# Dogville

Dogville is a 2003 drama film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It features an ensemble cast led by Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Paul Bettany, Chloë Sevigny, Stellan Skarsgård, Udo Kier, Ben Gazzara, Patricia Clarkson, Harriet Andersson, and James Caan, with John Hurt as the narrator. The film employs an extremely minimal, stage-like set to tell the story of Grace Mulligan (Kidman), a woman on the run from mobsters who finds refuge in the small mountain town of Dogville, Colorado, in exchange for physical labor.
The film is the first installment in Trier's incomplete USA: Land of Opportunities trilogy. It was followed by Manderlay (2005), though the intended third part, Washington, was never produced. Dogville premiered in the main competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. After screenings at various film festivals, it received a limited release in the US on 26 March 2004.
Dogville received polarized reviews from critics upon its release. While some deemed it pretentious or exasperating, others hailed it as a masterpiece. Over time, the film has grown in stature and was included in the 2016 BBC poll of the greatest films since 2000. Renowned filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and Denis Villeneuve have praised the film.

## Plot

Prologue: "Which introduces us to the town and its residents": Set in the isolated Rocky Mountain town of Dogville, near an abandoned silver mine, the film opens with a narrator introducing its 15 residents. Through the perspective of Tom Edison Jr. (Paul Bettany), an idealistic philosopher who organizes meetings on "moral rearmament," the townsfolk are depicted as quaint but flawed. Tom aspires to replace his physician father as the community’s moral leader.
Chapter 1: "In which Tom hears gunfire and meets Grace": Tom encounters Grace Mulligan (Nicole Kidman), a fugitive fleeing gangsters. After hiding her in the mine, he convinces her to stay, arguing the mountains are impassable. When gangsters arrive searching for Grace, Tom lies about her whereabouts but accepts a reward card. At a town meeting, Tom proposes sheltering Grace as a test of their morality. The skeptical residents agree to a two-week trial, during which Grace must earn their trust.
Chapter 2: "In which Grace embarks upon physical labor": Grace begins chores for the townspeople: comforting blind recluse Jack McKay, babysitting for Chuck and Vera, and assisting shopkeeper Ma Ginger. Her willingness to help softens initial reluctance, and she gradually integrates into Dogville.
Chapter 3: "In which Grace indulges in a shady provocation": Grace bonds with Jack, who pretends to see. She tricks him into admitting his blindness, earning his respect. After the trial period, the town votes unanimously to let her stay.
Chapter 4: "Happy times in Dogville": Grace continues her work, saving wages to buy porcelain figurines from Ma Ginger. Tensions rise when police post a "Missing" notice with Grace’s name. Though divided on cooperating, the town opts to protect her—for now.
Chapter 5: "Fourth of July after all": During Fourth of July celebrations, Tom confesses his love for Grace, reciprocated warmly. The mood sours when police replace the notice with a "Wanted" poster, accusing Grace of bank robbery. The town insists she’s innocent but demands more labor as a quid pro quo. Reluctantly, Grace agrees.
Chapter 6: "In which Dogville bares its teeth": Grace’s expanded workload strains relations. Mistakes invite scorn: men sexually harass her, women grow abusive, and Vera’s son Jason manipulates Grace into spanking him. The abuse culminates in Chuck raping Grace in his orchard.
Chapter 7: "In which Grace leaves Dogville and sees daylight": Grace confides in Tom, who plans her escape. Vera retaliates for the spanking, while Martha exposes Chuck’s assault. Vera smashes Grace’s figurines, mocking her Stoic teachings. Tom arranges for trucker Ben to smuggle Grace out, but Ben rapes her and returns her to Dogville. Blamed for Tom’s theft of his father’s money, Grace is enslaved—chained, raped, and tormented by the town, including children who mock her suffering with church bells.
Chapter 8: "In which a meeting reveals the truth": At a town meeting, Grace details her abuse, prompting residents to vote to hand her to the gangsters. Tom, feigning loyalty, attempts to sleep with her but is rebuffed. Realizing his hypocrisy, he betrays Grace by calling her pursuers. Resigned, Grace mutters, "Nobody’s gonna sleep here"—echoing Pirate Jenny’s vengeance anthem.
Chapter 9: "In which Dogville receives its awaited visit": The gangsters arrive, led by Grace’s father. Revealed as a mob boss’s daughter, Grace initially resists his harsh worldview but, after introspection, condemns Dogville. She orders the town’s annihilation: Vera must watch her children die unless she stifles tears, echoing her own torment. Dogville is razed, its residents massacred. Tom, applauding Grace’s "illustration," is executed by her. Only the dog Moses—whose bone Grace once took—is spared.
The credits roll over Jacob Holdt’s stark photos of American poverty, set to "Young Americans" by David Bowie.

## Cast

* John Hurt as Narrator
* Nicole Kidman as Grace Margaret Mulligan
* Lauren Bacall as Ma Ginger
* Paul Bettany as Tom Edison, Jr.
* Chloë Sevigny as Liz Henson
* Stellan Skarsgård as Chuck
* Jean-Marc Barr as The Man with the Big Hat
* Udo Kier as The Man in the Coat
* Ben Gazzara as Jack McKay
* James Caan as The Big Man
* Patricia Clarkson as Vera
* Shauna Shim as June
* Bill Raymond as Mr. Henson
* Jeremy Davies as Bill Henson
* Philip Baker Hall as Tom Edison, Sr.
* Blair Brown as Mrs. Henson
* Željko Ivanek as Ben
* Harriet Andersson as Gloria
* Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Martha
* Cleo King as Olivia
* Miles Purinton as Jason

## Pilot

Dogville: The Pilot was shot during 2001 in the pre-production phase to test whether the concept of chalk lines and sparse scenery would work. The 15-minute pilot film starred Danish actors Sidse Babett Knudsen (as Grace) and Nikolaj Lie Kaas (as Tom). Eventually Lars von Trier was happy with the overall results. Thus, he and the producers decided to move forward with the production of the feature film. The test pilot was never shown in public, but is featured on the second disc of the Dogville (2003) DVD, released in November 2003.

## Staging

The story of Dogville is narrated by John Hurt in nine chapters and takes place on a stage with minimalist scenery. Some walls and furniture are placed on the stage, but the rest of the scenery exists merely as white painted outlines which have big labels on them; for example, the outlines of gooseberry bushes have the text "Gooseberry Bushes" written next to them. While this form of staging is common in black box theaters, it has rarely been attempted on film before—the Western musical Red Garters (1954) and Vanya on 42nd Street (1994) being notable exceptions. The bare staging serves to focus the audience's attention on the acting and storytelling, and also reminds them of the film's artificiality. As such it is heavily influenced by the theatre of Bertolt Brecht. (There are also similarities between the song "Seeräuberjenny" ("Pirate Jenny") in Brecht and Kurt Weill's Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) and the story of Dogville. Chico Buarque's version of this song, "Geni e o Zepelim" [Geni and the Zeppelin], deals with the more erotic aspects of abjection and bears striking similarity to Trier's cinematic homage to the song.) The film used carefully designed lighting to suggest natural effects such as the moving shadows of clouds, and sound effects are used to create the presence of non-existent set pieces (e.g., there are no doors, but the doors can always be heard when an actor "opens" or "closes" one).
The film was shot on high-definition video using a Sony HDW-F900 camera in a studio in Trollhättan, Sweden.

## Interpretations

According to Trier, the point of the film is that "evil can arise anywhere, as long as the situation is right".
Film review show At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper criticized Dogville as having a strongly anti-American message, citing, for example, the closing credits sequence with images of poverty-stricken Americans which were taken from Jacob Holdt's documentary book American Pictures (1984), and accompanied by David Bowie's song "Young Americans".

## Reception
### Critical response

Dogville polarised critics upon its United States theatrical release, with Metacritic giving it a score of 61 ("Generally favourable reviews") and the Rotten Tomatoes critics' consensus for it stating simply, "A challenging piece of experimental filmmaking." 70% of critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 7/10, based on 168 reviews. Many hailed it as an innovative and powerful artistic statement, while others considered it to be an emotionally detached or even misanthropic work. In The Village Voice, J. Hoberman wrote, "For passion, originality, and sustained chutzpah, this austere allegory of failed Christian charity and Old Testament payback is von Trier's strongest movie—a masterpiece, in fact." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film 3.5/4 stars, praising Kidman's performance and dubbing it "a movie that never met a cliche it didn't stomp on." Scott Foundas of LA Weekly described it as a work of "boldness, cutting insight, [and] intermittent hilarity", and interpreted it as "a potent parable of human suffering." In Empire, Alan Morrison wrote that "Dogville, in a didactic and politicised stage tradition, is a great play that shows a deep understanding of human beings as they really are."
In the Los Angeles Times, on the other hand, Manohla Dargis dismissed it as "three hours of tedious experimentation." Richard Corliss of Time argued that Trier lacked humanity and wrote that the director "presumably wants us to attend to his characters' yearnings and prejudices without the distractions of period furnishings. It's a brilliant idea, for about 10 minutes. Then the bare set is elbowed out of a viewer's mind by the threadbare plot and characterizations." Roger Ebert, who gave it two out of four stars, felt that the film was so pedantic as to make Trier comparable to a crank, and viewed it as "a demonstration of how a good idea can go wrong." In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sean Axmaker said, "There's no denying von Trier is visually intriguing. ... But as an artist, his contempt for humanity is becoming harder to hide with stylistic flourish." Charles Taylor of Salon additionally responded to allegations of the film's anti-Americanism with the charge that it was "anti-human", and said that it was "as total a misanthropic vision as anything control freak Stanley Kubrick ever turned out"—while personally admitting that he felt Trier was as deliberate a filmmaker as Kubrick.
Later, Dogville was named one of the greatest films of its decade in The Guardian, The List, and Paste. In 2016, it was ranked one of the 100 greatest motion pictures in a critics' poll conducted by BBC Culture. It was listed the 37th best film of the same time period by The Guardian critics.
American director and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino has named the film as one of the 20 best to have been released during the time of his active career as a director; (which was between 1992 and 2009 when he was interviewed) he said that if it had been written for the stage, Trier would have won a Pulitzer Prize.

### Box office

The film grossed $1,535,286 in the US market and $15,145,550 from the rest of the world for a total gross of $16,680,836 worldwide. In the opening US weekend it did poorly, grossing only $88,855. The movie was released in only nine theaters, with an average of $9,872 per theater. In Denmark, the film grossed $1,231,984. The highest-grossing country was Italy, with $3,272,119.

### "Best-of" lists

Dogville made many 2004 top-ten lists:
* 1st – Mark Kermode, BBC Radio Five Live
* 2nd – J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
* 3rd – Overall, The Village Voice
* 4th – Dennis Lim, The Village Voice
* 5th – Jack Mathews, New York Daily News
* 8th – J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader
* n/a – David Sterritt, The Christian Science Monitor
* n/a – Ron Stringer, LA Weekly
The film received nine votes (with six from critics and three from directors) in the 2012 Sight & Sound polls.

### Accolades

| Award | Category | Recipients | Result |
| Bodil Awards | Best Danish Film | Lars von Trier | Won |
| Bodil Awards | Best Actress | Nicole Kidman | Nominated |
| Bodil Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Stellan Skarsgård | Nominated |
| Robert Award | Best Costume Design | Manon Rasmussen | Won |
| Robert Award | Best Screenplay | Lars von Trier | Won |
| Robert Award | Best Editor | Molly Marlene Stensgård | Nominated |
| Robert Award | Best Film | Lars von Trier | Nominated |
| Robert Award | Best Cinematography | Anthony Dod Mantle | Nominated |
| Robert Award | Best Production Design | Peter Grant | Nominated |
| Robert Award | Best Supporting Actor | Stellan Skarsgård | Nominated |
| Robert Award | Best Director | Lars von Trier | Nominated |
| Cannes Film Festival | Palme d'Or | Lars von Trier | Nominated |
| European Film Awards | Best Cinematographer | Anthony Dod Mantle | Won |
| European Film Awards | Best Film | Lars von Trier | Nominated |
| European Film Awards | Best Director | Lars von Trier | Nominated |
| European Film Awards | Best Screenwriter | Lars von Trier | Nominated |
| Goya Awards | Best European Film | Lars von Trier | Nominated |
| Russian Guild of Film Critics | Russian Guild of Film Critics Golden Aries Award for Best Foreign Actress | Nicole Kidman | Won |
| Russian Guild of Film Critics | Best Foreign Film | Lars von Trier | Won |
| Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists | Best Director | Lars von Trier | Nominated |
| Guldbagge Award | Best Foreign Film | Lars von Trier | Nominated |
| Golden Eagle Award | Best Foreign Language Film | Lars von Trier | Nominated |
| Golden Trailer Awards | Best Independent | Lars von Trier | Nominated |
| David di Donatello | Best European Film | Lars von Trier | Won |
| Copenhagen International Film Festival | Honorary Award | Lars von Trier | Won |
| Cinema Brazil Grand Prize | Best Foreign Film | Lars von Trier | Won |
| Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain | Best Foreign Film | Lars von Trier | Won |
| Guild of German Art House Cinemas | Best Foreign Film | Lars von Trier | Won |
| Sofia International Film Festival | Best Film | Lars von Trier | Won |

## Opera adaptation

The opera adaptation Dogville was composed by Gordon Kampe and premiered in 2023 at the Aalto Theatre in Essen. The premiere was postponed two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. The story is compressed to a runtime of 110 minutes.