Loading Page
The Five Obstructions(2003)
Status: Released
Date: 2003-11-07
69%
155 Votes
Time: 1h 30m
Overview:
Lars von Trier challenges his mentor, filmmaker Jørgen Leth, to remake Leth’s 1967 short film The Perfect Human five times, each with a different set of bizarre and challenging rules.
Languages: Danish, Spanish, French, English.
Countries:
Belgium,
Denmark,
France,
Switzerland
ProductionCompanies: 
Panic Productions
Wajnbrosse Productions
Almaz Film Productions
Movie: The Five Obstructions
Top 10 Billed Cast
Claus Nissen
The Perfect Man (from Det perfekte menneske) (archive footage)
Jacqueline Arenal
The Perfect Woman (segment "Cuba")
Jørgen Leth
Voice-over (from Det perfekte menneske) / Self - Director / +
Patrick Bauchau
The Perfect Man / Voice-over (Brussels) / Speaker (Cartoon)
Alexandra Vandernoot
The Perfect Woman (segment "Brussels")
Video Trailer The Five Obstructions
Loading Photos
Photo Type :Total items
Recommendations Movies
69%
Shadows(en)
1960-10-14
The relationship between Lelia, a light-skinned black woman, and Tony, a white man is put in jeopardy when Tony meets Lelia’s darker-skinned jazz singer brother, Hugh, and discovers that her racial heritage is not what he thought it was.
78%
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty(en)
2000-11-05
A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.
64%
The Element of Crime(da)
1984-05-14
Fisher, an ex-detective, decides to take one final case when a mysterious serial killer claims the lives of several young girls. Fisher, unable to find the culprit, turns to Osbourne, a writer who was once respected for his contributions to the field of criminology. Fisher begins to use Osbourne's technique, which involves empathizing with serial killers; however, as the detective becomes increasingly engrossed in this method, things take a disturbing turn.
67%
Giorgino(fr)
1994-10-05
October 1918: After returning to the civil life, the young Doctor Giorgino Volli searches for a group of children, which he had been the care-taker of before the first world war began. However, soon the searching becomes a part of hide-and-seek with death. Giorgino finds a village bordered with a treacherous marsh and rumours of wolves. There he also meets the mysterious Catherine....
67%
The Perfect Human(da)
1968-06-14
An elegant and humorous film—in the guise of a serious anthropological treatise—spotlights "The Perfect Human," a model of the modern Dane created by our wishful thinking.
68%
Liliom(en)
1930-09-27
A carousel barker falls in love with a young woman. Both are fired from their jobs, and when the young woman becomes pregnant, the carousel barker tries to help pull off a robbery, which goes wrong. Because of the robbery, he dies, and after spending time in hell, is sent back to earth for one day to try to make amends. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.
50%
The Erotic Man(en)
2010-09-26
The film has been ten years in the making, and over time it has grown to become what the director himself has called an artistic testament. It is simultaneously his most personal and most provocative film. A film about growing older, about losing, about the special moments one remembers, and about the director's own circling around the essence of eroticism.
62%
Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled(en)
1918-01-01
Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled pokes fun at both mad scientists and the Egyptian mummy craze that followed the discovery of King Tut's tomb early in the 20th century. A young man wooing the daughter of a scientist hatches a get rich quick scheme when he spots a classified ad searching for "a mummy for experimental purposes." While he wraps up a phony for the scientist, two Egyptian agents (outfitted in a crazy mix of ancient fashion and modern style) tracking stolen relics get tangled in the confusion.
70%
The Proposition(en)
2005-10-06
In 1880s Australia, a lawman offers renegade Charlie Burns a difficult choice. In order to save his younger brother from the gallows, Charlie must hunt down and kill his older brother, who is wanted for rape and murder. Venturing into one of the Outback's most inhospitable regions, Charlie faces a terrible moral dilemma that can end only in violence.
82%
Woman in the Dunes(ja)
1964-02-15
A vacationing entomologist suffers extreme physical and psychological trauma after being taken captive by the residents of a poor seaside village and made to live with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them.
65%
The Idiots(da)
1998-04-28
A mix of home-video and documentary styles about a group of young people who have decided to get to know their “inner-idiots” and thus not only facing and breaking their outer appearance but also their inner.
77%
Three Colors: Blue(fr)
1993-09-08
The wife of a famous composer survives a car accident that kills her husband and daughter. Now alone, she shakes off her old identity and explores her newfound freedom but finds that she is unbreakably bound to other humans, including her husband’s mistress, whose existence she never suspected.
79%
Dancer in the Dark(en)
2000-09-01
Selma, a Czech immigrant on the verge of blindness, struggles to make ends meet for herself and her son, who has inherited the same genetic disorder and will suffer the same fate without an expensive operation. When life gets too difficult, Selma learns to cope through her love of musicals, escaping life's troubles – even if just for a moment – by dreaming up little numbers to the rhythmic beats of her surroundings.
78%
Dogville(en)
2003-05-21
When a beautiful young Grace arrives in the isolated township of Dogville, the small community agrees to hide her from a gang of ruthless gangsters, and, in return, Grace agrees to do odd jobs for the townspeople.
66%
Antichrist(en)
2009-05-20
A grieving couple retreats to their cabin 'Eden' in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.
65%
The Neon Demon(en)
2016-05-31
When aspiring model Jesse moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means necessary to get what she has.
Similar Movies
50%
Stale Popcorn & Sticky Floors(en)
2023-05-16
Take a front row seat as we sit down to chat with some of the creators and stars of the best and most beloved exploitation and grindhouse films of the 1970s and 80s. Featuring interviews with John Dugan (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Craig Reed (The Re-Animator), John Russo (Night of the Living Dead), Lynn Lowry (The Crazies), Carl Crew (Blood Diner), and many more independent horror veterans.
65%
Emulsional Rescue: Revealing 'The Godfather'(en)
2008-09-23
We hear from Coppola, Spielberg, director of photography Gordon Willis, consulting restoration cinematographer Allen Daviau, film archivist Robert A. Harris, Paramount Post Production executive VP Martin Cohen, MPI senior technical advisor Daniel Rosen, MPI scanning technician Chris Gillaspie, senior digital artist Steven A. Sanchez, digital artist Valerie V. McMahon, and MPI technical director and senior colorist Jan Yarbrough as they offer interesting facts about the original cinematography, details on the restoration of the three films.
62%
Cinema Futures(en)
2016-09-02
Analog celluloid strips are disappearing. Is film dying, or just changing? Are the world's film archives on the brink of a dark age? Renowned filmmakers, museum curators, historians, and engineers help dramatize the future of film and the cinema in the age of digital moving pictures.
0%
The 99 Names of God(en)
2018-04-21
Arab-American filmmaker Yumna Al-Arashi embraces the rhythmic rituals that have run alongside Islamic tradition throughout the centuries in this surreal and poetic short film. Piecing together old and new, Al-Rashi's dream-like imagery breathes fresh air to a subject hardly seen in positive light.
69%
Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The 'Plan 9' Companion(en)
1992-01-01
A documentary detailing the making of the cult favorite "Plan 9 from Outer Space," featuring interviews with cast members and prominent filmmakers about the film, its lasting legacy, and its creator, Edward D. Wood Jr.
70%
Visions of Light(en)
1992-09-17
Cameramen and women discuss the craft and art of cinematography and of the "DP" (the director of photography), illustrating their points with clips from 100 films, from Birth of a Nation to Do the Right Thing. Themes: the DP tells people where to look; changes in movies (the arrival of sound, color, and wide screens) required creative responses from DPs; and, these artisans constantly invent new equipment and try new things, with wonderful results. The narration takes us through the identifiable studio styles of the 30s, the emergence of noir, the New York look, and the impact of Europeans. Citizen Kane, The Conformist, and Gordon Willis get special attention.
58%
Room 999(fr)
2023-10-05
In 1982, Wim Wenders asked 16 of his fellow directors to speak on the future of cinema, resulting in the film Room 666. Now, 40 years later, in Cannes, director Lubna Playoust asks Wim Wenders himself and a new generation of filmmakers (James Gray, Rebecca Zlotowski, Claire Denis, Olivier Assayas, Nadav Lapid, Asghar Farhadi, Alice Rohrwacher and more) the same question: “is cinema a language about to get lost, an art about to die?”
63%
A Gray State(en)
2017-08-07
In 2010 David Crowley, an Iraq veteran, aspiring filmmaker and charismatic up-and-coming voice in fringe politics, began production on his film Gray State. Set in a dystopian near-future where civil liberties are trampled by an unrestrained federal government, the film’s crowd funded trailer was enthusiastically received by the burgeoning online community of libertarians, Tea Party activists and members of the nascent alt-right. In January of 2015, Crowley was found dead with his family in their suburban Minnesota home. Their shocking deaths quickly become a cause célèbre for conspiracy theorists who speculate that Crowley was assassinated by a shadowy government concerned about a film and filmmaker that was getting too close to the truth about their aims.
79%
Walt: The Man Behind the Myth(en)
2001-09-16
From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdom, he turned his dreams into entertainment for the ages. Now, learn his real story. Through exclusive footage and interviews with friends and family, this documentary traces the complicated life of legendary animator Walt Disney.
66%
Nightmares in Red, White and Blue(en)
2009-08-06
An exploration of the appeal of horror films, with interviews of many legendary directors in the genre.
0%
Visions, Dreams and Magic: The Unmade Films of Michael Powell(en)
2024-07-02
Discover the unrealised visions and passion projects of revered British filmmaker Michael Powell, in this fascinating documentary featuring Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
76%
Burden of Dreams(en)
1982-10-01
The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents, among many other setbacks; but nothing compared to dragging a huge steamboat up a mountain, while Herzog embraces the path of a certain madness to make his vision come true.
60%
The Footprints of a Spirit(es)
1998-10-10
The story of the creation of The Spirit of the Beehive, a film directed by Víctor Erice in 1973.
80%
Cannes : Palmes, scandales et tapis rouge(fr)
2022-05-17
How could the Cannes Film Festival become the biggest cinema event in the world? For 75 years, Cannes has succeeded in this prodigy of placing cinema, its sometimes paltry splendors but also its requirements of great modern art, at the center of everything, as if, for ten days in May, nothing was more important than it. This film tells how Cannes has become the largest film festival in the world by opening up to cinematic modernity while never forgetting that cinema remains a performing art, a popular art.
58%
6-18-67(en)
1967-07-07
6-18-67 is a short quasi-documentary film by George Lucas regarding the making of the Columbia film “Mackenna's Gold”. This non-story, non-character visual tone poem is made up of nature imagery, time-lapse photography, and the subtle sounds of the Arizona desert.
62%
Chuck Amuck: The Movie(en)
1991-10-23
Chuck Amuck: The Movie is a 1991 documentary film about Chuck Jones' career with Warner Bros., centered on his work with Looney Tunes; narrated by Dick Vosburgh.
71%
This Film Is Not Yet Rated(en)
2006-01-26
Kirby Dick's provocative documentary investigates the secretive and inconsistent process by which the Motion Picture Association of America rates films, revealing the organization's underhanded efforts to control culture. Dick questions whether certain studios get preferential treatment and exposes the discrepancies in how the MPAA views sex and violence.