SATURDAY 22 NOV – H 21:00 – ROOM 2

THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT
DENMARK, SWEDEN, FRANCE, GERMANY – 2018 – color – 155’

Direction: Lars Von Trier
Screenplay: Lars Von Trier
Cinematography: Manuel Alberto Claro
Editing: Molly Malene Stensgaard
Production design: Simone Grau Roney
Music: Víctor Reyes
Costumes: Manon Rasmussen
Cast: Matt Dillon (Jack), Bruno Ganz (Verge), Uma Thurman (Lady 1), Siobhan Fallon Hogan (Lady 2), Sofie Gråbøl (Lady 3), Riley Keough (Simple)
Producers: Louise Vesth in coproduction with Madeleine Ekman, Lizette Jonjic, Marianne Slot, Bettina Brokemper, Tine Grew Pfeiffer, Jonas Bagger
Production: Zentropa
World sales: TrustNordisk
Italian Distribution: Videa

Synopsis
The House That Jack Builttakes place in 1970s USA. We follow the highly intelligent Jack through 5 incidents and are introduced to the murders that define Jack’s development as a serial killer. We experience the story from Jack’s point of view. He views each murder as an artwork in itself, even though his dysfunction gives him problems in the outside world. Despite the fact that the final and inevitable police intervention is drawing ever near (which both provokes and puts pressure on Jack) he is – contrary to all logic –set on taking greater and greater chances. Along the way we experience Jack’s descriptions of his personal condition, problems and thoughts through a recurring conversation with the unknown Verge – a grotesque mixture of sophistry mixed with an almost childlike self-pity and in-depth explanations of, for Jack, dangerous and difficult maneuvers.

critical note
“(…) The film combines a variety of video formats, ranging from a distinctly documentary style — complete with close focus on the speaking subject — to black-and-white archival footage taken from Nazi-Fascist newsreels or Glenn Gould’s piano performances, to 4:3 television frames, animated inserts, and entirely surreal, fantastical animated passages. Spectacular, in this regard, is the final section, where the director’s imagination — having definitively abandoned any realist intention — roams through Dantesque landscapes of blood, lava, and darkness. (…) It is an incredibly complex yet perfectly functioning narrative machine. (…)”
(Sabrina Crivelli,ilcineocchio.it, December 28, 2019)

 awards and festivals
2018 Festival di Cannes– Out of Competition
2018 Strasbourg European Fantastic FF: Melies D’Argent
2019 Bodil Awards: Best Production Designer
2019 Danish Film Awards: Best Cinematography, Visual Effects
2019 Black Sea FF: Best Feature Film, Director, Cinematography, Editing, Actor, Jury Award of Recognition to Uma Thurman