This is out on DVD now, so any true film lovers will want to check it out. Lars Von Trier gets his idol Jorgen Leth to agree to remake the latter's short film "The Perfect Human" (1967) five times, but beforehand, Von Trier gives obstructions to Leth, forcing him to change the film in certain ways. For example, in the "First Obstruction" remake version, Leth has to film in Cuba and can't have any edits (scenes) last more than 12 frames (one-half second.)

The structure of the film is interesting, in that we see parts of the original film, then the directors discuss what the new obstructions will be. After that, we see Leth trying to find a way to make the crazy obstructions work and some of his actual filming. Then, the men get together to watch the finished short film. This process is repeated five times, but the film is only 90 minutes long, so it's all pretty fast-moving. It's fascinating how the film builds to its climax.

This is really a unique film, and it's all about filmmaking, but the interaction of the two directors, who are obviously friends, but antagonists here, is equally thought-provoking. This definitely qualifies as an "Art, Independent & Foreign Film", so if any of those terms scare you off, be warned, but anybody interested in looking at film and filmmaking in a totally new way should check it out ASAP. One other warning. The ending made me cry. I'm gonna go watch it again now.

i like all the lars von trier movies that i know.. i m really interesting in this movie (which i dont know). do you know whether its out as a dvd in europe already, it always takes so much time till you can get it here. and i bet, that our store where you can rent dvds wont have it. its always the same...

This was such a fascinating film. I've never seen anything like it and was amazed at how Leth created each obstruction so brilliantly. I found the film very interesting, funny, and most of all inspiring. I'd strongly recommend it especially to aspring filmmakers and documentary fans.

I had mixed reactions to this one...while it was interesting to see the different films and "obstructions" thrust upon the older filmmaker, I found the whole "auteur" attitude quite pretentious.

Von Trier CAN be pretentious, for sure, and based on The Perfect Human, Leth can be too, but I was more interested in how they were actually polar opposites. Von Trier wants to get subjective emotion into everything, and Leth wants, to steal from Sgt. Joe Friday, "just the facts", to be an objective observer. I did post a warning in the first post, but my own pretention alarm bells weren't going off very loudly.