In 1967 danish director Jorgen Leth directed a short film titled The Perfect Human. In 2003 this documentary was released, where he was challenged by fellow danish filmmaker Lars von Trier to remake this film five times, each time with a different “obstruction” chosen by von Trier. The obstructions were as follows: 1) the new Perfect Human must be shot in Cuba, with no sets and no shot should be longer than 12 frames; 2) the film should be shot in the worst place in the world that Leth can imagine (as a challenge to Leth’s sense of ethics) and he himself should play the man in the film; 3) the short is to be remade with complete freedom (artistic liberty can also be a limitation); 4) the film must be a cartoon; and 5) the film is to be remade by von Trier, but Leth is to be credited as a director, all he has to do is to read a narration written by von Trier. The resulting short films, as well as the documentary itself, are an ode to the craft of filmmaking and a testament to its power as a therapeutic act.

“This isn’t a competition with yourself,” von Trier tells Leth after the second attempt, “this is therapy.” I believe this phrase is vital to understand von Trier’s intentions with this project. Believing he knows enough about Leth and that he’ll be able to make him grow as a filmmaker, he imposes a set of rules and challenges that take him out of his element. Regardless, Leth rises to the challenge each time and remakes his film in a new way that opens different perspectives. Seeing him jump from Cuba to India to Belgium to the U.S. to Haiti, stopping at Denmark every once in a while to show his film to von Trier, to see him pondering over each problem and difficulty and seeing his audacity on using each obstruction to his advantage, one can’t help but admire Leth for what he does. I’d never seen one of his films before, but after watching this I am convinced that he is a very talented and gifted filmmaker.

As I said, the movie is an ode to filmmaking. Each time get a different film, each one with its own set of strengths and weaknesses, the obstuctions working often in favour of the new short being shot. But von Trier’s goal isn’t to make good remakes of The Perfect Human, but to serve as a therapist to his friend Leth. Why does he believe that Leth needs therapy? We may never know, but what we can do is recognize the potential that filmmaking holds as a therapeutic method. Regardless of the demons that Leth must exorcise through the restrictions imposed by von Trier, we do get the sense that something is working on some unconscious level. But perhaps what’s more interesting to analyze on this level is Lars von Trier himself, the man who claims to be able to understand and provide help to his friend. Watching the film I got the sense that he was rather prickly and obnoxious, but by the final film his vision becomes rather clear. As evidenced by the narration he wrote for Leth to read, he was testing a theory he had about Leth, but it ended being about himself. The narration reveals how von Trier thinks Leth sees him and this whole ordeal, and we get a sense that he recognizes his own flaws and Leth’s superior stability. The therapy ultimately ends up helping von Trier, the supposed therapist, rather than the supposed patient, Leth.

Now, a little about the short films themselves: regarding the original The Perfect Human, it is a pretty interesting concept, the idea of a man and a woman just “being”, and the whole visual tone spells out avant garde. The first remake, the one shot in Cuba, was pretty enjoyable to see, especially because of the 12-frames limitation (von Trier himself would later say that it was gift), as it added a rythm to the film that was absent (logically) from every other iteration. The second try I found to be the most boring of all, but it was interesting to see Leth being the performer. The third one, shot with entire artistic freedom, was actually very different in style from the original, what somehow helps to illustrate the difference between the Jorgen Leth from 1967 and the one from 2003. The fourth one was my favourite, a rotoscoped version that combined footage of the previous films, and even if Leth hates animation (according to his own word) he makes the most of the possibilities the medium has to offer. And the last one is a kind of explation from von Trier to Leth, an open hearted letter from an artist to another that perfectly summarizes the whole experiment. It was sad that as soon as the final short film ended so did the documentary, we never got to see Leth’s reaction to von Trier’s short.

Danish cinema has a lot to offer; here we got two of the country’s best exponents working together, exploring the limitless possibilities in the realm of filmmaking. Be it therapeutic, ideological, experimental or simply entertaining, cinema is an art form that has a lot to offer, but there is still a lot to be discovered. Lars von Trier knows this, Jorgen Leth knows this, that’s why this collaboration is worth so much. This documentary is inspiring, eye-opening and down-right entertainment all at the same time. For anyone who is interested in the craft of filmmaking, this is a must watch.

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