Our Need For A Witness,
At the center of every story is a need for a witness. The Ring trilogy, Othello, and Redeemer are all three-part tragedies where one character’s memories offer an intimate connection with audiences. We do not only need the truth--we need to know that the protagonist is sincere, that he or she really believes in their cause. And once we have this kind of trust from an author, we can protect ourselves from feelings of isolation and self-doubt whenever tragedy strikes again.
Lars von Trier’s film of Thomas Hardy's "The Mayor of Casterbridge", entitled "The Distant Scream", is a three-part tragedy. The main character, Michael Henchard (played by Peter O'Toole) sells his wife and daughter to a sailor in a tavern to raise money for the drink he knows he must have. Upon awakening from his drunken stupor, he remembers all that he did the night before. In this scene, we only have the protagonist’s memory of the events. We read in his eyes that he is sincere. We see in his acting that he is honest with himself and with us. So to see such a man do such a thing, although quite shocking and tragic, has an effect on us different from reading of it in Hardy’s novel--we sense a real human being behind it all.
The same kind of memory-tragedy occurs in Shakespeare’s Othello. The character of Othello is a Moor who has risen to the rank of general in the Venetian army. He is also a man who has had many women, and he is caught up with jealousy towards his new wife Desdemona. In trying to win back the affection of his old love, Emilia, he remains loyal to Desdemona and continues to sleep with her. When he meets her again after so many years apart, he tries to bury these feelings for her by sleeping with Desdemona again. He is a man suffering from his own memories. For that reason, when he suddenly kills his wife, we see the real Othello behind his actions. He is full of torment and feels that he does not deserve her love. We are moved by the real honesty in him and so we forgive him for rage which overtakes his heart.
The writer of these stories, Thomas Hardy, uses similar techniques to tell his own stories. In "The Mayor of Casterbridge", Hardy uses an actual historical figure, Michael Henchard, as the main character. He also makes stories out of the characters in Othello’s life – Iago being known for jealousy and envy, and Cassio having a crisis of faith after serving under Othello for many years.
Unlike most films, which have a screenplay or plot that is created first and then developed into various scenes and characters, Lars von Trier is known to shoot films from scene to scene with minimal plot. During the filming of "The Kingdom" (1995), for example, he fired his original lead actress and replaced her with his girlfriend at the time. (The original director was Constantine Giannaris.) He does this in order to capture something spontaneous on film. This may be why "The Kingdom" has some of the most realistic acting in his films.
"The Distant Scream" is a three-part film that was made to be shown in Copenhagen theaters. It runs 148 minutes and is not rated. It premiered in Danish cinemas on March 22, 2001 and later earned $8,986 at the box office (all figures are taken from Box Office Mojo).
"The Distant Scream" is a portrayal of tragedy that shows the audience what the main character thinks and feels, rather than what is happening. Though the film can be seen as a dramatization of the works of Thomas Hardy and still-life images that are shattered by dialogue, von Trier does not show his characters on screen for long periods of time. The film's structure consists of three parts: "Early Summer", "Mid-Summer", and "Late Summer". The film opens in the spring, with the Henchard family living on a farm. Before the farm scenes, we meet Michael Henchard in a tavern and see him making a deal to get money for drink. This is the first scene in which we see and hear nothing but his own thoughts and emotions. We see him break down after he murders his wife and child, but only because he remembers what he did.
"Early Summer" takes place six months after these events. Henchard is a changed man. He is the mayor of a town named Casterbridge and has become prosperous, but he is still filled with pain over what he did to his family. Each year, on the anniversary of his wife's death, he goes to the church where she was buried and mourns for her. It is mixed with an air of guilt and regret that he himself cannot take for what he did.
Conclusion
At the end of "Early Summer", we find that Michael Henchard is still in the church at the breakfast table, eating alone. When he remembers what he did to his family, he breaks down in tears and eats his breakfast. His sadness over this is the emotional climax of "Early Summer".
In order for us to see the truth of a man's character through tragedy, we must first be able to see it on screen. The emotions that a man has must be a sight to behold.
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Our Need For A Witness