A comment on Lars Von Trier's Magnum Opus, Antichrist.
In his evocative work concerning the very forces that operate on human nature, Von Trier forces his audience to confront the very contradictions at the heart of their own natures. To Von Trier, women are inherently evil, and Nature has become 'Satan's Church.' The mutilation of William Defoe by Charlotte Gainsbourg is merely the culmination of his revelation regarding this fact; quarrantined alone within the ironically named Eden, the orgiastic violence that culminates the film is a comment on the mutability of the human body in the hands of the woman, the Other the male is forced to experience on a daily basis. Gainsbourg's clitoral destruction accompanies a moment of lucidity and sanity in her downward spiral; she destroys her capacity to feel pleasure, hoping that this will eliminate her uncontrolable desire for control and sexual gratification. However, it is in vain; she cannot, and her only expiation is now through death, which, in mercy, Von Trier delivers to her.
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