Dogtooth
2010 ‘Kynodontas’ Directed by Giorgos Lanthimos
Synopsis
The cat is the most feared animal there is!
Three teenagers are confined to an isolated country estate that could very well be on another planet. The trio spend their days listening to endless homemade tapes that teach them a whole new vocabulary. Any word that comes from beyond their family abode is instantly assigned a new meaning. Hence 'the sea' refers to a large armchair and 'zombies' are little yellow flowers. Having invented a brother whom they claim to have ostracized for his disobedience, the uber-controlling parents terrorize their offspring into submission.
Cast
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Dogtooth is disturbing. It creeps into your psyche and stays there for days. It plays like an absurdist comedy at first but quickly shows its true colours. It is a gripping, compelling, shocking and extremely sad story of three nameless nearly adult children who live in a world created exclusively by their parents.
By "nameless" I don't mean that we are never told their names; I mean they have no names. The implications of this are enormous (take a minute to think about how different your life would be if you did not have a name). In their particular environment, one in which discipline is fairly extreme, the children must be completely attuned to the parents whereabouts and commands at…
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Part 17 of the 30 Countries project.
For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Greek origin as per its listing on imdb.
I cannot describe what I think I just saw. My mind struggles for comprehension. I am exhausted. I feel like I have been repeatedly struck by a large stick for the past 90 minutes. A new friend recently referred to Vincent Gallo's Brown Bunny as the most bizarre movie they'd ever seen. I think their brain might explode if they saw this.
So this family, they choose to create their own world for their children with their own rules and their own meanings, they build walls both physically and…
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Whilst a little seen film, Castle of Purity, may share a very similar story (the filmmakers must have seen the film as it shares a few key scenes) Dogtooth is much more playful and subversive. The film has a very dark sense of humour and every time you laugh you feel guilty for doing so. The world that is created is ambiguous and full of wonderful details (if you didn't know the synopsis you could be a third of the way into the film without fully knowing what exactly is going on in the house) whilst the word play and the twisted games the innocent children play are compelling and deeply disconcerting. It is a shocking film but delivered in…
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Berken's May 30 Days, 30 Countries Challenge Film nº 5 - Greece
It's really hard to express the feelings I've experienced while watching Dogtooth. The story is simple: three young adults live isolated from the world, obeying the strange and distorted rules of their parents. But the film is much more than this.
The atmosphere makes you feel like you're part of the family. The shots, the lack of soundtrack, it's like a home movie, a home movie like the ones the kids watch. They don't know nothing of the world, they don't watch TV, they don't have a computer, they don't read books, they don't even see the packages' labels their father carefully throw away before coming home. And…
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This is the third film in the Second Letterboxd Festival.
I don't really have any clue as to how to properly review this movie, nor can I explicitly explain such a high rating. I will however give some brief thoughts:
- The world construction is remarkable.
- The rules that are established are never broken.
- The amount of detail and thoroughness to these rules is impressive.
- You really have no idea what to expect next, or at all for that matter.
- Just imagine yourself if you lived such a life.
- I never knew if I should laugh or be appalled.
- That confusion between the two occurs constantly.
- I think that this is a fantastic… -
An unflinching film which could be rendered perfect if it had a stronger ending. With that minor qualm aside, this is an engrossing film and my eyes never left the screen once. It reminds me of a less bizarre version of Miike's Visitor Q, though much more satisfying and much, much more stylish.
Brilliant, masterful cinema at its most provocative and brutal.
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Brutal parábola sobre no sé muy bien qué. Muy recomendable.
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Extraña, es la palabra que mejor podría definir esta película. En ésta, el director griego Yorgos Lanthimos narra una historia que salta magistralmente de las situaciones más cómicas a las más enfermizas sin perder continuidad. Una película que se presta a las múltiples interpretaciones y que al final deja al espectador sumido en el desconcierto ya que parece no tener un final. Pese a este ¿fallo? Intencional, la película en su conjunto es una muestra novedosa, inteligente y cuando menos brillante de buen cine.
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Part 17 of the 30 Countries project.
For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Greek origin as per its listing on imdb.
I cannot describe what I think I just saw. My mind struggles for comprehension. I am exhausted. I feel like I have been repeatedly struck by a large stick for the past 90 minutes. A new friend recently referred to Vincent Gallo's Brown Bunny as the most bizarre movie they'd ever seen. I think their brain might explode if they saw this.
So this family, they choose to create their own world for their children with their own rules and their own meanings, they build walls both physically and…
-
An unflinching film which could be rendered perfect if it had a stronger ending. With that minor qualm aside, this is an engrossing film and my eyes never left the screen once. It reminds me of a less bizarre version of Miike's Visitor Q, though much more satisfying and much, much more stylish.
Brilliant, masterful cinema at its most provocative and brutal.
-
Berken's May 30 Days, 30 Countries Challenge Film nº 5 - Greece
It's really hard to express the feelings I've experienced while watching Dogtooth. The story is simple: three young adults live isolated from the world, obeying the strange and distorted rules of their parents. But the film is much more than this.
The atmosphere makes you feel like you're part of the family. The shots, the lack of soundtrack, it's like a home movie, a home movie like the ones the kids watch. They don't know nothing of the world, they don't watch TV, they don't have a computer, they don't read books, they don't even see the packages' labels their father carefully throw away before coming home. And…
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Film #6 - 30 Movies, 30 Countries Challenge - Greece
I'm not sure of how to start...
I can see the formal/aesthetic choice, and I don't question it (the way it is shot, very bright, almost washed-out colours, lots of lights, lots of straight lines, hardly any sinous lines, hardly any shadows, it's hot, yet the film is cold, mechanic, austere, frigid, almost clinical sometimes, it reminds me a bit of some Haneke).
And yeah the family is odd & radical, the children, young adults behaving like children, sterile, bland, with no emotion and tamed like animals, dogs... and yes, perhaps we can see it as a parable of totalitarianism.
I think it's just a question of taste, basically the film didn't do much to me, it didn't resonate with me, but at the same time I can see its artistic value. -
Its strange to see a movie be so absurdly disturbing yet oddly comedic.
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DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS TO ANYONE. It's great though, you should watch it.
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A thoroughly bizarre, highly creative, shockingly brutal, and oddly funny movie the likes of which I have truly never seen before.