically. However, I do not know what the movie wants to tell me (and this was a documentary which should tell me something about an important event in one’s life!). Why should I watch a movie without any meaning? Another reason why I dislike the movie and why it let me almost fall asleep was the composition of the presentation of the documentary and the short art films. In the documentary, the development was too slow. The dialogues were too long and Leth was every time overstrained. The art films were nice to look at; however, I have not watched “The Perfect Human” before. So, I did not make any sense to me as in the documentary part nothing was said about the film and the creative process Leth went through. If I have to decide, which of the five obstructions was the best, I would say the comic one, as it was extraordinary. The bright color, the playful design and the great portray of the characters were perfectly done and suited my idea of the perfect human.
I have never seen any film made from “limiting” obstacles, but I really enjoyed those requirements or challenges. The five obstruction opening showed that Lars von Trier wanted Jargen Leth to make remake on his film The Prefect Human. It was under five conditions, which came from the random conversions between Lars Von Trier and Jargen Leth. It was really interesting because Lars Von Trier even did not give the whole things as a list. Every condition for the film was given by step by step. Once the first obstacle came out, Lars wanted the 12 frames which were shooting in Cuba. The old version The Prefect human had showed in black and white background and the Europe artist cold performance style. In contrast, the new one showed the Cuba's Latin style. Enthusiasm, color, and, lust were displayed in the actor's small ground steps of dance, even simple cigar movements. The actress’ gaze was also filled with such a presence. However, the first one was my favorite. I respect the 12 frame making, which was such a surprise for me. In the second part, I wanted to say that it's really hard to finish because it's a miserable place and shoot by himself. But Lars did not like Jargen’s using the Bombay’s red night district background. The third one was the freedom shooting style. At last, Jargen became to a real director without Lars. But after 35 years of The Perfect Human, Jargen had no interest in this issue. The fourth one was about Carton. After watching the results, I thought that even Jargen had been forced to use animation, he did not do a fantastic job in it. Finally, Lars acted and dubbed the film, and shot by himself. However, this was a gambling game belonging to the director in a forgotten film of five wonderful variations, which witnessed the movie with both simple and complex wonderful characteristics.
I watched the "Five Obstructions" as part of the class screening and found the concept to be extremely interesting. Like other people I have never seen a film made with any limiting obstacles, but like many other people i enjoyed these challenges. Although I do think that it is a little strange that Lars von Trier wanted Jargen Leth to remake his film "The Perfect Human," a film that in his eyes is already the best movie ever made. The obstructions such as having to film the movie in Cuba or in 12 frames were interesting because they drastically altered the way the film was meant to be viewed without entirely ruining it. I can understand why many people would think that Lars von Trier is trying to show up Leth by making a mockery of his his original film, I I think that Trier is simply trying to find a way to put a twist on a film he really enjoys and perhaps even idolizes. In conclusion, I believe that this film, although bizarre in nature, was really created in homage to Jargen Leth.
"The Five Obstructions" is a documentary which follows Jargen Leth as he takes on Lars von Treir's challenges to recreate Leth's film "The Perfect Human". Though I found the CONCEPT of the documentary original with the potential to be very interesting, I was unimpressed by the film as a whole. I found myself struggling to stay awake while watching remake after remake after remake. I understand and recognize Treir's goal in lifting Leth from his depression by reminding him of what a creative film maker he truly is, however I found the documentary to be very uneventful, flat, and drawn out. I was pretty disappointed because I am a fan of documentaries and I am typically interested in foreign films, but I found "The Five Obstructions" to be unnecessarily confusing at times, monotonous, and flat out uninteresting.
The Five Obstructions was very confusing and boring. It would have been helpful if they had played the entire film of The Perfect Human beforehand so the viewer could better understand the obstructions that Lars Von Trier was throwing at Jorgen Leth. I understand Von Trier’s motive in giving Leth obstructions, but watching it as a documentary seemed unnecessary and dragged out. It could have been more appealing to the viewer if it had first shown the original, and then each of the full five obstructions, with much less documentary in between each of them. This way, viewers would be able to interpret The Perfect Human on their own, and then analyze how Leth handles each obstruction given to him. In my opinion, limiting the way that Leth could film by giving him obstructions doesn’t make him a better filmmaker. I believe the obstruction that was limitless was the best because it was just for Leth to improve on his own work, without limitations. In real filmmaking, filmmakers aren’t limited by the things that Von Trier limited Leth with; they are free to experiment and film whatever they want. Therefore, practicing making original films that require creativity would make Leth a better filmmaker, not following a strict set of rules to remake something he has already done.
I found the THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS to be unlike any other movie I had seen before. While I found the first version of the film to be interesting, I quickly lost interest and found the movie to be overly confusing. I think the documentary would have made more sense had they shown "The Perfect Human" first as that is what the documentary is based off of. I did however, like the concept of having five different obstructions: Using only 12 frames, make the film in a miserable location, show "freedom" without any restrictions, cartoon "The Perfect Man," and to have a voice over narration, to show the many ways the film could have been made. However, the way that he went about showing the five different ways could have been more interesting.
When I first watched the Five Obstructions, I didnt really understand how a film could be remade under the 5 restrictions Von Trier gave Leth, but when we saw The Perfect Human, I understood a bit better. I'm not a huge fan of experimental film. I much prefer narrative-based or character-driven film. But I did enjoy the Five Obstructions as a pseudo-documentary, chronicling the friendship between these two filmmakers. I would have liked to have seen more of the films under the 5 obstructions, especially after seeing the original "Perfect Human"
When I first heard the concept of The Perfect Human, I thought it would be pointless and that I would really dislike it. But, once I saw I found a greater meaning in it that spoke to me. I feel that it was very interesting that the "perfect human" in the film was doing things anyone could do, and nothing seemed so perfect about him. I think this speaks to today's culture in more ways than one. First of all I think that this can apply to the current craze of idolizing celebrities, or our modern day perfect humans. I feel that the film was trying to say that there is in fact no perfect human, but that we all have imperfections and flaws and that there is no way to become the perfect human. In this sense I feel that this can be applied to show people today how silly it really is to idolize these celebrities and power figures because they too are just humans like anyone else. There is nothing special or different about them. The only thing different is the context they are viewed. Just like the perfect human in the film, we are told they are the perfect human so that is how we view them, but in fact they are just a human doing normal things and with normal flaws and insecurities.
The Five Obstructions is a documentary that incorporates experimental films. Lars Von Trier gives the task to Leth of remaking “The Perfect Human”, each time with a different obstruction. The five are obstructions: 1. Leth must make a film in Cuba with certain requirements and Leth fulfilled this task. 2. Leth remakes the film in the red light district of Bombay, without showing this place directly onscreen. 3. Nevertheless, Leth fails the latter task and Von Trier makes him remake the film in the way he chooses remaking it in Brussels. 4. Leth remakes the film as a cartoon. 5. The fifth version must be credited as made by Leth’s so he must read a narration written by von Trier. I believe that this film has a very limited audience and is not of interest to many people. I also believe that this film reexamines the nature of cinema. Nevertheless, this film is very different and chaotic. Even though Von Trier imposes several obstructions to Leth, he cannot get him to make a bad film. Von Trier pushes Leth in several scenarios to get him out of his comfort zone so he can let his creativity flow and produce a brilliant film. Both Von Trier and Leth are visionary filmmakers and what we are seeing on the screen is pure reality. Personally, I liked the cartoon version more than the original version maybe due to the brilliancy of the colors which helped capture my attention. The awkward movements between Leth and Von Trier are portrayed on the screen and felt by the audience. Sometimes I even felt as if Von Trier wanted to see Leth, his idol, fail so that he could feel better; maybe von trier was a bit arrogant and conceited for my taste. Von Trier proposes this challenge to Leth and is interested in the results of the documentation of his experiment. It is also amazing how Leth needs to stay calm during the various challenges and faces them creating new and different portrayals of the same film allowing Leth use a different style of filmmaking than the one he mostly used.
This is a film I would not ever seen if it wasn’t for this class. I am not sure what to think about it. While I was watching it I try to concentrate, and find the good and positive side of it. I was enjoying it, but there was a point around the second obstruction where everything turned really repetitive and tedious. I was anxious for it to finish. I couldn’t see the point of it. But I got the message at the end of the fifth obstruction. It ended out to be kind of touching. The friendship and admiration of both directors (Leth and von Trier) was reflected in the last speech of the fifth obstruction. Overall, I have to say that I didn’t like, but I understand why we watched it in this class. But I have to say that this is a movie I wouldn’t want to watch again.
The Five Obstructions is a beautiful experiment. The concept was unique and its executions, clever. It was amazing to see how Jorgen Leth was able to create such wonderful short films from seemingly incredulous obstructions. One can really see Leth’s exceptional talent. Von Trier’s short tribute to Leth was also well made and heartfelt. Although the five short films are amazing by themselves, The Five Obstructions connects them all and gives them a profound meaning that would otherwise go unnoticed. Holistically, this meta-film is a commemoration to Jorgen Leth, Lars Von Trier’s idol. However, it veers away from obsequious praise in favor of a documentary that chronicles Leth’s perseverance. It is not until the final obstruction that Von Trier reveals the purpose of the film: To show Leth that he is capable of conquering any obstruction, including his profound depression. Although the obstructions seem purposeless throughout most of the film, the film is not boring. The Five Obstructions does a fine job of illustrating the challenges of directing a film. Leth’s challenges make his short films more important. I found myself cheering for him, and derived vicarious fulfillment in viewing his finished products. The Five Obstructions implies that the narrative of the filmmaking process is as important, and sometimes more, than the narrative of the finished product. We learn as much of Leth through his films, as we learn of his films through him. This was beautifully expressed in the form of the film: Leth’s life is the link to his body of work. In addition to the “Help Leth Project”, I believe The Five Obstructions was meant to be a case study for every artistic director, demonstrating how a director’s experience can shape his/her life’s work.
I have never been into to experimental films, mainly because I have not been exposed to them often. The Five Obstructions and The Perfect Human was a real eye opener into this very different genre. I watched The Five Obstructions first and then watched The Perfect Human, however looking back I would have preferred to watch The Perfect Human first. Lars is almost testing his friend and teacher Jorgen Leth on his ability to produce films. Some of the obstructions include; the film having to be in cartoon, it having to be set on the worst place in the world and Leth must voice-over narrate the film.
At times I found The Five Obstructions confusing and I didn’t really understand what was going on. However once I saw The Perfect Human, I understood what was really going on. In my opinion The Perfect Human has meaning behind; what looks like a film of random gestures and command. The narration is almost mocking the perfect human during the film. At one point he says, “look how the perfect man falls.” This could be seen as mocking our western culture of idolizing everything about celebrities. People are fixated with everything about celebrities; this culture has given rise to magazine ands blogs about the most irrelevant things. People don’t need to know where Jennifer Aniston eats or how much she exactly weighs. The films almost give us the generic version of a celebrity and analyses everything the human does in an unnecessary manner.
After watching The Five Obstructions I thought I would not enjoy The Perfect Human. Yet once you try and look for more subtle meanings in experimental films they become very enjoyable.
The Perfect Human to me felt like a film with a very strange topic, but a very basic one. It got me thinking why I never saw a film explaining a human being and what he normally does. At first I found it very boring since it was just very normal stuff, like eating. Besides, I honestly do not really enjoy old films that are in black and white, and I do not appreciate much the style used in it, which is having a narrator telling the viewer exactly what is going on, which to me is quite obvious. When it got to the dancing scene with the male going through the motions, it started to intrigue me a little more, I felt I was able to relate better to it, and it even made me smile and laugh a bit. This short film depicts sort of "universal" rules for humans to follow, actions that each and every one of us should be doing in order to belong to society. It is like someone telling the audience/viewer what humans do (laying down, dancing, jumping) while using two people (one man and one women) to demonstrate how to do such thing. Honestly I do not know how I really feel about this short film, at first it annoyed me a bit, but then I was able to familiarize more with me, of course, since it is about what we do. This film became then the main idea for the creation of the film The Five Obstructions, in which it was t be re produced or re-made by its director, Jorgen Leth.
When I saw for the first time The Perfect Human, a film by Lenth, I was kind of lost in time. The sense of misperception, made me realize that I need to learn a lot from the world of cinema. In my opinion The Perfect Human, is a blend of a documental and experimental type of film, because it is based on what a human does in real live and at the same time is trying to prove a theory. That theory, since my point of view, is that trying to be that ideal individual “perfect human”, most of times is going to turn into something monotonous and annoying. Lenth is definitely trying to send a message by this short film. However, there is a more complex perception about the technical aspects of the film. The movie is filmed in a constantly white room, using two actors. During the film is very interesting how (more at the beginning) various characteristics and details of the performers are shown through close-up shots. Also it was filmed in a slow way, in order to show how each human performed their activities; for example the scene where the man is having dinner, the way he punches the potatoes and how he chews the food. Furthermore, we can explore the different parts and perceptions of a human, for example when the woman is taking off her cloth and the man also, we can get different perceptions of each. Also, after seeing the film and by doing some research, I got to the conclusion that Lenth did a really god job by doing a film that lasted through the years, and that later was presented in 5 different versions. Being Lenth an author that always takes challenges.
I will start off with a brief analysis of The Perfect Human. Although I found that many of my classmates did not enjoy this film, I certainly did. Because the film carries a label of being experimental, it tends to strike people as being weirder than it actually is. Take, for example, if Steven Spielberg directed the film. I believe that viewers would be far less inclined to be weirded out. In fact, they would probably hail the short film simply as different areas of Spielberg's mind working. Overall, I enjoyed the story of the fall of a relationship and a man's happiness without actually being a story. We did not have to rely on dialogue or plot elements to determine the developments. The Five Obstructions, for the most part, was a decent film. As we learned in class, the film is a meta-remake of The Perfect Human, meaning that it is a film about filming the remake (or 5 remakes) of the latter. We are presented with a documentary about Vons Trier telling Leth about different limitations on the remake of the film, such as using no more than 12 frames per shot or remaking the film in animated form. We get to see different twists on the original short film. Moreover, the overall purpose, as should be apparent, is to help both Leth and the audience to think about a particular film in a new way. In a way, it is not only to re-imagine a film but to understand new layers to the original. In a way, it is both re-molding the film, as well as changing the basic composition of it. The filming of the movie in India, in particular, sheds new light on the film. The original The Perfect Human suggests a deeply bourgeois setting. The new venture in India juxtaposes a similar setting against the background of a poorer Indian slum. In my opinion, this adds a new layer of human happiness in terms of materialism and financial wealth. Leth begins to understand than he takes for granted his own wealth while he pathetically tries to consume his meal of excess.
The Five Obstructions was a very unique movie. I thought it was a good movie because it was interesting and well done, but I don't think it had a lot of entertainment value for the average audience member. This movie was very experimental and used intertextuality with a movie that was just as experimental. Both The Perfect Human and The Five Obstructions were not traditional movies to say the least. I think the purpose of The Perfect Human was to play on the idea that there really is no such thing as a perfect human. Claus Nissen was just another human doing things that normal humans do. The movie was not rich in plot or character development. The Five Obstructions touched upon the idea of the remake. Why do people remake movies? Is it because they think they can do a better job with it? Do they wish they came up with the idea first? Vons Trier attempts to recreate Jorgen Leth's The Perfect Human, and in the process creates five entirely different movies. It is interesting to watch the different variations of Leth's masterpiece. I especially liked the cartoon variation because it added a little something extra to an otherwise pretty bland film. It added color and animation. Ultimately, the most interesting part of the movie was watching Lars at work. He is an interesting character, a mixture of egotism and genius. In the end, the entire film was just his own little experiment.
I suspected that I would enjoy “The Five Obstructions” based on the concept alone. I was not disappointed. I even found some of the remakes more enjoyable than the original “The Perfect Human”. The first remake, set in Cuba, was especially well done. Upon hearing Von Trier’s chosen obstruction, I thought the remake would be impossible. Leth, however, managed to create a moody, captivating short film that, in my opinion, surpassed his original work. The Cuban remake really urged the audience to examine the art of film, especially what makes a film good or bad. I usually find such prodding annoying. Overanalyzing a film often destroys the film’s original charm. In this case, however, such analysis was enlightening. The same can be said for the third remake, Leth’s free choice. This remake gave me a newfound respect for filmmakers. In fact, I wish there had been more of a focus on Jorgen Leth. He seems like a fascinating character. Even though Lars Von Trier tried to steal the show so to speak, it was still Leth that interested me. Von Trier was often just frustrating to watch. While clearly a brilliant man his arrogance was unappealing. It is no coincidence that I enjoyed the fifth remake the least. In the fifth remake, Von Trier and Leth’s relationship becomes uncomfortable to watch. I found myself resenting Von Trier for speaking for Leth and claiming that he knew Leth better than Leth knew himself. I would have much preferred to hear Leth speak for himself. Any complaints I have about the depiction of Von Trier and Leth’s relationship, however, are minor in comparison to the praises I have for the film in its entirety.
I really enjoyed The Perfect Human, but I still feel indifferent about The Five Obstructions. Maybe I just don't appreciate Lars von Trier as much as some other people do, but something about him bothers me and that influenced my interpretation of the experiment. I definitely love the idea of challenging an admired filmmaker because it's so rare and it holds so many possibilities. Jorgen Leth interests me and I really enjoyed his willingness to participate and work with von Trier. Some of the challenges worried me, especially the second one, but the results were still impressive. I understand the latter's admiration of The Perfect Human and I definitely see its influence on his work. If I had to pick one of the two to see again, I'd definitely pick The Perfect Human over The Five Obstructions.
After watching The Perfect Human the first time in class, I had no idea what was going on. It was reassuring when you said that some people do not understand what is going on in experimental film making because I was very lost. After watching it more closely the second time, I understood what he was trying to accomplish with this film. All he was trying to do was say that every human that does any ordinary thing is perfect. While I may not agree with it, that is the message I got from this film. Even though I think I got the message, I can not say that I liked it. I can understand why this message and film could appeal to others, but in experiments there are always some parts that are negative or fail. I am one of the negatives that would say I do not think this is a film I would watch in my free time.
Prior to viewing The Five Obstructions, I didn't know what to expect. I had never seen a metaremake and this one in particular is unique. This film was unlike any other I had seen, and I loved it. I believe that the creative process that goes into making a movie is often overlooked, and taken for granted. When people think of movies, they often think of the box office films they know best, therefore they often view the most important part to be the development of a story; the part an average viewer probably sees as the foundation of the film. However, the creative process goes beyond the story. The same story can be expressed in an infinite amount of ways, it is the process in which the story is gone about creatively that gives it meaning. The Five Obstructions dove into this topic by placing limitations on that very process. The result of viewing the product of this gave insight to the real foundation of film. I also found the theme of "the remake" and the idea of the jealousy and destruction of the original film to be very interesting. It was especially unique to look at in this film because the movie itself is based on the very challenge of "destroying" the admired Lars Von Trier's original by placing these challenging limitations on Jorgen Leth.
I have to say that after watching the "Five Obstructions" and the "Perfect Human", that I preferred the latter. I think Jorgen Leth was right in his thought that a meta-remake would not be as good as the original. I also feel that Lars Von Trier is perhaps jealous of Leth's film and his talent, which is why he is pushing him into the re-makes. Yes, Leth is in a sort of depressive funk and it could seem that Lars is trying to help, but I don't believe that is the case. The "Perfect Human" is a film that just points out the obvious, that we are all perfect in our bodies. The things that we can do, say, feel and experience are nothing less than perfect. Our bodies are perfect and the way we can manipulate them is also perfect. I liked the film in black and white, which was probably just done because that is how films were made then. However, it also contributed to the simplicity of it all, the common portrayal of our daily acts. The short cuts from one mouth to another, and one ear to another, and one screen to another also contributed to the film being so honest in what it was portraying.
The Five Obstructions is a Danish documentary directed by Lars Von Trier and Jørgen Leth. As my native language is Norwegian, I enjoyed watching and understanding the movie and the language spoken, Danish. The documentary itself s an experimental film that incorporates both the recreation of Lars von Triers The Perfect Human, and influenced by Leth’s five obstructions. As mentioned, there are five different obstructions: 1. Leth makes a movie in Cuba with certain requirements and Leth fulfilled this task. 2. Leth has to remake the film in Bombays red light district without portraying the audience where he really is 3. Although Leth fails this task Von Trier pushes him to remake it in whatever way he wants to, but this time in Brussels. 4. Leth thus make the movie as a cartoon. 5. The last and fifth attempt Leth reads the narrative written by Von Trier. All in all, Von Trier puts Leth into different scenarios to make Leth uncomfortable, but to make him more creative and thus create a better film. The film itself was very interesting, although it is often very confusing and I don’t believe the ordinary man in the street will enjoy this documentary. Von Trier and Leth are both known for being experimental, and I believe this gives the movie a very chaotic impression. However, I believe the documentary also is very interesting and creative.
In regards to "The Perfect Human" (the short film itself, not "The Five Obstructions" film that followed it), I tried to remain as open as possible, with me not normally being the biggest experimental film buff on the planet and all, but try as I might I was not exactly impressed by the film. It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but this isn't exactly going to be a rave review or anything.
The visuals themselves were interesting in their own right, but for some reason I feel experimental films especially should have a point, even if they are an out there one, and I just didn't really find a viable one in this film. Also, one of the main reasons I am writing about "The Perfect Human" as opposed to "The Five Obstructions" is because, to be frank, Lars Von Trier comes off as kind of an arrogant asshole in that film, so I feel it would be more beneficial and in depth if you will to write about the original "Perfect Human" instead.
Again, I feel like this is a case where the title hinders me in appreciating the film to it's full extent. But again, maybe that's part of the point - something about different ideas of what "the perfect human" is and society's influence on that in different cultures and time periods and so on and so forth, but that seems like a most basic interpretation and a totally "been there, done that" one at that - like how the people they showed don't seem the most perfect of people to me, but that's my opinion and maybe that's part of the idea.
Though this is part of the problem - I kind of like it when the point or points of a film are, for the most part, easily evident - not to the point of corny, but to the point in which they can actually be figured out in a very definitive way.
The Five Obstructions The Five Obstructions follows Jørgen Leth as he remakes his work, The Perfect Human, according to the whims of his friend and colleague, Lars von Trier. In all, there are five obstructions, as the title of the film suggests, each of which is a remake of Leth’s original work with some restrictions put in place. The Five Obstructions didn’t appeal to me at all, I disliked it quite a lot, truth be told. While The Perfect Human was somewhat interesting, the obstructions created by Leth were tedious and grueling; they seemed shoddy and uninspired, as did the actual documentary. The quality of the obstructions and the documentary was poor and did not at all appeal to my tastes. Furthermore, I found von Trier to be incredibly off-putting. He came across as an arrogant, selfish, and incredibly egotistical. Leth was also quite the unappealing figure to me, though I’m not quite sure why. At any rate, the two directors, the set, the obstructions, and the documentary itself all made me feel slimy and uncomfortable.
In the film "The Five Obstructions," we follow the process of remaking films with Jørgen Leth as he tries to recreate his experimental film, "The Perfect Human" using actual settings in the real world with real living people. One of his friends, Lars Von Trier, is his coach along the way and provides rules and regulations that Leth has to follow to make this challenge more and more difficult. Leth starts off in Cuba and then travels to Bombay, Haiti, and other locations to fufill the requirements that Lars von Trier gives to him.
When the movie starts and we see the actual film, The Perfect Human, I was really discouraged that this would be a movie I would enjoy. I thought the movie was really weird and different than anything I have ever seen. However, my perception of the movie changed once I saw what Leth did to remake the movie in Cuba with the guy with the cigar. I thought that was really cool how he could remake that movie in a present day exotic setting. The really short frames made the movie really interesting.
I thought it was also really cool how Leth had to venture to the place he envisioned to be the worst place in the world and remake the movie once again. The techniques and methods to make the film kept me consumed in the content of the movie. Overall, I have never seen a movie like either the Five Obstructions or The Perfect Human, but in the end I was glad i saw it. I enjoyed the experience of learning about how directors and writers go about creating experimental films, and the thought process involved.
The Five Obstructions is a film by Lars von Trier and Jrgen Leth. The film is both a documentary and an experimental film. Lars von Trier has created a challenge for his friend and mentor, Jorgen Leth, another filmmaker. Von Trier's favorite film is Leth's The Perfect Human. Von Trier gives Leth the task of remaking The Perfect Human five times, each time with a different obstacle given by von Trier. However, this film was sort of confusing to me. After seeing this, I can say that I am not a fan of experimental films. It was hard to watch and it did not grab my attention as I thought it would.
the Five Obstructions is a film that documents Jorgen Leth process ass he redo's his movie The Perfect Human while following Lars von Trier obstructions or rules that Jorgen Leth must follow while making the new version of The Perfect Human. Lars von Trier's goal is to make Jorgen Leth create films that, in Lars von Trier own words, is crap. with each challenge of the five different remakes of The Perfect Human Jorgen Leth not only created a good movie but made them better then anyone thought possible and with each obstruction it was only getting easier for Jorgen Leth to do so. While the new films did something interesting that you wouldn't normally see in movies. this made them fun to watch at first but then soon it became to much and it needed a change. all in all it was still something different that was fun to watch at times.
I find the ideas and concepts behind the film The 5 Ostructions very interesting. It is important to challenge yourself to the best of your ability and stretch your limits to achieve what you didn’t think was possible. I like the idea of taking Jorgen Leth’s original, The Perfect Human, and try to remake it in five different ways a exciting way to challenge the filmmaker.
I disliked the characters, the filmmakers, Lars von Trier and Jorden Leth, in the film. I found them somewhat arrogant and got the impression they were each trying to prove to the other that one of them was better than the other. I perceived this by Trier either giving Leth absurd, challenges – although they are challenges and I understand the point, I think that there should be limitations and I question their morality.
My least favorite obstruction was the fifth Obstruction because I felt like the filmmakers were cheating the system by just taking the footage from shooting the Five Obstructions and putting Trier’s narration of a varied perfect human script over the footage. I think they could have come up with a more creative fifth obstruction than what they had easily accessible at hand.
Since we were learning about intertextuality, documentaries, and experimental filmmaking, it helped me to understand both "The Five Obstructions" and "The Perfect Human" a little more. When I first saw the clip for The Perfect Human, I thought it was a little weird. The main characters were not doing anything out of what everyone usually does, so I thought that maybe the creator was saying that everyone was perfect. The Perfect Human was so simple that I was drawn to it. It made every day actions look artsy. I was watching it while thinking, "Hey I do all of these things! Cool." The short film was very creative and unique. The Perfect Human definitely sparked my interest in experimental films because I like it when films go outside of the "norm".
I liked how Jorgen Leth used The Five Obstructions to breakdown and remake The Perfect Human. He did this five times while being challenged by Von Trier to make each one better than his last. My favortie obstruction was the animated one simply because it had a turtle in it. I love turtles, so I enjoyed that one slightly more than the others. I will admit that when I first saw the movie, I had no idea what was going on. After reading a summary, it helped me to understand what Leth and Von Trier were doing. I found the documentary to be interesting only because of The Perfect Human. The film was already perfect to begin with, in my opinion. The obstructions were still fun to watch.
I now understand why many people dislike Lars Von Trier. I read of his off-hand Nazi statements that derailed the success of Meloncholia, and after watching this documentary I understand that he is someone of questionable character. All I could think about was how could Jorgen Leth put up with him? In any case, I do not think the premise of the documentary was bad. It was quite interesting, and it would have been more so if Trier didn’t continually insert his own narcissism into it. The idea of constructing remakes through a frame of “obstructions” is something that I feel would be a worthwhile experiment for any filmmaker. I idea of a remake and a meta-remake are worthwhile ideas to explore. It not only delves into the original meaning and purpose behind the first work, but the subsequent remakes can challenge and enhance the artistry of the original. You could see that Leth would go about making his remakes with that in mind. It seemed to be the most evident with the animated obstruction. It was a mesmerizing adaptation that combines sequences from the previous works and created an artistic quality that was unique and unseen in the earlier works. This is the sort of process that Leth went through, where you have to fulfill many objectives beyond the express obstructions with the remakes. A remake has to 1) stand on its own feet and 2) in many ways live up to or not mar the original work.
I enjoyed the film very much so. I loved the creativity and the pushing of boundaries Lars bestowed onto Jorgen. For the creativity, the thing that stuck out the most for me was that in every obstruction there was an element in the conversation between Lars and Jorgen. This element had nothing to do with the restrictions given to Jorgen or to do with the making of the next obstruction, but was something that Lars and Jorgen merely talked about. For example in result of the third obstruction Lars made fun of Jorgen comparing him to a turtle on its back, which was then created in the fourth obstruction and made into a cartoon. I do agree that Lars was cruel, but he did have good intentions for Jorgen. I feel Lars did cross the line with the ending and trying to make this experiment all about himself and not about Jorgen, because in fact the journey was all Jorgen. In the end Jorgen taught Lars a lesson by defying the odds with creating films from his obstructions.
The Five Obstructions is a recreation of The Perfect Human. Lars von Trier challenges his mentor, Jorgen Leth, to remake the film The Perfect Human five times. Each remake consists of a different obstacle decided by Lars von Trier. The obvious challenge is these five obstructions; the unseen challenge is that von Trier is pushing Leth to his limits in order to reopen his mind to new creative realms. I found it interesting that Lars von Trier chose The Perfect Human as the film for Jorgen Leth because this was the best movie made in von Trier’s eyes. This film was very repetitive and became boring by the end, even with the different obstructions changing the film each time around. Overall I was unimpressed with the documentary, and the overwhelming boredom I experienced from this film made it difficult for me to watch.
I was not sure what to expect going in to see The Five Obstructions. This movie, directed by Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth, is far from the typical movie you would see. The film is a documentary with experimental sections. Von Trier tells Jorgen Leth to remake his film, The Perfect Human, five times with each one a being restricted in some way. I am not very familiar with experimental film making, which made watching both The Perfect Human and The Five Obstructions a totally new experience. After watching The Perfect Human first, I was intrigued at what the film is trying to present to the viewers. I believe it is showing the simplicity of man and is telling us what we would normally be thinking had it been a silent film. An important aspect of this short film is that it is in black and white, which is unfamiliar to a lot of movie viewers today.
For me, the most important part to look at is the relationship between Von Trier and Leth in The Five Obstructions. In is also important to take note to their conversational pieces. It was interesting to see Von Trier pushing the limits on Leth and his creativity. The Five Obstructions almost seemed more of a game between the two rather then just a movie. Being the first meta-remake I had seen, I am glad I got the chance to do so. I would recommend people to watch both, The Perfect Human and The Five Obstructions, as a good learning experience that showcases different types of filmmaking.
Five Obstructions is a film in which Jorgen Leth is challenged by Lars von Trier to recreate Leth's original film of the Perfect Human. To both men, the original was perfect, so to challenge Leth, von Trier gives Leth rules to follow when trying to recreate the film. These rules seemingly should produce a mess of a film, thus tarnishing the original. However, to the surprise and dismay of von Trier, the films all seem to come out wonderfully in their own ways. Once von Trier realizes that Leth is almost incapable of making a bad film, von Trier makes a point that he wants to see a mess of a film. He requests ridiculous things for the film that would surely make the film seem awful. Leth however perseveres and makes great films each time. My personal favorite is the cartoon version of the film. After seeing Leth's reaction to this rule, I was sure that the film would be awful. I was extremely surprised to see how good the film looked, and I actually preferred the cartoon version to any other version. This film taught me that there are countless ways to make films and different types of film making create a different atmosphere in the theater and demand a different response from the audience, Even if the same story is being told.
Marc Pollack C10553848 Another film that I found interesting, was called, “The 5 obstructions”. This film, directed by the famed Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth. These visionary filmmakers, had to “re-make” the film “The Perfect Human” which was made in 1967 and directed by Jørgen Leth. The purpose of “The 5 obstructions” was that Jørgen Leth made a challenge for his friend, who is another director by the name of Lars von Trier, to remake the movie ‘The Perfect Human”, which is Leth’s favorite movie. The catch was that Leth will throw in 5 challenges that Trier had to obey by in order for this to be considered a successful remake. One of the more challenges for me, was how Trier had to remake the movie into a cartoon. As silly as that sounded at first, it was a true challenge. Eventually he completed the task with the help of Bob Sabiston, who was experienced in this nature of film. To their surprise, the remake actually ended up working out and for that, he was able to pass the fourth challenge. For me, personally, I am not a huge fan of experimental film, I get the premise behind it, but as a viewer, it just doesn’t do much for me as far as enjoyment goes.
The Five Obstructions The Five Obstructions is a Meta remake (a film about remaking a film). Lars Von Trier contested Jorgen Leth to re-create 5 new films of Jorgen’s short film The Perfect Human. When I first heard about the film I thought that it would be almost impossible to remake a film 5 times over that is very different but The Five obstructions proved me wrong. Von Trier called himself the obstructer in this film and not only challenged Jorgen Leth to create 5 new films but made it so each film had to be in a different part of the world and Von Trier also set other specific conditions that had to be met. The fact that Leth made this happen blew my mind. Leth ended up making 5 Perfect Human remakes: Bombay, Brussels, Cartoon, Cuba, and Denmark. Each one was different in their own way and each met the conditions that Von Trier set. Although I did not truly enjoy the film I can still appreciate it. The creativity it took Leth to remake his film so many times is truly remarkable. I had never seen a Meta remake before and this opened my eyes to different kinds of films out there. It was a learning experience and interesting to see how unconventional and ingenious a director can be. Erik Rueckle-c10166645
“Five Obstructions” directed by Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Length is remake movie of “Perfect Human” made by Jorgen Length. Before watching this movie, I had watched some parts of “Perfect Human” in class. It was really simple monochrome movie. The story told mostly from the third person point of view. I became really curious how those directors change and reinterpret of original one. The movie was pretty interesting. I have never seen the movie which includes interview and conversations of director. Such interview scene just let me know this movie is formed as documentary. In “Five Obstruction”, Jorgen Length, original director of “Perfect Human”, gives to Lars Von Trier five rules how to remake his movie. First rule of scene was pretty same as original one. However, it made me feel dizzier compared with original one because of various color in the scene and repeating words. Second was taken Bombay. In original one, it showed only man jumped and eat alone. But, in remake movie, the guy eats a meal and jump against crowds. Even if there are no words of crowds, I felt like they watched what one guy do and judge whether he is perfect human or not. Third one was taken in Brussel. Compared with original one, it seems to have a story. However, it was hard to understand why director made this kind of story. It made me get confused of this movie. Forth part was cartoon. This scene showed how “Five Obstruction” truly expressed as experimental movie. At the last part of scene, they showed conversation between Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Length. It made me clear what their purpose to make this movie.
The basic premise behind "The Five Obstructions" was to recreate the film "Perfect Human" in five different ways. I usually am not a fan of documentaries or remakes, so I was definitely skeptical of this film. In the end after viewing the film my initial skepticism was pretty right on. My main reason for disliking the film was definitely Lars Von Trier's arrogance throughout the entire documentary.
The five obstructions that Lars Von Trier came up with for Jorgen Leth to recreate his film were pretty unique and original. I thought the idea to remake the film as a cartoon was an interesting idea. I actually enjoyed all of the obstructions except for the last one. The final obstruction really pinpointed to me that the whole point of Von Trier remaking the film was for his own personal gain. Von Trier stated that he was making the film to help Leth and because "Perfect Human" was his favorite film. I also found it strange that Von Trier would want to remake a film that he found perfect in every way and that his end goal was to destroy something that he found to be a masterpiece. I think all in all Von Trier's ego overshadowed anything decent that the film could have been. Although the concept of a meta-remake and the initial premise were fairly interesting ideas, that was simply not enough to leave me impressed with the film. i found myself having a lot of respect for Jorgen Leth and not ever wanting to see another Lars Von Trier film again.
The movie the Five Obstructions was a very confusing concept to me at first. I had to read a couple of different synopsizes and reviews to really get what it is about. Lars Von Trier challenges fellow filmmaker Jorgen Leth to remake his movie, the Perfect Human, five times. The Perfect Human was a really strange short film, and I couldn’t understand why someone would want to remake it. The film starts out with a few side shots of the “perfect man” and close up face shots of the woman. What confused me the most was the overhead shot of the dinner table while the two are eating dinner. It was supposed to be symbolic that the two people are fighting, but I just didn’t really get it. In the Five Obstructions I really did not like Von Tier. He continues to bash Leth’s creative personality. He gives Leth “punishments” for not being to complete his obstructions, but I don’t think his original was very good to begin with. However, I think the best remake and one I actually enjoyed viewing was the cartoon. I really like the style of animation, and don’t know why more people use it. I have seen it in a new Spiderman cartoon and a Scanner Darkly. I feel like it gives the cartoon a more sleek image and could add suspense more easily. The Five Obstructions is not enjoyable because the premise is about creativity and challenging another respected filmmaker, but Von Tier thinks that he is better than he actually is and instead of bashing Leth he should be applauding his creative efforts
This really is a very confusing movie. In fact, for the film, the dialectical relationship between form and content is already not necessary to repeat anymore, carefully understand, try to figure out, study, but the general sense of good movies are still the content which doesn't need to talk about too much. "The Five Obstructions" is a novelty and successful try. John's 5 short movies,actually, is the participation of the five principles. In the film, they haven't been directly announced,I think they are: challenge on the technique, absence of figure,challenge on personal limit, in the form of diversification, deprivation of contents.A bit complicated at first glance, but in the discussion of Sampras and John, they ask questions, to overthrow the existing barriers to re-establish a new obstacle, forcing Royce to have to rethink in the original movie based on the stories and characters . As an anthropologist, John must try to solve the limitations,commands and prohibitions for him and set by Lars, this is a huge challenge. The fourth paragraph of the short film is my favorite one, because John actually try to use animation in the form! Although it is a cartoon, but still involved in the sex and violence, is a letter of adult cartoon. The last paragraph of the short film is more like highlights.
I will be the first to admit, I am not a fan of documentaries. They are often boring, long-winded, and pretentious. Walking into the five obstructions, I expected much the same from this documentary. As I began to watch though, i realized this was less of a documentary and more of a challenge or project one might find in school or in work. Take something that is considered perfect, and make it better. This in itself is not a novel idea, we constantly try to make things better but in films this is not always the case.
While some films may be re-made it is normally not because the original director has challenged one to do it better. While this seemed like a vary unique and interesting idea, it makes Von Trier come across as very arrogant. The message that he sends out is "I have created the best, and no one can do better."
Overall, I wasn't a big fan of the five obstructions, but it was an interesting idea overall to watch.
The movie the Five Obstructions was truly an interesting concept for a film. It was a semi documentary of the short known as the Perfect Human. It chronicles how the director feels about the Perfect Human and what it means to him as time goes on. This happens as another director, the director of the Five Obstructions, forces him to remake the perfect human five times with a specific condition each time. Each condition brings Jorgen Leth, the director, a little bit closer to his own short film. This is shown by how Jorgen often says the phrase, “I learned something today, and I hope to understand it in a few days.” A significant thing that gets this movie going is in the first obstruction. In the original Perfect Human Jorgen asks questions about why the perfect human does certain things. Thus in the first obstruction one condition is that he must answer those questions. This brings Jorgen in closer to his own film. It makes him really think about why he made it. This is what changes the Perfect Human from being an abstract philosophical short to a film about one man’s emotions and feelings from his experience in life. This is furthered when he is forced to learn new things about life. For instance he was forced to eat nice food in an extremely poor area and also was made to work outside of his medium when he had to make it in cartoon. This really showed the development and change of one person in his strive to become the ‘Perfect Human.’
The Five Obstructions focuses on the themes of domination and cruelty. From the beginning, this is perceived as a game, where Mr. Von Trier and Mr. Leth need to redo the movie with certain conditions. Furthermore, one can notice how The Perfect Human analyzes the behavior of individuals. For example, actors are filmed in black and white with a neutral backdrop. By creating a work of art like this, one can understand the actor in a deeper sense while isolating distractions. When watching The Five Obstructions, I felt as if I were in a challenge. Mr. Von Trier is a psychoanalyst, while Mr. Leth is a very peculiar character. It is as if Mr. Von Trier wants to break all the barriers to Mr. Leth and understand him completely. This first individual wants to make a mess, while Mr. Leth has certain aspects of himself that are difficult to change. This is a very interesting challenge. I believe the incorporation of the cartoon depicted a creative outlook as a solution within the five obstructions. I enjoyed understanding and analyzing the characters myself, seeing how they interact and carry out their personalities.
The Five Obstructions, directed by Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth, is a type of movie I could watch numerous times. With regards to these obstructions, there are different settings and ideas with the objective of creating a challenge. For example, there must be a remake of the film in Cuba, so that Leth can answer the same questions and finish the film. In my perception, it is as if these two characters, which are Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth, are making a competition, about who can complete these types of scenes. The settings are Cuba, Bombay, and Brussels among others. It is a very attractive and different type of film, which keeps audience wanting to know if the director will fulfill the obstructions or if it will become an obstacle. I really enjoy these types of films, because I can learn about the science behind filmmaking and most importantly, the different perspectives that film directors can have. It is as if it were a game, yet I do not think all audiences would enjoy this type of movie. It is interesting to analyze these two characters in order to see who will ultimately win these different challenges.
The five obstructions had some very interesting concepts formed into an intriguing documentary. It was about remaking a film “the perfect human” five different times with a new obstruction each time to make it more difficult for the filmmakers. The two filmmakers Jordan Leth, and Lars Von Trier in this process allowed them to challenge themselves in their ability and creativity to stay within the guidelines. In the first remake, he has to film in Cuba. The second one needed to feature an elderly man as a perfect human in a very miserable setting. In the third, he has the task to do whatever he wants, and in the fourth he has to make it into a cartoon version. The fifth one gave the task of reading over someone’s voice over. Basically the intention of the film is to create brand new and totally unexpected adaptations of perfection. With the structure that was given the short films were made well, but moreover the movie was somewhat boring in the presentation of each of the films. However Trier wanted to make the point that it was possible for Leth to create a bad film if he was constrained to obstructions, but the point of the film was that he was able to accept the challenge by following the guidelines. I also enjoyed his incorporated various short frames into the movie, the revealing detailed close up shots of the actors, the slow filming at some scenes, and the insight given from the actors. There were some scenes were the dialogue and locations lasted for way too long. However, I thought that it was a very attractive design in its atmosphere and the rendering of the characters was done well. But I thought it was fascinating too see the development process of Leth trying to figure out how to accomplish this challenge. Although I admire the courage to follow these obstructions in films it’s not practical in the sense of being entertaining in my opinion.
The five obstructions is a Danish film by Lars von Trier and Jorgen Loth. I did not really enjoy this movie since it was a constant competition. I believe I did not understand the humorous aspects either. I like that t the setting is intimate, in the sense that the directors are being honest. There are feelings of doubt and competition during all of these obstructions. I am not too fond of challenges, or better yet, movies that include a race or some sort of challenge, so I quickly got bored from watching it. Maybe it is important to watch it for a second time to understand it, as well as catch different details among these two director’s dialogues and thoughts. Maybe the language throws me off, but I also think it all depends on the individuals’ personalities to perceive things. If not, they will be in the wrong time and the same place.
Danish auteur Lars von Trier directs the documentary-of-sorts The Five Obstructions (De Fem Benspænd). In 2001, von Trier convinces veteran filmmaker Jørgen Leth to create five remakes of his 1967 short The Perfect Human. Calling himself the Obstructor, von Trier orders Leth to make his films in various parts of the world with extremely specific demands.
The first film, according to von Trier's rules, has to be composed of shots no longer than 12 frames and must be filmed in Cuba, without a set. Fast forward to Havana: Leth has found a solution to the difficulties and is making his film with confidence. With satanic glee, von Trier comes up with an even more constraining set of obstructions, clearly taking pleasure in torturing his former teacher. He attempts to find the most crippling rules and devises appropriate punishment when Leth fails to follow them.Lars von Trier is no stranger to sadism: this is the man responsible for the abuse of Emily Watson, Bjork, and Nicole Kidman in his last three features. "The Five Obstructions" makes it clear that his apparent mean streak is considered, focused, and aimed at a kind of creative catharsis. His agenda is to strip away the pretense, to get from the "perfect" to the "human," as he puts it.
I did not fully understand it after just finished watching the movie, however, by creating obstacles, over the obstacle course of self-liberation theme is quite obvious. Ideally, all of those engaged in the forefront of human creation are about to take this aspect, but only the most talented and the most persevering man will be able to keep working on this part. This is not a film made for majority audience, and even not for anyone else except the two who initiated this movie. This kind of documentary experimental film might not be as attracting as those narrative films at first and without watching the movie, the idea of metafilm could sound very boring but going along the movie with the storyline brought a lot fun actually. With the same story fixed, how can this movie be made again and again for five times? In my way of thinking, Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth did not really remake the movie; they were just trying to reshape the film in different forms. I feel that the human self-transcendence is hard to reach, Lars was always repeating the process of self-reference in the movie while he was trying to jump out of the frame made by himself. Maybe it is to say that the difference between people is not going to be wear down but will be enhanced as the process repeats.
We can be divided into two parts to understand the movie. First, the film explores theactivities of artistic creation, the relationship between objective conditions / work / three,and its infinite possibilities; is based on the topic of the "perfect", the two artists throughmutually agreed a series of purely creative activities to expand the dialogue. Obstacles and challenges obstacles to the promotion of interaction and self-transcendence, self-reflection and even fight, arising from the viewer think the review of the movieconnotation. The way we see the joy of the work, see the artists' personal thoughts vibrate, and eventually convinced by their spiritual power. This really is a very confusing movie. In fact, for the film, the dialectical relationship between form and content is already no need to repeat every beginner should carefullyunderstand, try to figure out, study, but the general sense of good movies are content for the first little for the form of ink. "The Five Obstructions" is a bold attempt new forms offilm, is also to highlight the cutting-edge.
The Five Obstructions was a confusing movie to me at first but once I realized what the concept was, it started making more sense. What I didn't understand was why one director would challenge another one to remake one of his short films 5 times. This film was an interesting documentary on what actually goes into film making and how everything is put together. I didn't really enjoy the movie because I didn't really enjoy the original Perfect Human short film. That black and white film didn't make much sense to me and the narration just added to my confusion. I do have to give the film credit though because it is so unconventional and different from most other documentaries about film making. It has the different forms of the original film that try and keep the audience's attention but for me it didn't capture my enthusiasm. Overall, the concept was a great and fresh idea but I didn't exactly enjoy this documentary.
I’ve never seen a movie like this before and I think it’s very artistic which makes it very interesting and unique. It’s not a movie I will ever see again but I did learn and its audience can be very limited due to the fact that it’s very different. Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth made the movie in 2003. It’s an experimental film that is based on the film The Perfect Human filmed during the 60’s. In my opinion Lars von Trier is really arrogant and selfish. The challenge in the film was rough there was a lot of competition and pushing around. This reminded me how some people are today; they want to see others fail so they feel stronger and better with themselves. I got confused at some parts but in overall the editing and the cartoon part were ok. You can see the human in different faces. I admire both directors they are really good.
The five obstructions is a Danish film made in 2003 by Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth. It is considered to be a documentary; nonetheless, I consider it to be a different kind, more of an experimental type of product. I believe this is a very unique movie that goes out of the normal expectations which generates some sort of reaction on the audience. I personally didn’t quite like this movie because I didn’t understand it on its fullest; It deals with a lot of bizarre images. I do understand the concept of how Von Trier wants Leth to remake the “Perfect Human” in five different ways so he could acquire a fully perspective of his original work.
This is not a movie I would’ve chosen to see however thanks to this class I was able to see it and appreciate a different perspective in film. These type of movies enables us to open our imagination when creating a piece of work. It offers you another phase of what can be done, pushing your potential to its maximum.
I thought the concept for “The Five Obstructions” was brilliant and overall I enjoyed the experimental nature of the film. Although von Trier clearly comes off as arrogant and self-obsessed at times I do think his idea to remake Leth’s “The Perfect Human” into a meta-film was genius. Each one of von Trier’s “obstructions” are designed to challenge Leth and to examine not only the new film he makes but also how he reacts to each challenge to make the film. I like how the film gives the viewer a glimpse of how Leth operates into the behind the scenes throughout the obstructions. However, I though there was too much time spent showing scenes of Leth and von Trier complaining about the project and it quickly became repetitive and predictable. I would have liked the film to focus a little bit more on the remakes and less on the ego of von Trier. My two favorite remakes were the first and final obstructions. I loved the 12-frame restriction film that Leth shot in Cuba and I think he used the obstruction to make a very fascinating short film. The final obstruction was a letter that von Trier wrote to himself from the perspective of Leth, which was very bizarre but worked well as a conclusion to the film.
The five obstructions is a film by Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth. It is actually a documentary. The main plot of the movie is that Lars has created some challenges in the form of the 5 obstructions for his friend Jorgen. Throughout the documentary we find out what the 5 obstructions are. Jorgen has to remake his movie "The Perfect Human" 5 times. In the first obstruction Jorgen has to make the film in Cuba with no shot longer than 12 frames. In the second obstruction he has to remake the film in the worst place in the world but not show that place on the screen. Jorgen also has to play the role of the man. Jorgen remakes it in Bombay and doesnt include the woman.However, he does not complete this task perfectly and so he has to redo it in a different place. He chooses Brussels and uses a technique called split screen effects. The fourth obstruction is that the film must be remade as a cartoon. This is quite interesting and made the documentary more fun. In the fifth obstruction has to voice over narrate von Trier's finished version from his point of view. This documentary was weird but I understood it and it made sense to make this a film because these two directors are good friends and it sounded like a good idea.
The Five Obstructions was a great experiment. It was amazing to see how director Jorgen Leth was able to re-create the perfect human in such fantastic short films even with all of the obstructions that Lars Von Trier had put in his path. Even though at times I found The Five Obstructions confusing, I was able to overlook its shortcomings and just focus on the five short films that Jorgen Leth created. My favorite of the five were the cartoon and the second obstruction. The cartoon was so beautifully created that I could not help but be mesmerized by it. The second obstruction I felt had a very powerful message to get across. How can a person seem to not feel bad about eating at 5 star meal in front of people who would do anything to get that food? I believe the point was that whether or not you are eating that meal in front of others who can’t enjoy it, they still exist whether you see them or not. While the other obstructions were good as well, I just felt that those two had the most profound affect on me. I also feel I have to mention the first obstruction, because that must have been such a pain to edit. I could just imagine the man in the editing room cursing out Lars Von Trier for coming out with this.
The Five Obstructions was a very interesting film. It is not a documentary that I would watch again but I liked that it showed the audience a type of behind the scenes of making a movie. It demonstrated how the finished product might look simple and easy but in reality the thought process that goes into every detail in filmmaking is incredible. This film shows that filmmaking is not a simple task by showing the stress that Jorgen Leth was going through in order to accomplish each of the five obstructions. My favorite obstruction was the second one. I thought it made a strong social statement. He was dressed up, sitting, having a decent meal and behind him poor people of Bombay were standing behind a translucent screen. It showed the two class extremes: the high class that can afford luxuries and decent meals and the poor who can barely afford anything at all and how the high class might disregard and ignore the poor. On the other hand, I thought the film was very slow paced. After the third obstruction I was bored and felt like it was tiring for the viewer to watch five remakes of The Perfect Human. Also, Lars von Trier annoyed me because he seemed very arrogant and selfish. I thought that at some moments he was disrespectful to Jorgen Leth.
This movie was the first of its type that I have watched. First of all, it is a documentary about making movies—which is awesome on its own. More specifically The Five Obstructions is a deep dialogue between Lars Van Trier and Jorgen Leth. The movie is a reconstruction of Leth’s movie from 1967 The Perfect Human. Leth’s movie is weird in itself because it is a movie about the perfect human and how he functions in society. His movie is successful and conveys truthful morals. The movie shows how the perfect human walk, talks, eats, sleeps and everything else. If this movie is one about the perfect movie then it is definitely suppose to be the “perfect movie”. Even more surreal, if Jorgen Leth is reconstruction of an already perfect movie, is he making more perfect even better? Is that possible? The Five Obstructions, along with being in itself a reform of another movie, it is also a philosophical dialogue between the two directors. They discuss the reconstruction and the meaning of the real human through humor and philosophy. This movie is not one of my favorites because it’s too far off and weird to me. I like how the documentary is set up though, very realistic and it makes it seem Like Leth is having serious issues and problems with his set and restrictions. Its interesting, as a fellow director and film student to watch and see how other directors deal with their problems when they are working on their own movie.
I feel as though I definitely saw this in some Art Gallery I was forced into when on travel with my parents. However, being a little older now, I appreciated this experimental film a little more. I wonder if there was a general plot in mind that everyone should have gotten. I feel as though everyone probably had a different reaction on the piece. Still it explored a lot of emotions and directions. Still I enjoyed this "documentary" and Von Triers work. I also liked seeing the example of a movie within a movie. Very cool concept.
The Five Obstructions was the first film I did not enjoy. I did however think it was interesting because I had never been seen such a film. It is a documentary staring two film makers Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth, in which Lars von Trier tests Jorgen Leth to remake his almost 40 year old film The Perfect Human, except he must remake it under five obstructions. These obstructions include remaking in Cuba with short frames and another where Jorgen Leth must remake the film using a technique called rotoscoping that makes it seem like a cartoon. The cartoon was the version I enjoyed the most, because of how artistic it was.
The whole filmed seemed a little self-serving on the part of two directors trying to show one another up in some sort of film competition. So even though I found the idea of the film interesting , it bored me and I was quickly disinterested. I am lost as to what Lars von Trier is trying to do, and it feels empty without some sort of resolution. In my opinion it also seemed like Jorgan Leth did not enjoy being a part of the film, whether it was the idea of the film or being in front of a camera it all seemed awkward.
The Five Obstructions Matthew Head The Five Obstructions was like any other movie I have ever seen. I do not want to say I enjoyed it, however I did not dislike it. This movie presented itself to me as more of something to be studied. I do not think that this movie is comparable to many others because it is so unique. I cannot say that I even really understand this movie yet, I think the most interesting part of the movie is the idea of it. I mostly find experimental films to be pretentious however this did not seem as pretentious. I somehow found humor in this movie. I felt as if the movie knew that people would find it to be ridiculous. Showing the perfect human would have helped though considering The Five Obstructions was based off of it.
The movie shows how the original ‘Perfect Human” is remade by Leth according to Von Trier’s suggestion. The important five obstructions in making movie require Leth lots of trial and efforts. I think the most interesting obstruction was the final one. It is about the insertion of the Leth’s reading a script into various scenes. This obstruction means the respect and love of Bon Trier toward Leth so it was very moving and beautiful idea. Also, I liked the first one also which is no single edit should be longer than 12 frames. This seems really weird and odd but in the process of editing, Leth could search and experience many ways to keep the rule. Although it is documentary experimental form so a little bit difficult to understand, I can feel the friendship between two people, Leth and Von Trier and the hardness of making films. Also I thought that joy of creation art is so huge that it can inspire people to revive again in real world.
To begin, The Perfect Human was a very trippy movie. It was absolutely uncomfortable to watch. The only interesting part to me was the dining part where the man begins to sing a song presumably about his relationship with the woman. This is the best part for me since the camera cuts out the woman then the guy begins singing, this is a great scene. Other than that, I did not enjoy this short film. As for The Five Obstructions, this was also really strange. The documentary aspects were not so bad, but the films of the 5 obstructions are all super strange and I found I was uninterested and not amused by them. Maybe a film major may find more value in this movie than I did, since I am usually more amused by mainstream movies. Overall, I did not enjoy spending my time watching this film. I do see the obvious connection to our other film from class, The Perfect Human; however, I was not enthralled with this movie.
The Five Obstructions might be one of the most rare films I have ever experienced. Conventional is one word that should not be used to describe this movie. The purpose of this film was to remake Jorgen Leth’s, The Perfect Human five times, in five different ways. Each remake was to be done with a different restriction for Leth. The Five Obstructions was a combination of a documentary and an experimental film. In some fashions, it is like a mental exercise, continually challenging the viewer’s mind and thoughts through its unique ways. The relationship between the two filmmakers adds a sort of ying and yang aspect to the film. Von Trier comes off as being diabolical, while Leth seems more intellectual with his misbehavior. Either way, the funniest parts to the movie are when the two are complaining about each other and going back and forth about the direction of how the scene should go. Overall, both filmmakers did a great job with their roles and created a unique movie that I felt was a pleasure to see and an effective change of pace from everyday cinema.
The Five Obstructions was definitely one of the stranger films I have seen, and I would definitely say it falls in the category of experimental films. I did not particularly enjoy the film, as I didn’t really care for the original film, The Perfect Human, that the Five Obstructions is recreating. So I did not particularly enjoy watching the film made five times, most of which were poorer, as they were made with the obstructions in mind. However, I did actually enjoy the cartoon version more so than the original. I thought the way that the narration matched up with the animation made it seem more like a poem with imagery attached. The vividness of the colors and the style used in the animation kind of gave more life to the words for me than the original film, and it was the only obstruction in which I was engaged throughout. I particularly liked when the words would flash across the screen, accompanied with imagery, as it would usually emphasize some part of the narration that was important or significant. Overall, this movie definitely was not my cup of tea, but I did find enjoyment in some of the parts of it.
A Danish director, Lars Von Trier, directs this movie. His work is playfully profound, such that it will leave you smiling warmly. The Five Obstructions is both an antidote and a variation to these spectacles of abjection and on their themes of cruelty and domination. Lars Von Trier has depicted the sadistic abuse of a defenseless good-hearted woman. Mr. Von Trier was obsessed with the 12-minute film of Jorgan Leth- ‘The Perfect Human’. Portions of this film are in incorporated in the ‘Five Obstructions’. All the actors filmed in black and white against black backgrounds, is a suave, pseudo-scientific examination of human behavior. The movie combines harsh intimacy with jarring theatricality. The movie was remaked by the older director. First place to reshoot the movie was Cuba, second, it was shot in a slum of Mumbai. While watching the movie, it seems like one is watching two chess masters playing dominoes and a series of therapy sessions being spied. The movie is directed in 4 languages being English, Danish, French and Spanish.
I just finished watching and did not fully understand. When I first saw it, I was thinking the movie was made in order to make a movie. And I did not think it was a good way to make a record. It was simple a waste of money. But after a period of time, I think it again as there are something really confused me in the movie. Then I found something new and fancy. However, by creating obstacles, overcoming the obstacle and then making self-liberation. The theme is quite obvious. Ideally, all the people who engaged in the forefront of human creation are taking this road, but only the most talented the most persevering man able to keep walking. Out of their own familiar circle always painful, if I remember correctly, the order of five barriers: (1) common sense (challenge on the technique) Means of expression (absence of to figure) (3) limits (challenge on personal limit) - free play Degrees of freedom (the right filmmaker, film which still has a lot of things there is no control possible) - animation Content (deprivation of contents)
so I think it is really not easy to make human’s self-transcendence. Lars is always repeating the process of self-reference. Or, the difference between people will not be kill in the process, but will enhance.
The Five Obstructions, a documentary about two filmmakers, Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth, focuses on recreating The Perfect Human. Von Trier wants Leth, who filmed The Perfect Human, to remake The Perfect Human five times with different requirements each time which represents the five obstructions.
Although it was interesting to see the same short film created in different ways, I failed to see why it was made into a film. Undoubtedly, it was interesting to see Leth, who had trouble getting back into gear in regards to film making, to reinvent a piece of art. The obstructions forced creativity and it was interesting to see The Perfect Human filmed in different ways yet still retain its message. For example, the first obstruction was to recreate The Perfect Human in Cuba and with very short shots. The film that resulted from these requirements was my favorite out of the five and in my opinion, was better than the original. This serves as a prime example as to how art can be complex and how ideas can be conveyed in various ways. This aspect of the film I enjoyed, but I failed to see any other purpose to the film and thus, I did not enjoy it very much.
To be honest, I really did not enjoy this film at all. Instead of a conventional plot, the film was created by a documentary director (Lars von Trier) and he interviews veteran director Jorgen Leth about his early art film 'Det perfekte menneske' and challenged him to remake this film after given certain strict obstructions.They were challenged to remake the Perfect Human. Some of these requirements help to make up some dandy short films and some are just bizarre. One of the more bizarre ones actually works very well, as Leth had to make an edit every 12 frames (i.e., every 1/2 second) and the final result was unusual but watchable.
Overall, I found The Five Obstructions to be self-indulgent and pretentious. A movie should not exist solely for the director; if it does, it should be a home movie. I simply felt like Von Trier made the film solely for himself and intentionally made it more inaccessible than necessary for the audience. When it was more like a documentary it worked at times, but the obstructions themselves simply seemed nonsensical. The only obstruction I really enjoyed was the first one; the constant forced cuts but the overall continuity of the film made it very interesting. Additionally, the fact that it was in Havana and starred a Cuban actor and actress lent it an exotic feeling that made it far more appealing. The original film The Perfect Human was interesting, however. Something about it was strangely appealing, as it depicted a lot of universal aspects of the human experience. That the man is singing because the woman has broken his heart adds to this idea of the universality of what the people in the film were doing. It is a sad feeling, but it is something every person on earth has to deal with at some point or another, and I felt that it brought the entire short home in a strong way.
As a musician, I feel a connection to this film. In the sense that I understand art for art's sake. I felt that this was a very interesting film. It was very cool to see the interaction between film makers. Also, it was neat seeing a film maker re create one of his "most important' films.
Its sort of like a film competition. Seeing if these challenges, or "obstructions' can be overcome. This was interesting to me. But I feel that people not involved in the arts would have a harder time understand this film as opposed to someone who is involved in the arts.
This is quite an interesting film to watch. After watching the film all I can think of is how I would like some of the best directors and to use it. Money, power, wealth. These are just the elements of the movies, you get some, but you can take your pride and joy, and converted into different channels, while still maintaining the same overall tone? This is a thorny issue, I think, if our American director can be completed. I do not know, Peter Jackson, Spielberg, Lucas can take their precious collections, there are still creative mind to make some "obstacles" in the same film? My initial answer is 'no', but I would not mind seeing them try.
My favorite scene is when the Trier mentioned Leth, Leth feel his back turtle. He expressed the hope the Leth difficulties and struggles, and even frustration, Trier to his cartoon block. Leth in a very sarcastic way, the tortoise in the film. The ball is in court, von Trier.
The five obstruction I think this is a pretty confusing movie. In fact for film for, form and content of the dialectical relationship between have no say, every introduction person have to be carefully appreciate, meditate, research, but the general sense of the good movies are content first, to form describes little. The five way movie problem of of the film is a new form of a bold attempt, and also reveal new content. We can be divided into two parts to understand the film. A film is explored in art creation, objective conditions/works/the relationship between the three, and its infinite possibility; two it is based on the "perfect man" to this topic, the two artists through a series of pure common agreed to the creation of the activities to dialogue. Set obstacles and barriers to promote the interaction and challenge self improvement, and introspection and even fight, which caused the viewer of the connotation of modern film. On the way, we see the happiness of the work, we can see the artist's thought tremble, and eventually for their spiritual power tracks.
In my opinion, this film with five of the art of individual character is dye-in-the-wood short film, and a passion of 4 excessive poem, overturned a documentary of the objective and calm.
I'm the type of person who typically appreciates and understands art, so I was entertained by this far-out display of film techniques. I loved the insinuations behind each line, and was fascinated by how everything connected in such a circular way.
This being said, I can see how this type of film could be less enjoyable for less open-minded people. There is no captivating story-line, and most of the graspable material from the narration is just generalizations of human tendencies. What makes the directors so wise that they can lump everything into such bland emotions? It may even come off as ignorant.
But you need to look past that in order to understand the intention behind this work. There is much more than meets the eye.
The Perfect Human was a rarity for me, in its genre of film, it was a feature that was abstract and different, but still managed to both confuse me and also let me fully understand it. When you first watch the feature, you have a notion of what is going on and you feel this other worldliness and deepness to it, but it is a deepness you feel you understand. It is only after you have watched it multiple times and someone else points out to you the various intricacies of the different parts that you actually begin to feel differently about it. The black and white and the emptiness of the area that they live give you a feeling of either being god as you view them, or as if they are gods and you are lower than them and you are viewing them in that way. It also shows the imperfections in man, and how being perfect is sometimes dealing with these imperfections and embracing them.
Hiram Aparicio C06979667 The Five Obstructions Ha! Awesome. first, let me state that I loved the original version of A Perfect Human. It has such interesting commentary on the mental processes of a human observing something and trying to figure it out. I feel it is perhaps even a narration of the viewer's own thoughts themselves. But, anyway, Leth did a pretty damn good job of conquering the obstructions. The first one was very blatant in its obtrusiveness; one can easily see how challenging it must be to create a film with such a tight limit on acceptable frames. I felt he could have gone a little further and done some more interesting stuff with camera positions and what not, but being that I am Cuban i thought it was a pretty interesting rendition, and enjoyed seeing his takes in Cuba and the way he cut from eye to eye between the genders. Some of the shots actually worked quite well with the jump cuts too. The second one was crazy. Its interesting that that is the one he failed because I thought it was one of the most symbolic. To see a man in a tuxedo feasting (on some of the best looking food I've ever seen might I add) while so many people, possibly hungry people, watched him from behind a translucent back ground was very metaphoric of our condition in the more "developed" countries. It must have been very strange for him to act in that role, but i think he pulled it off quite well. The third one had some pretty interesting juxtaposition shots. It was good but at this point perhaps the movie was getting redundant. I'm not sure, but it seemed to drag on a little more than the others. Still there were some very worth while shots such as when the woman seems to be talking to him but when it cuts back to him we see that he is still alone looking off into the city. When i saw the cartoon one, my immediate reaction was "whaaaaaaat!" it incorporated everything and also included very visually pleasing graphics. It blends in aspects of each short film and yet is compressed to less time than the others. For that reason this was my favorite of the obstructions, and I would even go as far as to say it competes with the original The Perfect Human. The fifth obstruction was of course interesting because it puts us somewhat in the mind of the obstructer. We also see very interesting shots of Leth which make him seem vulnerable, very much reflecting the purpose of this movie in its entirety. In the end I think the movie is great, but it fails, or at least the obstructer fails, because the goal was to make Leth create a bad movie.
In 1967 Jørgen Leth made a 13 min. short film called “The Perfect Human”, which is a document on human behaviour. In the year 2000, Trier challenged Leth to make five remakes of this film. Trier put forward obstructions, constraining Leth to re-think the story and the characters of the original film. Playing the naive anthropologist, Leth attempts to embrace the cunning challenges set forth by the devious and sneaky Trier and must deal with the limitations, commands and prohibitions. It is a game full of traps and vicious turns. “The Five Obstructions” is an investigative journey into the phenomenon of filmmaking.
It is very confusing hard to understand. I mean it is understandable because everything needs to be concluded in five short film is so hard. Desire, freedom, flesh, sex is everywhere in the film. I can barely see what the main story is going on.
The 5 Obstructions
ReplyDeleteThe film is a test of Jorgen Leth’s sanity, thanks to the pretentious Lars von Trier. Von Trier pretends to know more about Leth then Leth knows about himself, but he just comes off as an asshole. While Von Trier’s goal is to destroy his idol, his favorite director, Leth, he instead makes him stronger.
In Von Trier’s eyes, Leth is the one that needs help because he’s been spending more time in Haiti then anywhere else. Leth has slunk away from filming due to this depression, and this is Von Trier’s way of breaking his shell. Von Trier assigns Leth 5 tasks with different obstructions. What all the tasks have in common: remake ‘The Perfect Human’. Von Trier believes that this will be a therapeutic session for Leth, by breaking down his already perfect piece and creating something horrible out of it.
I find it ironic that Von Trier wants Leth to remake ‘The Perfect Human’ 5 different times in order for him to ruin his original film. To Von Trier, the film was already perfect, and the purpose of the obstructions is to stain it. Von Trier’s tasks prove to be unsuccessful when each of Leth’s remakes are unique and breathtaking, all different interpretations of the same film.
For the final obstruction, Von Trier takes over the film, writing a letter to himself that Leth is to read (pretending to be Leth to Von Trier) and the film ends abruptly after it. Von Trier has managed to make the film all about him and how he’s the better person because this was his ‘Help Jorgen Leth’ project. Von Trier might be a brilliant filmmaker, but anyone that is willing to tear down their idol in order for them to feel better, is one twisted human being in my book.
The 5 Obstructions is an interesting film. It’s unlike any I have ever seen before. It’s a documentary experimental hybrid. It’s all about this movie that Jorden Leth made in the 60s, titled The Perfect Human. This film is featured throughout The 5 Obstructions because Lars Von Trier has challenged Jorden Leth to remake The Perfect Human five times, hence the name. Or in Von Trier’s words: it is “a gem now we will ruin”, otherwise known as the “help Jorden Leth Project” since Leth has been battling depression lately. Throughout the movie, there’s a fascinating combination of documentary about film making, new shorts and the original work. I really enjoyed the meta-film. Most audiences don’t consider re-makes and originals together. The film does a fantastic job editing them together so the audience considers what has changed. I walked away from the movie determined to look more closely at originals and remakes.
ReplyDeleteI had two favorite obstructions. The first obstruction where the rules were: no single edit must be longer than twelve frames, Leth must answer the questions from the original work, he must shoot in Cuba and there can be no built set. I loved the way the twelve frame rule made the film run. I agreed with Leth originally, that the rule would make the work impossible, but he made it run very smoothly. Plus, as an American citizen, going to Cuba is very difficult. I liked seeing the surroundings and scenery while they were shooting in Cuba. I also enjoyed the bits of Spanish thrown in. It made a foreign film (Danish) more foreign, with the Spanish parts added. My other favorite obstruction was the cartoon. I am a HUGE cartoon fan. I grew up watching them every Saturday morning. So, usually I have some high standards for the cartoons I watch. I really liked the cartoon one. Granted I hated the robo-film part, but I think that’s just because I am biased no matter what toward that type of cartoon. I think the artist did a great job with different angles of the main character, the close-up and the middle distance sketches were my favorite.
When I first heard about the premise of "The Five Obstructions", I thought it sounded like an interesting concept for a documentary: have a director remake his short film five different ways with five different obstructions to his process. Little did I know how poorly it would turn out once two Danish filmmakers were the ones involved in the process. Admittedly, most of the fault lies with Lars von Trier: not only does he come off as arrogant and self-absorbed, but his supposed "insight" into filmmaking is pretentious and irrelevant rather than insightful. Jorgen Leth, on the other hand, seems devoid of personality; most of the time he barely offers a response to von Trier's endless babbling. So, while one would expect such a challenge of filmmaking to spark witty dialogues and creativity between the directors, this film drags on through conversations in which Lars von Trier drones on about his pretentious views on films, while Leth mumbles lame responses. My other problem with "The Five Obstructions" is the nature of the short film itself, "The Perfect Human". While von Trier's goal seems to be to ruin the film by remaking it, in my opinion, it had nowhere to go but up. The original is boring, dull, and seems created for snooty film critics (or people like von Trier). Quite frankly, it also made absolutely no sense. Despite all of my criticisms, I do have to admit that two of the obstructions did become interesting films. I found the cartoon version (which of course, von Trier and Leth both said they disliked from the start) to be absolutely beautiful. The colors and shots really added to the abstract, surreal themes. The film made in Cuba also turned out fascinatingly; something about the faster cuts made the narrations seem less dull and absurd. However, ultimately "The Perfect Human" and "The Five Obstructions" only demonstrated to me that for a film to be considered "art", it must be in a foreign language and it must make absolutely no sense. And possibly contain random scenes of overt sexuality. That is something in a few days I will probably never understand.
ReplyDeleteIn hopes of ridding his friend and favorite director, Jorgen Leth, of his current writers block and depressive state, Lars Von Trier attempts to put Leth to the test to recreate his previous 1967 film “The Perfect Human” five different times with limiting obstructions. However, these “limiting” obstacles that Von Trier feels will obstruct Leth’s ability to remake the film only encourages Leth’s creative freedom allowing for Leth to overall obstruct Lars in the end. Out of all the five obstructions that Leth was told to conquer, some of which included the amount of frames, location issues, the creation of a cartoon and the option of no rules, I thought that the one Leth would have most difficulty with would be the option of complete creative freedom which Von Trier saw as a punishment. I as well saw this as a difficult task and felt sympathetic for Leth. However I think after watching what he produced, this option gave Leth more time for self discovery and much more free time to experiment with in his film.
ReplyDeleteThis documentary made me think a lot about obstacles in life and whether they help or hinder the creativity that goes into the filmmaking process. I guess Von Trier is teaching Leth a valuable lesson throughout his obstructions but as the documentary went on I started to dislike Von Trier more and more. I found it cool to watch what Leth came up with after just being given a rule and then found it very un-cool to see Von Trier attack what he came up with referring to it as “crap”. I felt that Leth always rose to the challenge in attempts to perfect everything. In speaking of perfect I felt that Leth had already perfected “The Perfect Human” and these obstructions were just to keep him busy with other projects. I think that Von Trier “understood” this already and created the five obstructions to merely “help” Leth. However in my opinion, this only depicts Von Trier as being arrogant and better than Leth when it should be the other way around.
After watching this film, its creativity and restrictions interest me. The 5 obstructions are given by Von Trier to test Jagen Leth. He wants Jagen Leth to remake the “Perfect Man”.
ReplyDeleteThe first obstruction is to use only 12 frames. The second one is make the film at a miserable place. The third one is to make “freedom” without any restriction. The fourth one is to make cartoon Perfect Man. The last one is about Von Trier to shoot the motion picture, but Jagen Leth acts and dubs to the film. Von Trier actually wants to test Jagen Leth, and want him to make an even better “Perfect Man” under those restrictions. Especially at the third obstruction-freedom, which makes Jagan Leth feel kind of hard to shoot it under no restriction. If something without restriction or “title”, that means you have to make something meaningful with your own requirements and restrictions. In my point of view, the first obstruction-12 frames that is used to destruct the film’s body only, whereas, the obstruction of miserable place is going to damage the position of director. There are four factors which are a miserable place, not showing the source of pain, Jagan Leth is the main character and he is eating his meal without female character. All of these four condtions have been focusing on destroying the Jagen leth’s director position. I admire Jagen Leth and his team for their impressive work, because they are always seeking changes among those obstructions and getting each new “Perfect Man” done beautifully.
I watched The 5 Obstructions without seeing The Perfect Human first. At first, I was confused with what the Perfect Human was about and why Lars von Trier was asking Jorgen Leth to recreate the film. Von Trier was testing Leth to see how he could recreate The Perfect Human using five obstructions. Even though von Trier gives Leth random tasks such as re-filming the Perfect Human in Cuba and creating a cartoon, Leth handles each obstruction very well. He is able to re-film the Perfect Human successfully with whatever obstruction is thrown his way. I felt like Von Trier's personality was too harsh for Leth but by the end of the film, I realized Von Trier was only doing these obstructions for Leth's good. He wanted to test Leth and push him farther. Leth was already a good documentary filmmaker but these obstructions made him realize he can truly film anything beautifully even if there are obstructions in the way.
ReplyDeleteJason Koreen
ReplyDeleteI didn’t expect to like The Five Obstructions, but it ended up being an intriguing documentary. It introduced me to one of Leth’s earliest films, ‘The Perfect Human’, a thirteen minute short, which was interspersed in clips throughout the documentary. Leth’s modern re-makes of the film were quite different than the original, as they were in color, and the restrictions resulted in very different styles. The Five Obstructions is one of the most intriguing films I have seen, in terms of thinking about the creative process. While it was enjoyable to watch the films that Leth made in response to the obstructions, it was equally exciting to listen in on the directors’ discussions, finding out which obstructions von Trier would come up with, and why, and imagining how they would affect the final film. The Five Obstructions is the sort of film that makes you want to think more deeply about the creative process, and experiment more with your own work. My favorite of Jorgen's obstructions was his first, filmed in Cuba. I enjoyed the brightness of the piece, and the color generally seemed very warm. I feel like the short edits forced Leth to pay particular attention to the importance of all of his shots as well as play with different angles. Overall I felt that his first obstruction was the most upbeat and playful. My least favorite of the obstructions was the 2nd, filmed in India. While I appreciate the thought behind the idea, I did not feel like the execution of the screen behind Leth worked as effectively as he had hoped.
I watched many movies in my past; however, I never experienced before that I almost fall asleep during the film. “The Five Obstructions” did not touch me; it did not affect me at all. I do not understand what the film wants to tell me and why the poor Jorgen Leth was treated so badly from Lars von Trier, who was more than arrogant in his position as the “perfect director who will transform Leth in a perfect director with a few tricks, too”. But, why does he want to achieve it by recreating a short film of what he thinks is perfect anyway? I cannot get any sense in there because Length had to fail anyway! Moreover, he gave him once the order to transform it into a comic, although Leth and Trier hate this presentation form. Why has he done this? It makes no sense. And this is my biggest issue. Sure, the story was organized logically by the five obstructions. It followed the events chronically. However, I do not know what the movie wants to tell me (and this was a documentary which should tell me something about an important event in one’s life!). Why should I watch a movie without any meaning?
ReplyDeleteAnother reason why I dislike the movie and why it let me almost fall asleep was the composition of the presentation of the documentary and the short art films. In the documentary, the development was too slow. The dialogues were too long and Leth was every time overstrained. The art films were nice to look at; however, I have not watched “The Perfect Human” before. So, I did not make any sense to me as in the documentary part nothing was said about the film and the creative process Leth went through. If I have to decide, which of the five obstructions was the best, I would say the comic one, as it was extraordinary. The bright color, the playful design and the great portray of the characters were perfectly done and suited my idea of the perfect human.
I have never seen any film made from “limiting” obstacles, but I really enjoyed those requirements or challenges. The five obstruction opening showed that Lars von Trier wanted Jargen Leth to make remake on his film The Prefect Human. It was under five conditions, which came from the random conversions between Lars Von Trier and Jargen Leth. It was really interesting because Lars Von Trier even did not give the whole things as a list. Every condition for the film was given by step by step. Once the first obstacle came out, Lars wanted the 12 frames which were shooting in Cuba. The old version The Prefect human had showed in black and white background and the Europe artist cold performance style. In contrast, the new one showed the Cuba's Latin style. Enthusiasm, color, and, lust were displayed in the actor's small ground steps of dance, even simple cigar movements. The actress’ gaze was also filled with such a presence. However, the first one was my favorite. I respect the 12 frame making, which was such a surprise for me. In the second part, I wanted to say that it's really hard to finish because it's a miserable place and shoot by himself. But Lars did not like Jargen’s using the Bombay’s red night district background. The third one was the freedom shooting style. At last, Jargen became to a real director without Lars. But after 35 years of The Perfect Human, Jargen had no interest in this issue. The fourth one was about Carton. After watching the results, I thought that even Jargen had been forced to use animation, he did not do a fantastic job in it. Finally, Lars acted and dubbed the film, and shot by himself. However, this was a gambling game belonging to the director in a forgotten film of five wonderful variations, which witnessed the movie with both simple and complex wonderful characteristics.
ReplyDeleteTHE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS
ReplyDeleteI watched the "Five Obstructions" as part of the class screening and found the concept to be extremely interesting. Like other people I have never seen a film made with any limiting obstacles, but like many other people i enjoyed these challenges. Although I do think that it is a little strange that Lars von Trier wanted Jargen Leth to remake his film "The Perfect Human," a film that in his eyes is already the best movie ever made. The obstructions such as having to film the movie in Cuba or in 12 frames were interesting because they drastically altered the way the film was meant to be viewed without entirely ruining it. I can understand why many people would think that Lars von Trier is trying to show up Leth by making a mockery of his his original film, I I think that Trier is simply trying to find a way to put a twist on a film he really enjoys and perhaps even idolizes. In conclusion, I believe that this film, although bizarre in nature, was really created in homage to Jargen Leth.
"The Five Obstructions" is a documentary which follows Jargen Leth as he takes on Lars von Treir's challenges to recreate Leth's film "The Perfect Human". Though I found the CONCEPT of the documentary original with the potential to be very interesting, I was unimpressed by the film as a whole. I found myself struggling to stay awake while watching remake after remake after remake. I understand and recognize Treir's goal in lifting Leth from his depression by reminding him of what a creative film maker he truly is, however I found the documentary to be very uneventful, flat, and drawn out. I was pretty disappointed because I am a fan of documentaries and I am typically interested in foreign films, but I found "The Five Obstructions" to be unnecessarily confusing at times, monotonous, and flat out uninteresting.
ReplyDeleteThe Five Obstructions was very confusing and boring. It would have been helpful if they had played the entire film of The Perfect Human beforehand so the viewer could better understand the obstructions that Lars Von Trier was throwing at Jorgen Leth. I understand Von Trier’s motive in giving Leth obstructions, but watching it as a documentary seemed unnecessary and dragged out. It could have been more appealing to the viewer if it had first shown the original, and then each of the full five obstructions, with much less documentary in between each of them. This way, viewers would be able to interpret The Perfect Human on their own, and then analyze how Leth handles each obstruction given to him.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, limiting the way that Leth could film by giving him obstructions doesn’t make him a better filmmaker. I believe the obstruction that was limitless was the best because it was just for Leth to improve on his own work, without limitations. In real filmmaking, filmmakers aren’t limited by the things that Von Trier limited Leth with; they are free to experiment and film whatever they want. Therefore, practicing making original films that require creativity would make Leth a better filmmaker, not following a strict set of rules to remake something he has already done.
I found the THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS to be unlike any other movie I had seen before. While I found the first version of the film to be interesting, I quickly lost interest and found the movie to be overly confusing. I think the documentary would have made more sense had they shown "The Perfect Human" first as that is what the documentary is based off of. I did however, like the concept of having five different obstructions: Using only 12 frames, make the film in a miserable location, show "freedom" without any restrictions, cartoon "The Perfect Man," and to have a voice over narration, to show the many ways the film could have been made. However, the way that he went about showing the five different ways could have been more interesting.
ReplyDeleteDevika Boodhoo
DeleteC06517157
When I first watched the Five Obstructions, I didnt really understand how a film could be remade under the 5 restrictions Von Trier gave Leth, but when we saw The Perfect Human, I understood a bit better. I'm not a huge fan of experimental film. I much prefer narrative-based or character-driven film. But I did enjoy the Five Obstructions as a pseudo-documentary, chronicling the friendship between these two filmmakers. I would have liked to have seen more of the films under the 5 obstructions, especially after seeing the original "Perfect Human"
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard the concept of The Perfect Human, I thought it would be pointless and that I would really dislike it. But, once I saw I found a greater meaning in it that spoke to me. I feel that it was very interesting that the "perfect human" in the film was doing things anyone could do, and nothing seemed so perfect about him. I think this speaks to today's culture in more ways than one. First of all I think that this can apply to the current craze of idolizing celebrities, or our modern day perfect humans. I feel that the film was trying to say that there is in fact no perfect human, but that we all have imperfections and flaws and that there is no way to become the perfect human. In this sense I feel that this can be applied to show people today how silly it really is to idolize these celebrities and power figures because they too are just humans like anyone else. There is nothing special or different about them. The only thing different is the context they are viewed. Just like the perfect human in the film, we are told they are the perfect human so that is how we view them, but in fact they are just a human doing normal things and with normal flaws and insecurities.
ReplyDeleteThe Five Obstructions is a documentary that incorporates experimental films. Lars Von Trier gives the task to Leth of remaking “The Perfect Human”, each time with a different obstruction. The five are obstructions: 1. Leth must make a film in Cuba with certain requirements and Leth fulfilled this task. 2. Leth remakes the film in the red light district of Bombay, without showing this place directly onscreen. 3. Nevertheless, Leth fails the latter task and Von Trier makes him remake the film in the way he chooses remaking it in Brussels. 4. Leth remakes the film as a cartoon. 5. The fifth version must be credited as made by Leth’s so he must read a narration written by von Trier. I believe that this film has a very limited audience and is not of interest to many people. I also believe that this film reexamines the nature of cinema. Nevertheless, this film is very different and chaotic. Even though Von Trier imposes several obstructions to Leth, he cannot get him to make a bad film. Von Trier pushes Leth in several scenarios to get him out of his comfort zone so he can let his creativity flow and produce a brilliant film. Both Von Trier and Leth are visionary filmmakers and what we are seeing on the screen is pure reality. Personally, I liked the cartoon version more than the original version maybe due to the brilliancy of the colors which helped capture my attention. The awkward movements between Leth and Von Trier are portrayed on the screen and felt by the audience. Sometimes I even felt as if Von Trier wanted to see Leth, his idol, fail so that he could feel better; maybe von trier was a bit arrogant and conceited for my taste. Von Trier proposes this challenge to Leth and is interested in the results of the documentation of his experiment. It is also amazing how Leth needs to stay calm during the various challenges and faces them creating new and different portrayals of the same film allowing Leth use a different style of filmmaking than the one he mostly used.
ReplyDeleteThis is a film I would not ever seen if it wasn’t for this class. I am not sure what to think about it. While I was watching it I try to concentrate, and find the good and positive side of it. I was enjoying it, but there was a point around the second obstruction where everything turned really repetitive and tedious. I was anxious for it to finish. I couldn’t see the point of it.
ReplyDeleteBut I got the message at the end of the fifth obstruction. It ended out to be kind of touching. The friendship and admiration of both directors (Leth and von Trier) was reflected in the last speech of the fifth obstruction.
Overall, I have to say that I didn’t like, but I understand why we watched it in this class. But I have to say that this is a movie I wouldn’t want to watch again.
The Five Obstructions is a beautiful experiment. The concept was unique and its executions, clever. It was amazing to see how Jorgen Leth was able to create such wonderful short films from seemingly incredulous obstructions. One can really see Leth’s exceptional talent. Von Trier’s short tribute to Leth was also well made and heartfelt. Although the five short films are amazing by themselves, The Five Obstructions connects them all and gives them a profound meaning that would otherwise go unnoticed. Holistically, this meta-film is a commemoration to Jorgen Leth, Lars Von Trier’s idol. However, it veers away from obsequious praise in favor of a documentary that chronicles Leth’s perseverance. It is not until the final obstruction that Von Trier reveals the purpose of the film: To show Leth that he is capable of conquering any obstruction, including his profound depression. Although the obstructions seem purposeless throughout most of the film, the film is not boring. The Five Obstructions does a fine job of illustrating the challenges of directing a film. Leth’s challenges make his short films more important. I found myself cheering for him, and derived vicarious fulfillment in viewing his finished products. The Five Obstructions implies that the narrative of the filmmaking process is as important, and sometimes more, than the narrative of the finished product. We learn as much of Leth through his films, as we learn of his films through him. This was beautifully expressed in the form of the film: Leth’s life is the link to his body of work. In addition to the “Help Leth Project”, I believe The Five Obstructions was meant to be a case study for every artistic director, demonstrating how a director’s experience can shape his/her life’s work.
ReplyDeleteI have never been into to experimental films, mainly because I have not been exposed to them often. The Five Obstructions and The Perfect Human was a real eye opener into this very different genre. I watched The Five Obstructions first and then watched The Perfect Human, however looking back I would have preferred to watch The Perfect Human first. Lars is almost testing his friend and teacher Jorgen Leth on his ability to produce films. Some of the obstructions include; the film having to be in cartoon, it having to be set on the worst place in the world and Leth must voice-over narrate the film.
ReplyDeleteAt times I found The Five Obstructions confusing and I didn’t really understand what was going on. However once I saw The Perfect Human, I understood what was really going on. In my opinion The Perfect Human has meaning behind; what looks like a film of random gestures and command. The narration is almost mocking the perfect human during the film. At one point he says, “look how the perfect man falls.” This could be seen as mocking our western culture of idolizing everything about celebrities. People are fixated with everything about celebrities; this culture has given rise to magazine ands blogs about the most irrelevant things. People don’t need to know where Jennifer Aniston eats or how much she exactly weighs. The films almost give us the generic version of a celebrity and analyses everything the human does in an unnecessary manner.
After watching The Five Obstructions I thought I would not enjoy The Perfect Human. Yet once you try and look for more subtle meanings in experimental films they become very enjoyable.
Nicholas Sando
C10186082
The Perfect Human
ReplyDeleteThe Perfect Human to me felt like a film with a very strange topic, but a very basic one. It got me thinking why I never saw a film explaining a human being and what he normally does. At first I found it very boring since it was just very normal stuff, like eating. Besides, I honestly do not really enjoy old films that are in black and white, and I do not appreciate much the style used in it, which is having a narrator telling the viewer exactly what is going on, which to me is quite obvious. When it got to the dancing scene with the male going through the motions, it started to intrigue me a little more, I felt I was able to relate better to it, and it even made me smile and laugh a bit. This short film depicts sort of "universal" rules for humans to follow, actions that each and every one of us should be doing in order to belong to society. It is like someone telling the audience/viewer what humans do (laying down, dancing, jumping) while using two people (one man and one women) to demonstrate how to do such thing. Honestly I do not know how I really feel about this short film, at first it annoyed me a bit, but then I was able to familiarize more with me, of course, since it is about what we do. This film became then the main idea for the creation of the film The Five Obstructions, in which it was t be re produced or re-made by its director, Jorgen Leth.
When I saw for the first time The Perfect Human, a film by Lenth, I was kind of lost in time. The sense of misperception, made me realize that I need to learn a lot from the world of cinema. In my opinion The Perfect Human, is a blend of a documental and experimental type of film, because it is based on what a human does in real live and at the same time is trying to prove a theory. That theory, since my point of view, is that trying to be that ideal individual “perfect human”, most of times is going to turn into something monotonous and annoying. Lenth is definitely trying to send a message by this short film.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there is a more complex perception about the technical aspects of the film. The movie is filmed in a constantly white room, using two actors. During the film is very interesting how (more at the beginning) various characteristics and details of the performers are shown through close-up shots. Also it was filmed in a slow way, in order to show how each human performed their activities; for example the scene where the man is having dinner, the way he punches the potatoes and how he chews the food. Furthermore, we can explore the different parts and perceptions of a human, for example when the woman is taking off her cloth and the man also, we can get different perceptions of each.
Also, after seeing the film and by doing some research, I got to the conclusion that Lenth did a really god job by doing a film that lasted through the years, and that later was presented in 5 different versions. Being Lenth an author that always takes challenges.
I will start off with a brief analysis of The Perfect Human. Although I found that many of my classmates did not enjoy this film, I certainly did. Because the film carries a label of being experimental, it tends to strike people as being weirder than it actually is. Take, for example, if Steven Spielberg directed the film. I believe that viewers would be far less inclined to be weirded out. In fact, they would probably hail the short film simply as different areas of Spielberg's mind working. Overall, I enjoyed the story of the fall of a relationship and a man's happiness without actually being a story. We did not have to rely on dialogue or plot elements to determine the developments.
ReplyDeleteThe Five Obstructions, for the most part, was a decent film. As we learned in class, the film is a meta-remake of The Perfect Human, meaning that it is a film about filming the remake (or 5 remakes) of the latter. We are presented with a documentary about Vons Trier telling Leth about different limitations on the remake of the film, such as using no more than 12 frames per shot or remaking the film in animated form. We get to see different twists on the original short film.
Moreover, the overall purpose, as should be apparent, is to help both Leth and the audience to think about a particular film in a new way. In a way, it is not only to re-imagine a film but to understand new layers to the original. In a way, it is both re-molding the film, as well as changing the basic composition of it.
The filming of the movie in India, in particular, sheds new light on the film. The original The Perfect Human suggests a deeply bourgeois setting. The new venture in India juxtaposes a similar setting against the background of a poorer Indian slum. In my opinion, this adds a new layer of human happiness in terms of materialism and financial wealth. Leth begins to understand than he takes for granted his own wealth while he pathetically tries to consume his meal of excess.
The Five Obstructions was a very unique movie. I thought it was a good movie because it was interesting and well done, but I don't think it had a lot of entertainment value for the average audience member. This movie was very experimental and used intertextuality with a movie that was just as experimental. Both The Perfect Human and The Five Obstructions were not traditional movies to say the least. I think the purpose of The Perfect Human was to play on the idea that there really is no such thing as a perfect human. Claus Nissen was just another human doing things that normal humans do. The movie was not rich in plot or character development. The Five Obstructions touched upon the idea of the remake. Why do people remake movies? Is it because they think they can do a better job with it? Do they wish they came up with the idea first? Vons Trier attempts to recreate Jorgen Leth's The Perfect Human, and in the process creates five entirely different movies. It is interesting to watch the different variations of Leth's masterpiece. I especially liked the cartoon variation because it added a little something extra to an otherwise pretty bland film. It added color and animation. Ultimately, the most interesting part of the movie was watching Lars at work. He is an interesting character, a mixture of egotism and genius. In the end, the entire film was just his own little experiment.
ReplyDeleteI suspected that I would enjoy “The Five Obstructions” based on the concept alone. I was not disappointed. I even found some of the remakes more enjoyable than the original “The Perfect Human”. The first remake, set in Cuba, was especially well done. Upon hearing Von Trier’s chosen obstruction, I thought the remake would be impossible. Leth, however, managed to create a moody, captivating short film that, in my opinion, surpassed his original work. The Cuban remake really urged the audience to examine the art of film, especially what makes a film good or bad. I usually find such prodding annoying. Overanalyzing a film often destroys the film’s original charm. In this case, however, such analysis was enlightening. The same can be said for the third remake, Leth’s free choice. This remake gave me a newfound respect for filmmakers. In fact, I wish there had been more of a focus on Jorgen Leth. He seems like a fascinating character. Even though Lars Von Trier tried to steal the show so to speak, it was still Leth that interested me. Von Trier was often just frustrating to watch. While clearly a brilliant man his arrogance was unappealing. It is no coincidence that I enjoyed the fifth remake the least. In the fifth remake, Von Trier and Leth’s relationship becomes uncomfortable to watch. I found myself resenting Von Trier for speaking for Leth and claiming that he knew Leth better than Leth knew himself. I would have much preferred to hear Leth speak for himself. Any complaints I have about the depiction of Von Trier and Leth’s relationship, however, are minor in comparison to the praises I have for the film in its entirety.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed The Perfect Human, but I still feel indifferent about The Five Obstructions. Maybe I just don't appreciate Lars von Trier as much as some other people do, but something about him bothers me and that influenced my interpretation of the experiment. I definitely love the idea of challenging an admired filmmaker because it's so rare and it holds so many possibilities. Jorgen Leth interests me and I really enjoyed his willingness to participate and work with von Trier. Some of the challenges worried me, especially the second one, but the results were still impressive. I understand the latter's admiration of The Perfect Human and I definitely see its influence on his work. If I had to pick one of the two to see again, I'd definitely pick The Perfect Human over The Five Obstructions.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching The Perfect Human the first time in class, I had no idea what was going on. It was reassuring when you said that some people do not understand what is going on in experimental film making because I was very lost. After watching it more closely the second time, I understood what he was trying to accomplish with this film. All he was trying to do was say that every human that does any ordinary thing is perfect. While I may not agree with it, that is the message I got from this film.
ReplyDeleteEven though I think I got the message, I can not say that I liked it. I can understand why this message and film could appeal to others, but in experiments there are always some parts that are negative or fail. I am one of the negatives that would say I do not think this is a film I would watch in my free time.
Prior to viewing The Five Obstructions, I didn't know what to expect. I had never seen a metaremake and this one in particular is unique. This film was unlike any other I had seen, and I loved it. I believe that the creative process that goes into making a movie is often overlooked, and taken for granted. When people think of movies, they often think of the box office films they know best, therefore they often view the most important part to be the development of a story; the part an average viewer probably sees as the foundation of the film. However, the creative process goes beyond the story. The same story can be expressed in an infinite amount of ways, it is the process in which the story is gone about creatively that gives it meaning. The Five Obstructions dove into this topic by placing limitations on that very process. The result of viewing the product of this gave insight to the real foundation of film. I also found the theme of "the remake" and the idea of the jealousy and destruction of the original film to be very interesting. It was especially unique to look at in this film because the movie itself is based on the very challenge of "destroying" the admired Lars Von Trier's original by placing these challenging limitations on Jorgen Leth.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that after watching the "Five Obstructions" and the "Perfect Human", that I preferred the latter. I think Jorgen Leth was right in his thought that a meta-remake would not be as good as the original. I also feel that Lars Von Trier is perhaps jealous of Leth's film and his talent, which is why he is pushing him into the re-makes. Yes, Leth is in a sort of depressive funk and it could seem that Lars is trying to help, but I don't believe that is the case. The "Perfect Human" is a film that just points out the obvious, that we are all perfect in our bodies. The things that we can do, say, feel and experience are nothing less than perfect. Our bodies are perfect and the way we can manipulate them is also perfect. I liked the film in black and white, which was probably just done because that is how films were made then. However, it also contributed to the simplicity of it all, the common portrayal of our daily acts. The short cuts from one mouth to another, and one ear to another, and one screen to another also contributed to the film being so honest in what it was portraying.
ReplyDeleteThe Five Obstructions
ReplyDeleteThe Five Obstructions is a Danish documentary directed by Lars Von Trier and Jørgen Leth. As my native language is Norwegian, I enjoyed watching and understanding the movie and the language spoken, Danish. The documentary itself s an experimental film that incorporates both the recreation of Lars von Triers The Perfect Human, and influenced by Leth’s five obstructions. As mentioned, there are five different obstructions: 1. Leth makes a movie in Cuba with certain requirements and Leth fulfilled this task. 2. Leth has to remake the film in Bombays red light district without portraying the audience where he really is 3. Although Leth fails this task Von Trier pushes him to remake it in whatever way he wants to, but this time in Brussels. 4. Leth thus make the movie as a cartoon. 5. The last and fifth attempt Leth reads the narrative written by Von Trier. All in all, Von Trier puts Leth into different scenarios to make Leth uncomfortable, but to make him more creative and thus create a better film.
The film itself was very interesting, although it is often very confusing and I don’t believe the ordinary man in the street will enjoy this documentary. Von Trier and Leth are both known for being experimental, and I believe this gives the movie a very chaotic impression. However, I believe the documentary also is very interesting and creative.
In regards to "The Perfect Human" (the short film itself, not "The Five Obstructions" film that followed it), I tried to remain as open as possible, with me not normally being the biggest experimental film buff on the planet and all, but try as I might I was not exactly impressed by the film. It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but this isn't exactly going to be a rave review or anything.
ReplyDeleteThe visuals themselves were interesting in their own right, but for some reason I feel experimental films especially should have a point, even if they are an out there one, and I just didn't really find a viable one in this film. Also, one of the main reasons I am writing about "The Perfect Human" as opposed to "The Five Obstructions" is because, to be frank, Lars Von Trier comes off as kind of an arrogant asshole in that film, so I feel it would be more beneficial and in depth if you will to write about the original "Perfect Human" instead.
Again, I feel like this is a case where the title hinders me in appreciating the film to it's full extent. But again, maybe that's part of the point - something about different ideas of what "the perfect human" is and society's influence on that in different cultures and time periods and so on and so forth, but that seems like a most basic interpretation and a totally "been there, done that" one at that - like how the people they showed don't seem the most perfect of people to me, but that's my opinion and maybe that's part of the idea.
Though this is part of the problem - I kind of like it when the point or points of a film are, for the most part, easily evident - not to the point of corny, but to the point in which they can actually be figured out in a very definitive way.
The Five Obstructions
ReplyDeleteThe Five Obstructions follows Jørgen Leth as he remakes his work, The Perfect Human, according to the whims of his friend and colleague, Lars von Trier. In all, there are five obstructions, as the title of the film suggests, each of which is a remake of Leth’s original work with some restrictions put in place.
The Five Obstructions didn’t appeal to me at all, I disliked it quite a lot, truth be told. While The Perfect Human was somewhat interesting, the obstructions created by Leth were tedious and grueling; they seemed shoddy and uninspired, as did the actual documentary. The quality of the obstructions and the documentary was poor and did not at all appeal to my tastes. Furthermore, I found von Trier to be incredibly off-putting. He came across as an arrogant, selfish, and incredibly egotistical. Leth was also quite the unappealing figure to me, though I’m not quite sure why. At any rate, the two directors, the set, the obstructions, and the documentary itself all made me feel slimy and uncomfortable.
In the film "The Five Obstructions," we follow the process of remaking films with Jørgen Leth as he tries to recreate his experimental film, "The Perfect Human" using actual settings in the real world with real living people. One of his friends, Lars Von Trier, is his coach along the way and provides rules and regulations that Leth has to follow to make this challenge more and more difficult. Leth starts off in Cuba and then travels to Bombay, Haiti, and other locations to fufill the requirements that Lars von Trier gives to him.
ReplyDeleteWhen the movie starts and we see the actual film, The Perfect Human, I was really discouraged that this would be a movie I would enjoy. I thought the movie was really weird and different than anything I have ever seen. However, my perception of the movie changed once I saw what Leth did to remake the movie in Cuba with the guy with the cigar. I thought that was really cool how he could remake that movie in a present day exotic setting. The really short frames made the movie really interesting.
I thought it was also really cool how Leth had to venture to the place he envisioned to be the worst place in the world and remake the movie once again. The techniques and methods to make the film kept me consumed in the content of the movie. Overall, I have never seen a movie like either the Five Obstructions or The Perfect Human, but in the end I was glad i saw it. I enjoyed the experience of learning about how directors and writers go about creating experimental films, and the thought process involved.
The Five Obstructions is a film by Lars von Trier and Jrgen Leth. The film is both a documentary and an experimental film. Lars von Trier has created a challenge for his friend and mentor, Jorgen Leth, another filmmaker. Von Trier's favorite film is Leth's The Perfect Human. Von Trier gives Leth the task of remaking The Perfect Human five times, each time with a different obstacle given by von Trier. However, this film was sort of confusing to me. After seeing this, I can say that I am not a fan of experimental films. It was hard to watch and it did not grab my attention as I thought it would.
ReplyDeletethe Five Obstructions is a film that documents Jorgen Leth process ass he redo's his movie The Perfect Human while following Lars von Trier obstructions or rules that Jorgen Leth must follow while making the new version of The Perfect Human. Lars von Trier's goal is to make Jorgen Leth create films that, in Lars von Trier own words, is crap. with each challenge of the five different remakes of The Perfect Human Jorgen Leth not only created a good movie but made them better then anyone thought possible and with each obstruction it was only getting easier for Jorgen Leth to do so. While the new films did something interesting that you wouldn't normally see in movies. this made them fun to watch at first but then soon it became to much and it needed a change. all in all it was still something different that was fun to watch at times.
ReplyDeleteI find the ideas and concepts behind the film The 5 Ostructions very interesting. It is important to challenge yourself to the best of your ability and stretch your limits to achieve what you didn’t think was possible. I like the idea of taking Jorgen Leth’s original, The Perfect Human, and try to remake it in five different ways a exciting way to challenge the filmmaker.
ReplyDeleteI disliked the characters, the filmmakers, Lars von Trier and Jorden Leth, in the film. I found them somewhat arrogant and got the impression they were each trying to prove to the other that one of them was better than the other. I perceived this by Trier either giving Leth absurd, challenges – although they are challenges and I understand the point, I think that there should be limitations and I question their morality.
My least favorite obstruction was the fifth Obstruction because I felt like the filmmakers were cheating the system by just taking the footage from shooting the Five Obstructions and putting Trier’s narration of a varied perfect human script over the footage. I think they could have come up with a more creative fifth obstruction than what they had easily accessible at hand.
Holly Bensur
C09668372
Since we were learning about intertextuality, documentaries, and experimental filmmaking, it helped me to understand both "The Five Obstructions" and "The Perfect Human" a little more. When I first saw the clip for The Perfect Human, I thought it was a little weird. The main characters were not doing anything out of what everyone usually does, so I thought that maybe the creator was saying that everyone was perfect. The Perfect Human was so simple that I was drawn to it. It made every day actions look artsy. I was watching it while thinking, "Hey I do all of these things! Cool." The short film was very creative and unique. The Perfect Human definitely sparked my interest in experimental films because I like it when films go outside of the "norm".
ReplyDeleteI liked how Jorgen Leth used The Five Obstructions to breakdown and remake The Perfect Human. He did this five times while being challenged by Von Trier to make each one better than his last. My favortie obstruction was the animated one simply because it had a turtle in it. I love turtles, so I enjoyed that one slightly more than the others. I will admit that when I first saw the movie, I had no idea what was going on. After reading a summary, it helped me to understand what Leth and Von Trier were doing. I found the documentary to be interesting only because of The Perfect Human. The film was already perfect to begin with, in my opinion. The obstructions were still fun to watch.
The Five Obstructions
ReplyDeleteI now understand why many people dislike Lars Von Trier. I read of his off-hand Nazi statements that derailed the success of Meloncholia, and after watching this documentary I understand that he is someone of questionable character. All I could think about was how could Jorgen Leth put up with him? In any case, I do not think the premise of the documentary was bad. It was quite interesting, and it would have been more so if Trier didn’t continually insert his own narcissism into it. The idea of constructing remakes through a frame of “obstructions” is something that I feel would be a worthwhile experiment for any filmmaker. I idea of a remake and a meta-remake are worthwhile ideas to explore. It not only delves into the original meaning and purpose behind the first work, but the subsequent remakes can challenge and enhance the artistry of the original. You could see that Leth would go about making his remakes with that in mind. It seemed to be the most evident with the animated obstruction. It was a mesmerizing adaptation that combines sequences from the previous works and created an artistic quality that was unique and unseen in the earlier works. This is the sort of process that Leth went through, where you have to fulfill many objectives beyond the express obstructions with the remakes. A remake has to 1) stand on its own feet and 2) in many ways live up to or not mar the original work.
I enjoyed the film very much so. I loved the creativity and the pushing of boundaries Lars bestowed onto Jorgen. For the creativity, the thing that stuck out the most for me was that in every obstruction there was an element in the conversation between Lars and Jorgen. This element had nothing to do with the restrictions given to Jorgen or to do with the making of the next obstruction, but was something that Lars and Jorgen merely talked about. For example in result of the third obstruction Lars made fun of Jorgen comparing him to a turtle on its back, which was then created in the fourth obstruction and made into a cartoon. I do agree that Lars was cruel, but he did have good intentions for Jorgen. I feel Lars did cross the line with the ending and trying to make this experiment all about himself and not about Jorgen, because in fact the journey was all Jorgen. In the end Jorgen taught Lars a lesson by defying the odds with creating films from his obstructions.
ReplyDeleteThe Five Obstructions is a recreation of The Perfect Human. Lars von Trier challenges his mentor, Jorgen Leth, to remake the film The Perfect Human five times. Each remake consists of a different obstacle decided by Lars von Trier. The obvious challenge is these five obstructions; the unseen challenge is that von Trier is pushing Leth to his limits in order to reopen his mind to new creative realms. I found it interesting that Lars von Trier chose The Perfect Human as the film for Jorgen Leth because this was the best movie made in von Trier’s eyes. This film was very repetitive and became boring by the end, even with the different obstructions changing the film each time around. Overall I was unimpressed with the documentary, and the overwhelming boredom I experienced from this film made it difficult for me to watch.
ReplyDeleteI was not sure what to expect going in to see The Five Obstructions. This movie, directed by Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth, is far from the typical movie you would see. The film is a documentary with experimental sections. Von Trier tells Jorgen Leth to remake his film, The Perfect Human, five times with each one a being restricted in some way. I am not very familiar with experimental film making, which made watching both The Perfect Human and The Five Obstructions a totally new experience. After watching The Perfect Human first, I was intrigued at what the film is trying to present to the viewers. I believe it is showing the simplicity of man and is telling us what we would normally be thinking had it been a silent film. An important aspect of this short film is that it is in black and white, which is unfamiliar to a lot of movie viewers today.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the most important part to look at is the relationship between Von Trier and Leth in The Five Obstructions. In is also important to take note to their conversational pieces. It was interesting to see Von Trier pushing the limits on Leth and his creativity. The Five Obstructions almost seemed more of a game between the two rather then just a movie. Being the first meta-remake I had seen, I am glad I got the chance to do so. I would recommend people to watch both, The Perfect Human and The Five Obstructions, as a good learning experience that showcases different types of filmmaking.
Five Obstructions is a film in which Jorgen Leth is challenged by Lars von Trier to recreate Leth's original film of the Perfect Human. To both men, the original was perfect, so to challenge Leth, von Trier gives Leth rules to follow when trying to recreate the film. These rules seemingly should produce a mess of a film, thus tarnishing the original. However, to the surprise and dismay of von Trier, the films all seem to come out wonderfully in their own ways. Once von Trier realizes that Leth is almost incapable of making a bad film, von Trier makes a point that he wants to see a mess of a film. He requests ridiculous things for the film that would surely make the film seem awful. Leth however perseveres and makes great films each time. My personal favorite is the cartoon version of the film. After seeing Leth's reaction to this rule, I was sure that the film would be awful. I was extremely surprised to see how good the film looked, and I actually preferred the cartoon version to any other version. This film taught me that there are countless ways to make films and different types of film making create a different atmosphere in the theater and demand a different response from the audience, Even if the same story is being told.
ReplyDeleteMarc Pollack
ReplyDeleteC10553848
Another film that I found interesting, was called, “The 5 obstructions”. This film, directed by the famed Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth. These visionary filmmakers, had to “re-make” the film “The Perfect Human” which was made in 1967 and directed by Jørgen Leth. The purpose of “The 5 obstructions” was that Jørgen Leth made a challenge for his friend, who is another director by the name of Lars von Trier, to remake the movie ‘The Perfect Human”, which is Leth’s favorite movie. The catch was that Leth will throw in 5 challenges that Trier had to obey by in order for this to be considered a successful remake. One of the more challenges for me, was how Trier had to remake the movie into a cartoon. As silly as that sounded at first, it was a true challenge. Eventually he completed the task with the help of Bob Sabiston, who was experienced in this nature of film. To their surprise, the remake actually ended up working out and for that, he was able to pass the fourth challenge. For me, personally, I am not a huge fan of experimental film, I get the premise behind it, but as a viewer, it just doesn’t do much for me as far as enjoyment goes.
The Five Obstructions
ReplyDeleteThe Five Obstructions is a Meta remake (a film about remaking a film). Lars Von Trier contested Jorgen Leth to re-create 5 new films of Jorgen’s short film The Perfect Human. When I first heard about the film I thought that it would be almost impossible to remake a film 5 times over that is very different but The Five obstructions proved me wrong. Von Trier called himself the obstructer in this film and not only challenged Jorgen Leth to create 5 new films but made it so each film had to be in a different part of the world and Von Trier also set other specific conditions that had to be met. The fact that Leth made this happen blew my mind. Leth ended up making 5 Perfect Human remakes: Bombay, Brussels, Cartoon, Cuba, and Denmark. Each one was different in their own way and each met the conditions that Von Trier set. Although I did not truly enjoy the film I can still appreciate it. The creativity it took Leth to remake his film so many times is truly remarkable. I had never seen a Meta remake before and this opened my eyes to different kinds of films out there. It was a learning experience and interesting to see how unconventional and ingenious a director can be.
Erik Rueckle-c10166645
“Five Obstructions” directed by Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Length is remake movie of “Perfect Human” made by Jorgen Length. Before watching this movie, I had watched some parts of “Perfect Human” in class. It was really simple monochrome movie. The story told mostly from the third person point of view. I became really curious how those directors change and reinterpret of original one. The movie was pretty interesting. I have never seen the movie which includes interview and conversations of director. Such interview scene just let me know this movie is formed as documentary. In “Five Obstruction”, Jorgen Length, original director of “Perfect Human”, gives to Lars Von Trier five rules how to remake his movie. First rule of scene was pretty same as original one. However, it made me feel dizzier compared with original one because of various color in the scene and repeating words. Second was taken Bombay. In original one, it showed only man jumped and eat alone. But, in remake movie, the guy eats a meal and jump against crowds. Even if there are no words of crowds, I felt like they watched what one guy do and judge whether he is perfect human or not. Third one was taken in Brussel. Compared with original one, it seems to have a story. However, it was hard to understand why director made this kind of story. It made me get confused of this movie. Forth part was cartoon. This scene showed how “Five Obstruction” truly expressed as experimental movie. At the last part of scene, they showed conversation between Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Length. It made me clear what their purpose to make this movie.
ReplyDeleteThe basic premise behind "The Five Obstructions" was to recreate the film "Perfect Human" in five different ways. I usually am not a fan of documentaries or remakes, so I was definitely skeptical of this film. In the end after viewing the film my initial skepticism was pretty right on. My main reason for disliking the film was definitely Lars Von Trier's arrogance throughout the entire documentary.
ReplyDeleteThe five obstructions that Lars Von Trier came up with for Jorgen Leth to recreate his film were pretty unique and original. I thought the idea to remake the film as a cartoon was an interesting idea. I actually enjoyed all of the obstructions except for the last one. The final obstruction really pinpointed to me that the whole point of Von Trier remaking the film was for his own personal gain. Von Trier stated that he was making the film to help Leth and because "Perfect Human" was his favorite film. I also found it strange that Von Trier would want to remake a film that he found perfect in every way and that his end goal was to destroy something that he found to be a masterpiece. I think all in all Von Trier's ego overshadowed anything decent that the film could have been. Although the concept of a meta-remake and the initial premise were fairly interesting ideas, that was simply not enough to leave me impressed with the film. i found myself having a lot of respect for Jorgen Leth and not ever wanting to see another Lars Von Trier film again.
The movie the Five Obstructions was a very confusing concept to me at first. I had to read a couple of different synopsizes and reviews to really get what it is about. Lars Von Trier challenges fellow filmmaker Jorgen Leth to remake his movie, the Perfect Human, five times. The Perfect Human was a really strange short film, and I couldn’t understand why someone would want to remake it. The film starts out with a few side shots of the “perfect man” and close up face shots of the woman. What confused me the most was the overhead shot of the dinner table while the two are eating dinner. It was supposed to be symbolic that the two people are fighting, but I just didn’t really get it. In the Five Obstructions I really did not like Von Tier. He continues to bash Leth’s creative personality. He gives Leth “punishments” for not being to complete his obstructions, but I don’t think his original was very good to begin with. However, I think the best remake and one I actually enjoyed viewing was the cartoon. I really like the style of animation, and don’t know why more people use it. I have seen it in a new Spiderman cartoon and a Scanner Darkly. I feel like it gives the cartoon a more sleek image and could add suspense more easily. The Five Obstructions is not enjoyable because the premise is about creativity and challenging another respected filmmaker, but Von Tier thinks that he is better than he actually is and instead of bashing Leth he should be applauding his creative efforts
ReplyDeleteThis really is a very confusing movie. In fact, for the film, the dialectical relationship between form and content is already not necessary to repeat anymore, carefully understand, try to figure out, study, but the general sense of good movies are still the content which doesn't need to talk about too much. "The Five Obstructions" is a novelty and successful try.
ReplyDeleteJohn's 5 short movies,actually, is the participation of the five principles. In the film, they haven't been directly announced,I think they are: challenge on the technique, absence of figure,challenge on personal limit, in the form of diversification, deprivation of contents.A bit complicated at first glance, but in the discussion of Sampras and John, they ask questions, to overthrow the existing barriers to re-establish a new obstacle, forcing Royce to have to rethink in the original movie based on the stories and characters . As an anthropologist, John must try to solve the limitations,commands and prohibitions for him and set by Lars, this is a huge challenge.
The fourth paragraph of the short film is my favorite one, because John actually try to use animation in the form! Although it is a cartoon, but still involved in the sex and violence, is a letter of adult cartoon. The last paragraph of the short film is more like highlights.
I will be the first to admit, I am not a fan of documentaries. They are often boring, long-winded, and pretentious. Walking into the five obstructions, I expected much the same from this documentary. As I began to watch though, i realized this was less of a documentary and more of a challenge or project one might find in school or in work. Take something that is considered perfect, and make it better. This in itself is not a novel idea, we constantly try to make things better but in films this is not always the case.
ReplyDeleteWhile some films may be re-made it is normally not because the original director has challenged one to do it better. While this seemed like a vary unique and interesting idea, it makes Von Trier come across as very arrogant. The message that he sends out is "I have created the best, and no one can do better."
Overall, I wasn't a big fan of the five obstructions, but it was an interesting idea overall to watch.
Michael Lerer
ReplyDeleteThe movie the Five Obstructions was truly an interesting concept for a film. It was a semi documentary of the short known as the Perfect Human. It chronicles how the director feels about the Perfect Human and what it means to him as time goes on. This happens as another director, the director of the Five Obstructions, forces him to remake the perfect human five times with a specific condition each time. Each condition brings Jorgen Leth, the director, a little bit closer to his own short film. This is shown by how Jorgen often says the phrase, “I learned something today, and I hope to understand it in a few days.”
A significant thing that gets this movie going is in the first obstruction. In the original Perfect Human Jorgen asks questions about why the perfect human does certain things. Thus in the first obstruction one condition is that he must answer those questions. This brings Jorgen in closer to his own film. It makes him really think about why he made it. This is what changes the Perfect Human from being an abstract philosophical short to a film about one man’s emotions and feelings from his experience in life. This is furthered when he is forced to learn new things about life. For instance he was forced to eat nice food in an extremely poor area and also was made to work outside of his medium when he had to make it in cartoon. This really showed the development and change of one person in his strive to become the ‘Perfect Human.’
The Five Obstructions focuses on the themes of domination and cruelty. From the beginning, this is perceived as a game, where Mr. Von Trier and Mr. Leth need to redo the movie with certain conditions. Furthermore, one can notice how The Perfect Human analyzes the behavior of individuals. For example, actors are filmed in black and white with a neutral backdrop. By creating a work of art like this, one can understand the actor in a deeper sense while isolating distractions. When watching The Five Obstructions, I felt as if I were in a challenge. Mr. Von Trier is a psychoanalyst, while Mr. Leth is a very peculiar character. It is as if Mr. Von Trier wants to break all the barriers to Mr. Leth and understand him completely. This first individual wants to make a mess, while Mr. Leth has certain aspects of himself that are difficult to change. This is a very interesting challenge. I believe the incorporation of the cartoon depicted a creative outlook as a solution within the five obstructions. I enjoyed understanding and analyzing the characters myself, seeing how they interact and carry out their personalities.
ReplyDeleteSarit Benatar
C10202193
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe Five Obstructions, directed by Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth, is a type of movie I could watch numerous times. With regards to these obstructions, there are different settings and ideas with the objective of creating a challenge. For example, there must be a remake of the film in Cuba, so that Leth can answer the same questions and finish the film. In my perception, it is as if these two characters, which are Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth, are making a competition, about who can complete these types of scenes. The settings are Cuba, Bombay, and Brussels among others. It is a very attractive and different type of film, which keeps audience wanting to know if the director will fulfill the obstructions or if it will become an obstacle. I really enjoy these types of films, because I can learn about the science behind filmmaking and most importantly, the different perspectives that film directors can have. It is as if it were a game, yet I do not think all audiences would enjoy this type of movie. It is interesting to analyze these two characters in order to see who will ultimately win these different challenges.
ReplyDeleteThe Five Obstructions
ReplyDeleteNate Jennings
The five obstructions had some very interesting concepts formed into an intriguing documentary. It was about remaking a film “the perfect human” five different times with a new obstruction each time to make it more difficult for the filmmakers. The two filmmakers Jordan Leth, and Lars Von Trier in this process allowed them to challenge themselves in their ability and creativity to stay within the guidelines. In the first remake, he has to film in Cuba. The second one needed to feature an elderly man as a perfect human in a very miserable setting. In the third, he has the task to do whatever he wants, and in the fourth he has to make it into a cartoon version. The fifth one gave the task of reading over someone’s voice over. Basically the intention of the film is to create brand new and totally unexpected adaptations of perfection. With the structure that was given the short films were made well, but moreover the movie was somewhat boring in the presentation of each of the films. However Trier wanted to make the point that it was possible for Leth to create a bad film if he was constrained to obstructions, but the point of the film was that he was able to accept the challenge by following the guidelines. I also enjoyed his incorporated various short frames into the movie, the revealing detailed close up shots of the actors, the slow filming at some scenes, and the insight given from the actors. There were some scenes were the dialogue and locations lasted for way too long. However, I thought that it was a very attractive design in its atmosphere and the rendering of the characters was done well. But I thought it was fascinating too see the development process of Leth trying to figure out how to accomplish this challenge. Although I admire the courage to follow these obstructions in films it’s not practical in the sense of being entertaining in my opinion.
Christian Casas
ReplyDeleteC10592802
The five obstructions is a Danish film by Lars von Trier and Jorgen Loth. I did not really enjoy this movie since it was a constant competition. I believe I did not understand the humorous aspects either. I like that t the setting is intimate, in the sense that the directors are being honest. There are feelings of doubt and competition during all of these obstructions. I am not too fond of challenges, or better yet, movies that include a race or some sort of challenge, so I quickly got bored from watching it. Maybe it is important to watch it for a second time to understand it, as well as catch different details among these two director’s dialogues and thoughts. Maybe the language throws me off, but I also think it all depends on the individuals’ personalities to perceive things. If not, they will be in the wrong time and the same place.
Five odrtruction
ReplyDeleteDanish auteur Lars von Trier directs the documentary-of-sorts The Five Obstructions (De Fem Benspænd). In 2001, von Trier convinces veteran filmmaker Jørgen Leth to create five remakes of his 1967 short The Perfect Human. Calling himself the Obstructor, von Trier orders Leth to make his films in various parts of the world with extremely specific demands.
The first film, according to von Trier's rules, has to be composed of shots no longer than 12 frames and must be filmed in Cuba, without a set. Fast forward to Havana: Leth has found a solution to the difficulties and is making his film with confidence. With satanic glee, von Trier comes up with an even more constraining set of obstructions, clearly taking pleasure in torturing his former teacher. He attempts to find the most crippling rules and devises appropriate punishment when Leth fails to follow them.Lars von Trier is no stranger to sadism: this is the man responsible for the abuse of Emily Watson, Bjork, and Nicole Kidman in his last three features. "The Five Obstructions" makes it clear that his apparent mean streak is considered, focused, and aimed at a kind of creative catharsis. His agenda is to strip away the pretense, to get from the "perfect" to the "human," as he puts it.
Feng Yang
ReplyDeleteC06087996
THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS (2003)
I did not fully understand it after just finished watching the movie, however, by creating obstacles, over the obstacle course of self-liberation theme is quite obvious. Ideally, all of those engaged in the forefront of human creation are about to take this aspect, but only the most talented and the most persevering man will be able to keep working on this part. This is not a film made for majority audience, and even not for anyone else except the two who initiated this movie. This kind of documentary experimental film might not be as attracting as those narrative films at first and without watching the movie, the idea of metafilm could sound very boring but going along the movie with the storyline brought a lot fun actually. With the same story fixed, how can this movie be made again and again for five times? In my way of thinking, Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth did not really remake the movie; they were just trying to reshape the film in different forms. I feel that the human self-transcendence is hard to reach, Lars was always repeating the process of self-reference in the movie while he was trying to jump out of the frame made by himself. Maybe it is to say that the difference between people is not going to be wear down but will be enhanced as the process repeats.
We can be divided into two parts to understand the movie. First, the film explores theactivities of artistic creation, the relationship between objective conditions / work / three,and its infinite possibilities; is based on the topic of the "perfect", the two artists throughmutually agreed a series of purely creative activities to expand the dialogue. Obstacles and challenges obstacles to the promotion of interaction and self-transcendence, self-reflection and even fight, arising from the viewer think the review of the movieconnotation. The way we see the joy of the work, see the artists' personal thoughts vibrate, and eventually convinced by their spiritual power. This really is a very confusing movie. In fact, for the film, the dialectical relationship between form and content is already no need to repeat every beginner should carefullyunderstand, try to figure out, study, but the general sense of good movies are content for the first little for the form of ink. "The Five Obstructions" is a bold attempt new forms offilm, is also to highlight the cutting-edge.
ReplyDeleteThe Five Obstructions was a confusing movie to me at first but once I realized what the concept was, it started making more sense. What I didn't understand was why one director would challenge another one to remake one of his short films 5 times. This film was an interesting documentary on what actually goes into film making and how everything is put together. I didn't really enjoy the movie because I didn't really enjoy the original Perfect Human short film. That black and white film didn't make much sense to me and the narration just added to my confusion. I do have to give the film credit though because it is so unconventional and different from most other documentaries about film making. It has the different forms of the original film that try and keep the audience's attention but for me it didn't capture my enthusiasm. Overall, the concept was a great and fresh idea but I didn't exactly enjoy this documentary.
ReplyDeleteAlexandra Ball
C07809270
Michelle Yidios
ReplyDeleteThe five obstructions
I’ve never seen a movie like this before and I think it’s very artistic which makes it very interesting and unique. It’s not a movie I will ever see again but I did learn and its audience can be very limited due to the fact that it’s very different. Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth made the movie in 2003. It’s an experimental film that is based on the film The Perfect Human filmed during the 60’s. In my opinion Lars von Trier is really arrogant and selfish. The challenge in the film was rough there was a lot of competition and pushing around. This reminded me how some people are today; they want to see others fail so they feel stronger and better with themselves. I got confused at some parts but in overall the editing and the cartoon part were ok. You can see the human in different faces. I admire both directors they are really good.
The five obstructions
ReplyDeleteThe five obstructions is a Danish film made in 2003 by Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth. It is considered to be a documentary; nonetheless, I consider it to be a different kind, more of an experimental type of product. I believe this is a very unique movie that goes out of the normal expectations which generates some sort of reaction on the audience. I personally didn’t quite like this movie because I didn’t understand it on its fullest; It deals with a lot of bizarre images. I do understand the concept of how Von Trier wants Leth to remake the “Perfect Human” in five different ways so he could acquire a fully perspective of his original work.
This is not a movie I would’ve chosen to see however thanks to this class I was able to see it and appreciate a different perspective in film. These type of movies enables us to open our imagination when creating a piece of work. It offers you another phase of what can be done, pushing your potential to its maximum.
Ximena Manrique
I thought the concept for “The Five Obstructions” was brilliant and overall I enjoyed the experimental nature of the film. Although von Trier clearly comes off as arrogant and self-obsessed at times I do think his idea to remake Leth’s “The Perfect Human” into a meta-film was genius. Each one of von Trier’s “obstructions” are designed to challenge Leth and to examine not only the new film he makes but also how he reacts to each challenge to make the film. I like how the film gives the viewer a glimpse of how Leth operates into the behind the scenes throughout the obstructions. However, I though there was too much time spent showing scenes of Leth and von Trier complaining about the project and it quickly became repetitive and predictable. I would have liked the film to focus a little bit more on the remakes and less on the ego of von Trier. My two favorite remakes were the first and final obstructions. I loved the 12-frame restriction film that Leth shot in Cuba and I think he used the obstruction to make a very fascinating short film. The final obstruction was a letter that von Trier wrote to himself from the perspective of Leth, which was very bizarre but worked well as a conclusion to the film.
ReplyDeleteThe five obstructions is a film by Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth. It is actually a documentary. The main plot of the movie is that Lars has created some challenges in the form of the 5 obstructions for his friend Jorgen. Throughout the documentary we find out what the 5 obstructions are. Jorgen has to remake his movie "The Perfect Human" 5 times. In the first obstruction Jorgen has to make the film in Cuba with no shot longer than 12 frames. In the second obstruction he has to remake the film in the worst place in the world but not show that place on the screen. Jorgen also has to play the role of the man. Jorgen remakes it in Bombay and doesnt include the woman.However, he does not complete this task perfectly and so he has to redo it in a different place. He chooses Brussels and uses a technique called split screen effects. The fourth obstruction is that the film must be remade as a cartoon. This is quite interesting and made the documentary more fun. In the fifth obstruction has to voice over narrate von Trier's finished version from his point of view.
ReplyDeleteThis documentary was weird but I understood it and it made sense to make this a film because these two directors are good friends and it sounded like a good idea.
The Five Obstructions was a great experiment. It was amazing to see how director Jorgen Leth was able to re-create the perfect human in such fantastic short films even with all of the obstructions that Lars Von Trier had put in his path. Even though at times I found The Five Obstructions confusing, I was able to overlook its shortcomings and just focus on the five short films that Jorgen Leth created. My favorite of the five were the cartoon and the second obstruction. The cartoon was so beautifully created that I could not help but be mesmerized by it. The second obstruction I felt had a very powerful message to get across. How can a person seem to not feel bad about eating at 5 star meal in front of people who would do anything to get that food? I believe the point was that whether or not you are eating that meal in front of others who can’t enjoy it, they still exist whether you see them or not. While the other obstructions were good as well, I just felt that those two had the most profound affect on me. I also feel I have to mention the first obstruction, because that must have been such a pain to edit. I could just imagine the man in the editing room cursing out Lars Von Trier for coming out with this.
ReplyDeleteThe Five Obstructions was a very interesting film. It is not a documentary that I would watch again but I liked that it showed the audience a type of behind the scenes of making a movie. It demonstrated how the finished product might look simple and easy but in reality the thought process that goes into every detail in filmmaking is incredible. This film shows that filmmaking is not a simple task by showing the stress that Jorgen Leth was going through in order to accomplish each of the five obstructions. My favorite obstruction was the second one. I thought it made a strong social statement. He was dressed up, sitting, having a decent meal and behind him poor people of Bombay were standing behind a translucent screen. It showed the two class extremes: the high class that can afford luxuries and decent meals and the poor who can barely afford anything at all and how the high class might disregard and ignore the poor. On the other hand, I thought the film was very slow paced. After the third obstruction I was bored and felt like it was tiring for the viewer to watch five remakes of The Perfect Human. Also, Lars von Trier annoyed me because he seemed very arrogant and selfish. I thought that at some moments he was disrespectful to Jorgen Leth.
ReplyDeleteThis movie was the first of its type that I have watched. First of all, it is a documentary about making movies—which is awesome on its own. More specifically The Five Obstructions is a deep dialogue between Lars Van Trier and Jorgen Leth. The movie is a reconstruction of Leth’s movie from 1967 The Perfect Human.
ReplyDeleteLeth’s movie is weird in itself because it is a movie about the perfect human and how he functions in society. His movie is successful and conveys truthful morals. The movie shows how the perfect human walk, talks, eats, sleeps and everything else. If this movie is one about the perfect movie then it is definitely suppose to be the “perfect movie”. Even more surreal, if Jorgen Leth is reconstruction of an already perfect movie, is he making more perfect even better? Is that possible?
The Five Obstructions, along with being in itself a reform of another movie, it is also a philosophical dialogue between the two directors. They discuss the reconstruction and the meaning of the real human through humor and philosophy.
This movie is not one of my favorites because it’s too far off and weird to me. I like how the documentary is set up though, very realistic and it makes it seem Like Leth is having serious issues and problems with his set and restrictions. Its interesting, as a fellow director and film student to watch and see how other directors deal with their problems when they are working on their own movie.
I feel as though I definitely saw this in some Art Gallery I was forced into when on travel with my parents. However, being a little older now, I appreciated this experimental film a little more. I wonder if there was a general plot in mind that everyone should have gotten. I feel as though everyone probably had a different reaction on the piece. Still it explored a lot of emotions and directions. Still I enjoyed this "documentary" and Von Triers work. I also liked seeing the example of a movie within a movie. Very cool concept.
ReplyDeleteThe Five Obstructions was the first film I did not enjoy. I did however think it was interesting because I had never been seen such a film. It is a documentary staring two film makers Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth, in which Lars von Trier tests Jorgen Leth to remake his almost 40 year old film The Perfect Human, except he must remake it under five obstructions. These obstructions include remaking in Cuba with short frames and another where Jorgen Leth must remake the film using a technique called rotoscoping that makes it seem like a cartoon. The cartoon was the version I enjoyed the most, because of how artistic it was.
ReplyDeleteThe whole filmed seemed a little self-serving on the part of two directors trying to show one another up in some sort of film competition. So even though I found the idea of the film interesting , it bored me and I was quickly disinterested. I am lost as to what Lars von Trier is trying to do, and it feels empty without some sort of resolution. In my opinion it also seemed like Jorgan Leth did not enjoy being a part of the film, whether it was the idea of the film or being in front of a camera it all seemed awkward.
The Five Obstructions
ReplyDeleteMatthew Head
The Five Obstructions was like any other movie I have ever seen. I do not want to say I enjoyed it, however I did not dislike it. This movie presented itself to me as more of something to be studied. I do not think that this movie is comparable to many others because it is so unique. I cannot say that I even really understand this movie yet, I think the most interesting part of the movie is the idea of it. I mostly find experimental films to be pretentious however this did not seem as pretentious. I somehow found humor in this movie. I felt as if the movie knew that people would find it to be ridiculous. Showing the perfect human would have helped though considering The Five Obstructions was based off of it.
The movie shows how the original ‘Perfect Human” is remade by Leth according to Von Trier’s suggestion. The important five obstructions in making movie require Leth lots of trial and efforts. I think the most interesting obstruction was the final one. It is about the insertion of the Leth’s reading a script into various scenes. This obstruction means the respect and love of Bon Trier toward Leth so it was very moving and beautiful idea. Also, I liked the first one also which is no single edit should be longer than 12 frames. This seems really weird and odd but in the process of editing, Leth could search and experience many ways to keep the rule.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it is documentary experimental form so a little bit difficult to understand, I can feel the friendship between two people, Leth and Von Trier and the hardness of making films. Also I thought that joy of creation art is so huge that it can inspire people to revive again in real world.
Jeffrey Kaminski - C09409163
ReplyDeleteTo begin, The Perfect Human was a very trippy movie. It was absolutely uncomfortable to watch. The only interesting part to me was the dining part where the man begins to sing a song presumably about his relationship with the woman. This is the best part for me since the camera cuts out the woman then the guy begins singing, this is a great scene. Other than that, I did not enjoy this short film. As for The Five Obstructions, this was also really strange. The documentary aspects were not so bad, but the films of the 5 obstructions are all super strange and I found I was uninterested and not amused by them. Maybe a film major may find more value in this movie than I did, since I am usually more amused by mainstream movies. Overall, I did not enjoy spending my time watching this film. I do see the obvious connection to our other film from class, The Perfect Human; however, I was not enthralled with this movie.
The Five Obstructions:
ReplyDeleteThe Five Obstructions might be one of the most rare films I have ever experienced. Conventional is one word that should not be used to describe this movie. The purpose of this film was to remake Jorgen Leth’s, The Perfect Human five times, in five different ways. Each remake was to be done with a different restriction for Leth. The Five Obstructions was a combination of a documentary and an experimental film. In some fashions, it is like a mental exercise, continually challenging the viewer’s mind and thoughts through its unique ways. The relationship between the two filmmakers adds a sort of ying and yang aspect to the film. Von Trier comes off as being diabolical, while Leth seems more intellectual with his misbehavior. Either way, the funniest parts to the movie are when the two are complaining about each other and going back and forth about the direction of how the scene should go. Overall, both filmmakers did a great job with their roles and created a unique movie that I felt was a pleasure to see and an effective change of pace from everyday cinema.
The Five Obstructions was definitely one of the stranger films I have seen, and I would definitely say it falls in the category of experimental films. I did not particularly enjoy the film, as I didn’t really care for the original film, The Perfect Human, that the Five Obstructions is recreating. So I did not particularly enjoy watching the film made five times, most of which were poorer, as they were made with the obstructions in mind. However, I did actually enjoy the cartoon version more so than the original. I thought the way that the narration matched up with the animation made it seem more like a poem with imagery attached. The vividness of the colors and the style used in the animation kind of gave more life to the words for me than the original film, and it was the only obstruction in which I was engaged throughout. I particularly liked when the words would flash across the screen, accompanied with imagery, as it would usually emphasize some part of the narration that was important or significant. Overall, this movie definitely was not my cup of tea, but I did find enjoyment in some of the parts of it.
ReplyDeleteA Danish director, Lars Von Trier, directs this movie. His work is playfully profound, such that it will leave you smiling warmly. The Five Obstructions is both an antidote and a variation to these spectacles of abjection and on their themes of cruelty and domination. Lars Von Trier has depicted the sadistic abuse of a defenseless good-hearted woman. Mr. Von Trier was obsessed with the 12-minute film of Jorgan Leth- ‘The Perfect Human’. Portions of this film are in incorporated in the ‘Five Obstructions’. All the actors filmed in black and white against black backgrounds, is a suave, pseudo-scientific examination of human behavior. The movie combines harsh intimacy with jarring theatricality. The movie was remaked by the older director. First place to reshoot the movie was Cuba, second, it was shot in a slum of Mumbai. While watching the movie, it seems like one is watching two chess masters playing dominoes and a series of therapy sessions being spied. The movie is directed in 4 languages being English, Danish, French and Spanish.
ReplyDeleteI just finished watching and did not fully understand. When I first saw it, I was thinking the movie was made in order to make a movie. And I did not think it was a good way to make a record. It was simple a waste of money. But after a period of time, I think it again as there are something really confused me in the movie. Then I found something new and fancy.
ReplyDeleteHowever, by creating obstacles, overcoming the obstacle and then making self-liberation. The theme is quite obvious. Ideally, all the people who engaged in the forefront of human creation are taking this road, but only the most talented the most persevering man able to keep walking.
Out of their own familiar circle always painful, if I remember correctly, the order of five barriers:
(1) common sense (challenge on the technique)
Means of expression (absence of to figure)
(3) limits (challenge on personal limit) - free play
Degrees of freedom (the right filmmaker, film which still has a lot of things there is no control possible) - animation
Content (deprivation of contents)
so I think it is really not easy to make human’s self-transcendence. Lars is always repeating the process of self-reference. Or, the difference between people will not be kill in the process, but will enhance.
The Five Obstructions, a documentary about two filmmakers, Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth, focuses on recreating The Perfect Human. Von Trier wants Leth, who filmed The Perfect Human, to remake The Perfect Human five times with different requirements each time which represents the five obstructions.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it was interesting to see the same short film created in different ways, I failed to see why it was made into a film. Undoubtedly, it was interesting to see Leth, who had trouble getting back into gear in regards to film making, to reinvent a piece of art. The obstructions forced creativity and it was interesting to see The Perfect Human filmed in different ways yet still retain its message. For example, the first obstruction was to recreate The Perfect Human in Cuba and with very short shots. The film that resulted from these requirements was my favorite out of the five and in my opinion, was better than the original. This serves as a prime example as to how art can be complex and how ideas can be conveyed in various ways. This aspect of the film I enjoyed, but I failed to see any other purpose to the film and thus, I did not enjoy it very much.
The Five Obstructions
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I really did not enjoy this film at all. Instead of a conventional plot, the film was created by a documentary director (Lars von Trier) and he interviews veteran director Jorgen Leth about his early art film 'Det perfekte menneske' and challenged him to remake this film after given certain strict obstructions.They were challenged to remake the Perfect Human. Some of these requirements help to make up some dandy short films and some are just bizarre. One of the more bizarre ones actually works very well, as Leth had to make an edit every 12 frames (i.e., every 1/2 second) and the final result was unusual but watchable.
Overall, I found The Five Obstructions to be self-indulgent and pretentious. A movie should not exist solely for the director; if it does, it should be a home movie. I simply felt like Von Trier made the film solely for himself and intentionally made it more inaccessible than necessary for the audience. When it was more like a documentary it worked at times, but the obstructions themselves simply seemed nonsensical. The only obstruction I really enjoyed was the first one; the constant forced cuts but the overall continuity of the film made it very interesting. Additionally, the fact that it was in Havana and starred a Cuban actor and actress lent it an exotic feeling that made it far more appealing.
ReplyDeleteThe original film The Perfect Human was interesting, however. Something about it was strangely appealing, as it depicted a lot of universal aspects of the human experience. That the man is singing because the woman has broken his heart adds to this idea of the universality of what the people in the film were doing. It is a sad feeling, but it is something every person on earth has to deal with at some point or another, and I felt that it brought the entire short home in a strong way.
John David Agliano
C05580571
As a musician, I feel a connection to this film. In the sense that I understand art for art's sake. I felt that this was a very interesting film. It was very cool to see the interaction between film makers. Also, it was neat seeing a film maker re create one of his "most important' films.
ReplyDeleteIts sort of like a film competition. Seeing if these challenges, or "obstructions' can be overcome. This was interesting to me. But I feel that people not involved in the arts would have a harder time understand this film as opposed to someone who is involved in the arts.
The Five Obstructions
ReplyDeleteThis is quite an interesting film to watch. After watching the film all I can think of is how I would like some of the best directors and to use it. Money, power, wealth. These are just the elements of the movies, you get some, but you can take your pride and joy, and converted into different channels, while still maintaining the same overall tone? This is a thorny issue, I think, if our American director can be completed. I do not know, Peter Jackson, Spielberg, Lucas can take their precious collections, there are still creative mind to make some "obstacles" in the same film? My initial answer is 'no', but I would not mind seeing them try.
My favorite scene is when the Trier mentioned Leth, Leth feel his back turtle. He expressed the hope the Leth difficulties and struggles, and even frustration, Trier to his cartoon block. Leth in a very sarcastic way, the tortoise in the film. The ball is in court, von Trier.
The five obstruction
ReplyDeleteI think this is a pretty confusing movie. In fact for film for, form and content of the dialectical relationship between have no say, every introduction person have to be carefully appreciate, meditate, research, but the general sense of the good movies are content first, to form describes little. The five way movie problem of of the film is a new form of a bold attempt, and also reveal new content.
We can be divided into two parts to understand the film. A film is explored in art creation, objective conditions/works/the relationship between the three, and its infinite possibility; two it is based on the "perfect man" to this topic, the two artists through a series of pure common agreed to the creation of the activities to dialogue. Set obstacles and barriers to promote the interaction and challenge self improvement, and introspection and even fight, which caused the viewer of the connotation of modern film. On the way, we see the happiness of the work, we can see the artist's thought tremble, and eventually for their spiritual power tracks.
In my opinion, this film with five of the art of individual character is dye-in-the-wood short film, and a passion of 4 excessive poem, overturned a documentary of the objective and calm.
I'm the type of person who typically appreciates and understands art, so I was entertained by this far-out display of film techniques. I loved the insinuations behind each line, and was fascinated by how everything connected in such a circular way.
ReplyDeleteThis being said, I can see how this type of film could be less enjoyable for less open-minded people. There is no captivating story-line, and most of the graspable material from the narration is just generalizations of human tendencies. What makes the directors so wise that they can lump everything into such bland emotions? It may even come off as ignorant.
But you need to look past that in order to understand the intention behind this work. There is much more than meets the eye.
The Perfect Human
ReplyDeleteThe Perfect Human was a rarity for me, in its genre of film, it was a feature that was abstract and different, but still managed to both confuse me and also let me fully understand it. When you first watch the feature, you have a notion of what is going on and you feel this other worldliness and deepness to it, but it is a deepness you feel you understand. It is only after you have watched it multiple times and someone else points out to you the various intricacies of the different parts that you actually begin to feel differently about it.
The black and white and the emptiness of the area that they live give you a feeling of either being god as you view them, or as if they are gods and you are lower than them and you are viewing them in that way. It also shows the imperfections in man, and how being perfect is sometimes dealing with these imperfections and embracing them.
Hiram Aparicio
ReplyDeleteC06979667
The Five Obstructions
Ha! Awesome. first, let me state that I loved the original version of A Perfect Human. It has such interesting commentary on the mental processes of a human observing something and trying to figure it out. I feel it is perhaps even a narration of the viewer's own thoughts themselves. But, anyway, Leth did a pretty damn good job of conquering the obstructions. The first one was very blatant in its obtrusiveness; one can easily see how challenging it must be to create a film with such a tight limit on acceptable frames. I felt he could have gone a little further and done some more interesting stuff with camera positions and what not, but being that I am Cuban i thought it was a pretty interesting rendition, and enjoyed seeing his takes in Cuba and the way he cut from eye to eye between the genders. Some of the shots actually worked quite well with the jump cuts too. The second one was crazy. Its interesting that that is the one he failed because I thought it was one of the most symbolic. To see a man in a tuxedo feasting (on some of the best looking food I've ever seen might I add) while so many people, possibly hungry people, watched him from behind a translucent back ground was very metaphoric of our condition in the more "developed" countries. It must have been very strange for him to act in that role, but i think he pulled it off quite well. The third one had some pretty interesting juxtaposition shots. It was good but at this point perhaps the movie was getting redundant. I'm not sure, but it seemed to drag on a little more than the others. Still there were some very worth while shots such as when the woman seems to be talking to him but when it cuts back to him we see that he is still alone looking off into the city. When i saw the cartoon one, my immediate reaction was "whaaaaaaat!" it incorporated everything and also included very visually pleasing graphics. It blends in aspects of each short film and yet is compressed to less time than the others. For that reason this was my favorite of the obstructions, and I would even go as far as to say it competes with the original The Perfect Human. The fifth obstruction was of course interesting because it puts us somewhat in the mind of the obstructer. We also see very interesting shots of Leth which make him seem vulnerable, very much reflecting the purpose of this movie in its entirety. In the end I think the movie is great, but it fails, or at least the obstructer fails, because the goal was to make Leth create a bad movie.
In 1967 Jørgen Leth made a 13 min. short film called “The Perfect Human”, which is a document on human behaviour. In the year 2000, Trier challenged Leth to make five remakes of this film. Trier put forward obstructions, constraining Leth to re-think the story and the characters of the original film. Playing the naive anthropologist, Leth attempts to embrace the cunning challenges set forth by the devious and sneaky Trier and must deal with the limitations, commands and prohibitions. It is a game full of traps and vicious turns. “The Five Obstructions” is an investigative journey into the phenomenon of filmmaking.
ReplyDeleteIt is very confusing hard to understand. I mean it is understandable because everything needs to be concluded in five short film is so hard. Desire, freedom, flesh, sex is everywhere in the film. I can barely see what the main story is going on.