Blu-ray News, blu-ray review

Antichrist Blu-ray Arrives in the UK in November

Posted August 2, 2009 05:18 AM by Juan Calonge

In an early announcement to retailers, it has been revealed that Artificial Eye is set to release Lars von Trier's shocking and controversial movie, 'Antichrist', uncut, on Blu-ray on November 23, day-and-date with the DVD. No information on specifications, special features or region encoding has been revealed at this time.

'Antichrist' tells the story of a couple who retreats to an isolated cabin in the woods to come to terms with the death of their young son. It premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, where it proved to be very divisive. As Roger Ebert summed it up, "those who thought it was good thought it was very very good and those who thought it was bad found it horrid". Charlotte Gainsbourg won the Best Actress award.

The British Board of Film Classification rated the film "18" because of "strong real sex, bloody violence and self-mutilation". The BBFC explains in depth the reasons behind the movie's rating (as opposed to a "15" or an "R18", to be shown only "in specially licensed cinemas") and it is worth it to reproduce them here, in anticipation of the inevitable controversy. Note the BBFC's full discussion contains some movie spoilers.

With regard to the real, unsimulated sex, the BBFC's Guidelines state that the more explicit images of sexual activity are unlikely to be permitted under an "18" rating unless they can be exceptionally justified by context and the work is not a "sex work" (defined as a work whose "primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation"). In the view of the BBFC, it is clear that 'Antichrist' is not a "sex work" but a serious drama exploring issues such as grief, loss, guilt and fear. The brief images of explicit real sex are exceptionally justified, in this context, by the manner in which they illustrate the film's themes and the nature of the couple's relationship. Their relationship is depicted throughout in a graphic and unflinching fashion, both psychologically and physically. The BBFC has permitted comparable explicit images in a number of previous features at the "18" level (e.g., 'Into the Realm of the Senses', '9 Songs', 'Shortbus', and Lars von Trier's earlier film, 'The Idiots') where it has been clear that the purpose of the work - and the individual images in question - is not simply to arouse viewers but to illustrate characters, relationships and themes.

'Antichrist' also shows strong violence and violence towards genitals or genital mutilation, and especially one such scene which will be shocking and offensive to some viewers, even at an "18" rating (it has been reported that even several of the jaded film critics at Cannes fainted during that key scene). However, according to the BBFC, no evidence suggests that the viewing of this scene is likely to be harmful to adults, as it is not presented in an eroticised or attractive manner and is not likely to encourage emulation or arousal.

Note that the Amazon product page lists a running time of 104 minutes (as opposed to the BBFC's 108 minutes), but that is probably because they just copied the running time from the PAL DVD, with its inherent 4% speed-up.

Hopefully this will help our readership to make an informed buying decision.