Film Review: Dogville: A parable on perversion

The authors approach Lars Von Trier's fi lm Dogville in the light of contemporary psychoanalytic concepts on perversion. The perverse functioning appears at three levels in the fi lm. First of all in the content of the story: a seemingly masochistic victim stirs up the sadism of the people around her before the scenario turns full circle. As for the formal aspects, the producer subtly hides some data with the result that our perception of reality is distorted. Finally, the viewer is led fi rst to identify with a moral position before becoming, through identifi cation, an accomplice of the sadistic triumph of the so‐called victim.