Picture the scene…
You’re shopping around you’re favourite supermarket. You’ve got your loaf, your curry paste and your French Fancies. You’re about to get something Spanish and tasty to go with your meal when you spot a couple of promotional staff giving out some samples. ‘Hmmm,’ you think, “this could be just what I’m after for this evening.”
You head on up, smiling, when one of the marketeers beams, “Fancy making your guts bleed out through your nose? Then this is the stuff for you!”
What do you think? Would you buy it? Would you be bound by some horrific fascination as to whether it really would make your guts bleed out through your nose? Is that even possible? If so, would you invite the ex round for one last “chat” to get everything off your chest (and out of theirs)?
It’s this fascination that propels us to watch movies like Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, which has received an enormous amount of publicity since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May. It arrives in the UK this Friday amidst such a fanfare of controversy that it is impossible to imagine hordes of viewers not going to see it and hordes of protesters, well…protesting. The only question that does remain is whether the British Board of Film Classification will pass it uncut. I, for one - and in the name of freedom of speech and artistic intent - hope that they do. However, given the graphic nature of some of the scenes (which you’re probably best off researching yourself), I think I’ll bypass the Pic ‘n’ Mix on the way in.