The Pervert's Guide To Cinema Page #21

but here the set is seen as the set.

The action takes place in Dogville, a small town,

but there are no houses.

There are just lines on the floor,

signalling that this is the house,

this is the street.

The mysterious thing is

that this does not prevent our identification.

If anything, it makes us even more thrown

into the tensions of the inner life.

Have you seen Grace?

She's at my place.

- Is she busy?

- Not any more. Go right in.

It's not that naive belief is undermined,

deconstructed through irony.

Von Trier wants to be serious with the magic.

Irony is put into service to make us believe.

Yet again, Grace had made

a miraculous escape from her pursuers

with the aid of the people of Dogville.

Everyone had covered up for her,

including Chuck, who had to admit

that it was probably Tom's hat

he'd mistakenly considered so suspicious.

The mystery is that even if we know

that it's only staged, that it's a fiction,

it still fascinates us.

That's the fundamental magic of it.

You witness a certain seductive scene,

then you are shown that it's just a fake,

stage machinery behind,

but you are still fascinated by it. Illusion persists.

There is something real in the illusion,

more real than in the reality behind it.

Do not arouse the wrath

of the great and powerful Oz!

I said come back tomorrow!

If you were really great and powerful,

you'd keep your promises.

Do you presume to criticise the great Oz?

You ungrateful creatures!

Think yourselves lucky

that I'm giving you audience tomorrow

instead of 20 years from now!

The great Oz has spoken.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

The great and... Oz has spoken.

- Who are you?

- Well, I...

I am the great and powerful Wizard of Oz.

What we can learn from a film like Wizard of Oz

is how the logic of de-mystification

is not enough.

It's not enough to say, "Okay, it's just

a big show spectacle to impress the people.

"What is behind is just a modest old guy,"

and so on and so on.

It is that rather, in a way,

there is more truth in this appearance.

Appearance has an effectivity, a truth of its own.

What about the heart that you promised Tin Man?

Well...

And the courage

that you promised Cowardly Lion?

- And Scarecrow's brain?

- And Scarecrow's brain?

Why, anybody can have a brain.

That's a very mediocre commodity.

Every pusillanimous creature

that crawls on the earth

or slinks through slimy seas has a brain.

Back where I come from,

we have universities, seats of great learning

where men go to become great thinkers.

And when they come out,

they think deep thoughts

and with no more brains than you have.

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