THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT (2018)

Denmark-Sweden-France-Germany. Direction: Lars von Trier. Production: Louise Vesth, Madeleine Ekman, Lizette Jonjic, Marianne Slot, Bettina Brokemper, Tine Grew Pfeiffer, Jonas Bagger / Zentropa Entertainment, Film i Väst, Copenhagen Film Fund, Zentropa Sweden, Slot Machine, Zentropa France, Zentropa Köln. Screenplay: Lars von Trier. Photography: Manuel Alberto Claro. Edition: Molly Malene Stensgaard. Cast: Matt Dillon, Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Sofie Gråbøl. Running time: 155 min

LANGUAGE: English / SUBTITLES: Spanish

Welcome to the man of the abominable talent. Welcome to the Lars von Trier of Melancholia (2011), Antichrist (2009) and Nymphomaniac (2013). Kicked out of Cannes by a bunch of goody two-shoes, he made his comeback with this savage comedy which, à la Thomas de Quincey in his day, considers murder to be one of the fine arts and envelopes the theory in a delightfully elegant screenplay packed with ideas along the lines of heaven and hell being the same thing, of the soul belonging above and the body below. It’s all declaimed by Matt Dillon to Bruno Ganz, who is none other than Virgil, the poet who accompanied Dante to Avernus. The guy who was an angel in the sky over Berlin is tired. And Uma Thurman’s in a major pickle. A continuous presence, that of Glenn Gould, the immense pianist. The house? A pyramid of bodies.