The Five Obstacles
The Five obstacles is a documentary/experimental film, in which a film maker Lars Von Trier challenges Jorgen Leth to remake his 1967 film The Perfect Human in five completely different ways. The first is a remake set in cuba with no sets where each shot cannot be more than 12 frames long, the second is a remake set in the red light district of Bombay but the background cannot be seen, the third is a choice between doing the Bombay remake again as he failed to do so the first time round, or remaking the film in a fashion of Leth’s choosing, Leth chooses the second option and remakes the film in Brussels using split screen, the fouth challenge is is an animated version of the film, and the fith challenge is that Von Trier has already made the fifth version, but it must be credited as Leth’s, and Leth must read a voiceover narration from his own perspective written by Von Trier.
I think this film deals with the notion of power over an artist and if that is a good or a bad thing. We see that Von Trier has power over what Leth can physically create in terms of his art. This is of course stifling his artistic nature and his usual style as for example the first of the obstructions restricts him from using his favored long shots. However the question is raised i think of wether power over the presentation can really alter the power of the message, as each time the content of the film is the same with only slight variations, therefore what Von Trier is trying to say i think, is that continue forming the message you want people to hear, even if that means bending to a power higher than yours will.
