Cate Crafter

The House That Jack Built is a polarising film that dares to go beyond the realms of what most directors would ever consider, but then that’s Lars Von Trier all over. I think he is one of the most fascinating directors working today and this film only proves this more.

The cast is rather spectacular from Matt Dillon’s disturbingly brilliant performance as Jack, Uma Thurman, Riley Keough, Sofie Gråbøl, Bruno Ganz, and a blink and you’ll miss it cameo from Yoo Ji-tae (Oldboy) that probably only Korean cinema fans like me would notice.

The narrative technique of The House That Jack Built is very similar to that of Trier’s Nymphomaniac films (the protagonist retells the story of their burgeoning affliction to a stranger) but it is very different too, especially towards the end. So basically this review is going to turn into a comparison between the two films…

What’s similar

I love the way Trier writes the narrators in these two films, they are cultured and make interesting parallels between art, music and life. And then the people they tell their stories to comment on the implausibility of events; Verge notes that the incompetence of the police is very convenient in The House That Jack Built while Seligman notes that Jerome appears at moments in Joe’s life unrealistically and conveniently in Nymphomaniac

They both feature extreme imagery, graphic sex and graphic murder.

What’s different

The allusion to Dante’s Inferno that is fully revealed at the end but is quite clear throughout the film takes The House that Jack Built from being rooted in ‘reality’ to taking on a much more fantastical vibe.

Is The House that Jack Built, the male version of Nymphomaniac? Are both of these films showing how the different sexes show their depravity as seen by a biased society, for women it’s too much sex and for men too much bloodlust and brutality, toxic masculinity? Just a thought.