Too Scary; Didn't Watch - Bonus Episode: THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT

Episode Date: August 25, 2023

To hear this full episode, subscribe to our Patreon. Follow the show: @TSDWpodcast on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. Rate Too Scary; Didn’t Watch 5 Stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave a review for Emily, Henley, and Sammy. Advertise on Too Scary; Didn't Watch via Gumball.fmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. This is Emily, Henley, and Sammy, and you're listening to Too Scary, Didn't Watch. Hi everyone, welcome to Too Scary, Didn't Watch, bonus episode number two for the month of August. Our patrons, our Tony heads, chose this month's recap episode and we knew it was coming. This one's been coming in second place in the polls for months now. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Until today, it's its special day. Today's all about the house that Jack built. Oh, baby. Lars von Trier scares me. Yeah, I think he scares everybody. I think if you're not a little bit scared by Lars von Trier,

you don't know anything about him. And that makes sense, too. Yeahrier, you don't know anything about him. And that makes sense too, yeah. If you don't know anything about him, probably you wouldn't be scared. Nothing to be scared of. Yep. Except the unknown. That's true. Too scary. Imagine if you were scared of every single person you've never heard of. Because, well, I don't know. What if they're scared of me?

I feel that way a little bit with, like, social anxiety. It's a little bit that. That is true. It's like, mm, I don't know that person. Better safe than sorry. You never know, especially with Lars von Trier. Especially. So this movie came out in 2018. It is directed by Lars von Trier, written by Lars von Trier.

And I think this is pronounced Henley. It's J-E-N-L-E. But it's like, I presume Danish. Lars von Trier and I think this is pronounced Henley it's J-E-N-L-E but it's like I presume Danish Lars von Trier is Danish and it just seems like it would be pronounced Henley to me so should I name my daughter that what is it J-E-N-L-E yeah and I'm, it's not after me. It's pronounced the same, but it's actually spelled differently. It's Danish. It's actually named after the co-writer of The House That Jack Built. Have you guys seen that film? It's a Danish writer

of The House That Jack Built. Excuse you. Have you seen this movie? It's my favorite movie. Imagine if you led the conversation with a new person that way. Henley halland is their name it is starring matt dillon bruno gantz uma thurman siobhan fallon hogan and riley keogh and this is an interesting cast yeah streaming on hulu yes it is an interesting cast. And it's also an interesting Lars von Trier movie to start with. This is our first foray into his films. Yeah, this is the first one we've done. I'm

surprised. I don't think it's the best entry point. Because I think this movie is very much him reflecting on all of his other movies and his career at large and so i think in order to understand this film we got to do a little bit of backstory about his career and his life um he started directing movies in the 80s in Denmark, and he always premiered at Cannes. Cannes is like his happy place. Some of his movies have won, I think, awards there. Actually, no, I'm not sure now. But his movies are incredibly divisive, controversial, meant to shock and disturb and elicit extreme reactions. And so a lot of times people really hate them. A lot of people really love them. I, until this week, had only seen

Melancholia. That is one of his more well-known films. Oh, that's not true. I had also seen Dogville, more well-known films oh that's not true i had also seen dogville but it's been a long time but this week i watched a nymphomaniac the house that jack built and antichrist oh my god sammy oh my god aren't there multiple nymphomaniacs too yes and i only watched part one so i still need to watch part two which each of them are three hours long so oh my god and shia labeouf's ass accent is like so crazy in it oh wow and changes scene to scene how is his ass his ass is good because you just sparked you just piqued my interest his assent his ass why is shia labeouf in that movie is that where he and mia goth met yep i mean he's a great actor we've talked about this and we won't keep talking about it.

He's great, but... Just abusive and a bad person. Yeah. Also the victim of abuse, but still abusive himself. Correct. It's an explanation, not an excuse. Mm-hmm. And I don't know him at all.

I also just love to come out and say whenever we're talking about complete strangers, I don't know. We don't know him. This is an important reminder, I think. I don't fucking know anything No but we believe women And we believe FKA twigs I mean FKA twigs is definitely It's not like a well We'll see who

I just mean like in terms of In terms of just talking about Shia on a first name basis Exactly Shia Shia Shia Speaking of believing women You won't believe that there is an allegation against Lars von Trier from Bjork. Bjork. He directed her in Dancer in the Dark.

And she, I actually didn't read her specific allegations, but it's, she felt bullied and uncomfortable on set and i think he was like sexually inappropriate like sexually suggestive like made a lot of lewd comments to her and things like that which again i'm sure that happened and it's not okay yeah so that's you know strike one against lars and then in 2011 at Cannes, when they were at a press conference for Melancholia, he had to gave a real unfortunate interview. Oh boy. Where someone asked him about something to do with Germany. It was a german newspaper that was asking him a question and he answered it by saying that he was actually a nazi and that he understands hitler and

loves to shock and disturb and this actually i watched that panel it's so uncovered kirsten dunst is next to him like i was gonna say he gets the most incredible actresses in his movies like I think for the most part people really like working with him Bjork I think is the only one okay that might not be true but for the most part people go back and work with him again Charlotte Gainsbourg Willem Dafoe Stellan Skarsgård all are in like a bunch of his movies. And so I think most people have a good experience with him, even though he does sound like he can be very intense. But okay, so some context, I think for that panel discussion that I think is interesting and not excuse like it's I think he was making a joke I think it was a very bad joke and you can see him doing the thing where when you've made a bad joke

and you're trying to explain it away yeah it's like he goes harder and harder the more uncomfortable you see him get and so instead of of being like, ha ha, nevermind, next question, he just digs a deeper and deeper hole. And some context for that is that he was raised Jewish and on his mother's deathbed, she revealed that his dad was not his dad and that his actual father was german and that she had an affair with this german man in an attempt to make lars more creative because this german guy was a pianist and this event was like very traumatizing for lars von trier and yeah um really like obviously rocked his sense of identity and so I think that was the joke of like well I'm a Nazi because he thought he was a Jew the whole his whole life and so I think he has a very specific relationship with German and Judaism. And so I don't know, it feels gross

defending Lars von Trier because I know a lot of people really hate him and I don't, I don't necessarily want to be like, he's a good guy. You guys don't get it. Like, that's not my feelings. I'm just trying to like, just provide some context. Yeah. And it's also just a fast, it's fascinating. Yeah. And, and you know, we don't And you know we don't know him We don't know him that's right And we don't know him and so I just It's just important when we do know Somebody we'll let you know

Yeah Because we all know that once you know somebody You can pass judgment on any You know everything About something they do If you've met them, you have authority over all their decisions. Amen. Amen.

So after that press conference, he got banned from Cannes. Wow. A Cannes ban. Why did I do that? A Cannes ban. A freaking Cannes ban, which is his worst nightmare because he's like loves Cannes. He's a little Cannes boy. He's a Cannes boy. he's like loves can and so he's a little

cam boy he's a cam boy and so i think he's a can man he's a can man and he's a band can man and i think that experience also was like pretty traumatic for him and i think he's reflecting a lot on that in this film oh okay and this film was actually his return to can okay can again can again i was trying to think of a rhyme thank you the man can but i think it did premiere outside of competition but they like did a little soft allowing him back in like all right well you can play your movie i will say kirsten dunst was offered a role in this film she turned it down i think kirsten dunst her relationship with him was also soured at this event because it casts this horrible light on melancholia and she is so fucking good in melancholia and i think a lot of people think that this is the reason she

didn't even get nominated for an oscar when it's like wow i feel like it should have been this like amazing moment in her career and it just became kind of like a taboo thing that people don't want to talk about anymore. So I think she probably, you know, isn't. I mean, maybe they've gotten over it by now, but I think it did sour their relationship at the time. So basically all of this just to say that he is a very divisive filmmaker and a lot of his movies piss people off. He I feel like he has said that he likes being a devil's advocate, which conjures this like gross type of guy in your brain. Also, he is that I think he's also like very talented artist. There's some amount of separating the art from the artist happening. I don't know.

I find him really fascinating. I've enjoyed the movies I've watched this week and I want to watch more. I think he's a weird little freak and I'm just very fascinated by him. And I also know he's done some bad things. And who knows if I would hate him in real life because we don't know. Who knows? But we don't know him. We don't know him. And probably you're never going to have to answer that question. Exactly.

So, you know. But OK, shall we get into this? Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. But OK, shall we get into this? Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. If you would like to hear the rest of this episode, you are going to want to head over to our Patreon at patreon.com slash TSDW podcast and join us in Tony fucking Colette's inner

circle. There you'll gain access to all previous bonus episodes. We do weekly video trailer reactions. You'll get to vote for future episodes. It's a really great place to be. You're going to want to check it out. But if not, we will be back next week with a regular episode. Bye. That was a HeadGum Podcast.