The Five Obstructions

THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS has a pretty cool concept. The general idea is that director Lars von Trier is forcing an old mentor, Jørgan Leth, to remake his 1967 short film THE PERFECT HUMAN five times with different obstructions. The first time Leth remakes it, he can only use very short shots, no longer than 12 frames, has to film in Cuba, and must not make a set. The second time he must make it in the worst place on earth but he can't show that place. The third time it must be however Leth wants to make it (which is a lot harder than it sounds). The fourth time he must make it as a cartoon. The fifth time is a suprise I would not spoil, but is quite anticlimactic when it is revealed. Although the shorts within THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS are quite good (the first in particular), the original short is shown in clips intermittently, and we never get a sense of what it was like. A better idea for this movie would have been to just have each short with a description on a DVD, or shown back to back. The scenes with Leth waking up in the middle of the night or just walking around are at about the same caliber of work as the pre-previews before a film at the movies. The fifth obstruction short-film even loses its power after we've seen all of these middle scenes with either Leth or Lars von Trier talking at length about nothing. It's boring. The shorts, however, aren't.
The Five Obstructions: ★★1/2