Jørgen Leth

Danish mentor of Lars Von Trier.


Like It "The Perfect Human" (1967) -- Distanced and interesting thirteen minute movie about "humans," a man and a woman.  Eating, dancing, drinking, etc., all in front of a clinical white backdrop.  This movie was later remade five different times in The Five Obstructions.

Love It The Five Obstructions (2003) -- Directed with Lars Von Trier.  A movie about two extremely talented and intelligent filmmakers who respect each other's work but who have very different approaches.  Where Von Trier is more messy and internal, Leth is perfect and distanced.  Though Von Trier respects Leth, he finds this lack of affect a problem and wants to help him with a kind of "therapy" in which Von Trier asks Leth to remake his 1967 short film "The Perfect Human" five different times, each time giving him "obstructions" in order to make the movies potentially more crappy.  Leth, however, thrives on these limitations and treats them instead as gifts that work in his favor.  (Not to give anything away.)  The movie is one of a kind in that it is sort of a documentary, sort of a short movie collection, and definitely tells a certain kind of story.


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