De fem benspænd (2003)

Writers:

Jørgen Leth (script) (2 segments)
Asger Leth (script) (2 segments)
(more)

Release Date:

7 November 2003 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

About a filmmaker not only revisiting, but also recreating (not in a conventional sense) one of his first films, The Perfect Human / Det perfekte menneske (1967)

Plot Keywords:

Director | Filmmaking | Remake | Experimental Film | Part Animated

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Claus Nissen	...	The Perfect Man - from 'Det perfekte menneske' 1967 (archive footage)
Majken Algren Nielsen	...	The Perfect Woman, from 'Det perfekte menneske' 1967) (archive footage) (as Maiken Algren)
Daniel Hernandez Rodriguez	...	The Perfect Man (segment "Obstruction #1 - The Perfect Human: Cuba")
Jacqueline Arenal	...	The Perfect Woman (segment "Obstruction #1 - The Perfect Human: Cuba")
Vivian Rosa
Jørgen Leth	...	Voice-over (from "Det perfekte menneske" 1967) / Himself - Director (segments "The Conversations") / Voice-over (segment "The Perfect Human: Cuba," segment "The Perfect Human: Bombay," segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon") / Himself -The Perfect Man - Voice-over (segment "The Perfect Human: Avedøre, Denmark") (also archive footage)
Patrick Bauchau	...	The Perfect Man / Voice-over (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels") / Speaker (segment "Obstruction #4 - The Perfect Human: Cartoon")
Alexandra Vandernoot	...	The Perfect Woman (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
Marie Dejaer	...	Maid (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
Pascal Perez	...	Couple (Man) (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
Meschell Perez	...	Couple (Woman) (segment "The Perfect Human: BrunellesBrussels")
Bent Christensen	...	Gangster (from "Det gode og det onde" 1975) (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon" (archive footage)
Anders Hove	...	Naked Man (from "Notater om kærligheden" 1989) ( fsegment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon" (archive footage)
Charlotte Sieling	...	Naked Woman (from "Notater om kærligheden" 1989) ( segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon" (archive footage)
Jan Nowicki	...	Man with Jacket (from "Notater om kærligheden" 1989) ( segment "Obstruction #4 - The Perfect Human (archive footage)
Stina Ekblad	...	Woman with Money (from "Notater om kærligheden" 1989) (segment "The Perfect Human (archive footage)
Lars von Trier	...	Himself / Obstructor (segment "The Conversations")
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bob Sabiston	...	Himself (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon") (uncredited)

Directed by
Jørgen Leth		(segment "The Perfect Human: Avedøre, Denmark") (uncredited) (segment "The Perfect Human: Bombay") (uncredited) (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels") (uncredited) (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon") (uncredited) (segment "The Perfect Human: Cuba") (uncredited)
Lars von Trier		(segment "The Perfect Human: Avedøre, Denmark") (uncredited)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Sophie Destin		poem "La Femme" (segment "The Perfect Human: Brussels")
Asger Leth		script (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels") (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon)
Jørgen Leth		script (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels") (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon")
Jørgen Leth		segment "The Perfect Human: Bombay" (uncredited)
Jørgen Leth		segment "The Perfect Human: Cuba" (uncredited)
Lars von Trier		idea (uncredited)
Lars von Trier		script (segment "The Perfect Human: Avedøre, Denmark")

Produced by
Marianne Christensen	....	line producer
Carsten Holst	....	producer
Peter Aalbæk Jensen	....	executive producer
Nicole Mora	....	co-executive producer
Gerald Morin	....	co-executive producer
Marc-Henri Wajnberg	....	co-executive producer
Marc-Henri Wajnberg	....	delegate producer (segment "The Perfect Human: Bruelles Brussels") (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon")
Vibeke Windeløv	....	executive producer

Cinematography by
Dan Holmberg		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Morten Højbjerg
Camilla Skousen

Makeup Department
Magdalena Coamano	....	makeup artist (segment "The Perfect Human: Cuba")
Juan Pacífico	....	hair stylist (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
Lisa Schonker	....	makeup artist (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")

Production Management
Anne Katrine Andersen	....	post-production manager
Amrit Gangar	....	production manager (segment "The Perfect Human: Bombay")
Magdalena García	....	production manager (segment "The Perfect Human: Cuba")
Mette Høst Hansen	....	post-production manager
Tom Heene	....	production manager (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
Pia Nielsen	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Asger Leth	....	first assistant director
Asger Leth	....	second unit director

Art Department
Michel Vinck	....	props researcher: Amalgames (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")

Sound Department
Martin Saabye Andersen	....	sound engineer (segment "The Perfect Human: Cuba")
Morten Bøttzauw	....	sound engineer (segments "The Conversations")
Jens de Place Bjørn	....	sound engineer (segment "The Conversations")
Paul Heymans	....	sound engineer (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels") (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon")
Jan Juhler	....	sound engineer (segment "The Perfect Human: Bombay")
Tom Koester	....	sound engineer (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon")
Kasper Munck-Hansen	....	sound engineer (segment "The Conversations") (as Kasper Munck Hansen)
Hans Møller	....	sound design: Mainstream ApS

Camera and Electrical Department
Jakob Bonfils	....	photographer: third unit (segments "The Conversations")
Manuel Dacosse	....	assistant to director of photography (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
Kim Hattesen	....	photographer: third unit (segments "The Conversations")
Asger Leth	....	photographer: second unit
Adam Philp	....	assistant director of photography
Adam Philp	....	second director of photography (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
François Zeegers	....	gaffer (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")

Animation Department
Randy Cole	....	animator (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon")
Jennifer Deutrom	....	animator (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon") (as Jennifer Drummond)
Holly Fisher	....	animator (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon")
Mike Layne	....	animator (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon") (as Michael Layne)
Asger Leth	....	cartoon consultant (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon")
Katy O'Connor	....	animator (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon")
Bob Sabiston	....	animation director (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon")
Bob Sabiston	....	animator (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon")
Susan Sabiston	....	animator (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon")
Patrick Thornton	....	animator (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon")

Casting Department
Marianne Christensen	....	casting (segment "The Perfect Human: Cuba")
Magdalena García	....	casting (segment "The Perfect Human: Cuba")

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Elisabeth Houtart	....	stylist: Amalgames (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels") (as Elisabeth Houtard)

Editorial Department
Marlene Billie Andreasen	....	on-line editor: post-production
Thomas Caspersen	....	digital film recordist: post-production
Lars Dela	....	technical consultant: post-production
Daniel Dencik	....	pilot editor: (segment "The Conversations" ) (as Daniel A. Denick)
Christine Ekstrand	....	post-production assistant
Simon Kristiansen	....	avid assistant: post-production
Simon Kristiansen	....	on-line editor: post-production
Lasse Martinussen	....	avid assistant: post-production
Fabien Pascal	....	color timer: post-production, Eclair Laboratories
Thomas Therchilsen	....	digital color grader: post-production
Anne Katrine Andersen	....	post-production coordinator (uncredited)
Michael Frank Nielsen	....	film color timer (uncredited)

Music Department
Mikkel Maltha	....	music consultant: Zentropa Music ApS
Anders Valbro	....	music consultant: Zentropa Music ApS

Transportation Department
José Luis Figueroa	....	production driver (segment "The Perfect Human: Cuba")

Other crew
Suhas Bhiwandkar	....	production coordinator (segment "The Perfect Human: Bombay")
Signe Birket-Smith	....	assistant: producer
Majken Bramstrup	....	production assistant: Zentropa Real
Floyd E. Casper	....	production coordinator (segment "The Perfect Human: Bombay")
Rasmus Christoffersen	....	production assistant: Zentropa Real
Isabelle Corlier	....	production assistant: Wajnbrosse (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunlles Brussels")
Delphine Coterel	....	location manager (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
Michel Detry	....	accountant: Bureau Detry
Veronique Durand	....	film laboratory: Eclair Laboratoires, France
Sonja Egemar	....	accountant
Füsun Eriksen	....	public relations: Trust Film Sales ApS
Marie-Aude Goddard	....	production assistant (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
Javier Gonzales	....	production coordinator (segment "The Perfect Human: Cuba")
Jesper Grüner	....	production assistant: Zentropa Real
Jens Georg Hansen	....	insurance: Marsh A/S (as Jens-Georg Hansen)
Olivier Heger	....	production insurance (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
Anders Jacobsen	....	assistant: line producer (segment "The Perfect Human: Cuba")
Anders Kjærhauge	....	production lawyer: Zentropa Administration ApS
Ann Køj	....	accountant
Stefan Maenen	....	runner (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
Melanie Munt	....	body double (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
Mairead O'Leary	....	production assistant: Wajnbrosse (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
Nina Munch Petersen	....	personal assistant: Carsten Holst
Cecile Piot	....	film laboratory: Eclair Laboratoires, France
Deepak Rao	....	production coordinator (segment "The Perfect Human: Bombay")
Jordan Savel	....	production assistant: Zentropa Real (as Jordan E. Savel)
Thomas Schindel	....	personal assistant: Lars von Trier
Manka Sierakowski	....	production assistant: Wajnbrosse (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
Johanne Stainer	....	production coordinator (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
Rogier Van Eck	....	production assistant: Wajnbrosse (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels") (as Roger Van Eck)
Ann Vognsen	....	accountant

Production Companies

• Almaz Film Productions S.A.
• Panic Productions
• Wajnbrosse Productions
• Zentropa Real ApS

Distributors

• Trust Film Sales (2003) (worldwide) (all media) (sales)
• Arsenal (2004) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Bir Film (2004) (Turkey) (theatrical)
• Bright Angel Distribution (2004) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Frenetic Films (2004) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Kino Bez Granits (2005) (Russia) (theatrical)
• Nordisk Film Biografdistribution (2003) (Denmark) (theatrical)
• esse&bi cinematografica distribuzione (2004) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Alfa Films (2005) (Argentina) (all media)
• Arsenal (2005) (Germany) (DVD)
• Divisa Home Video (2004) (Spain) (DVD)
• Films sans Frontières (France)
• Koch Lorber Films (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Koch Lorber Films (2004) (USA) (subtitled)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (all media)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (New Zealand) (all media)
• Sundance Channel (USA) (TV)
• Total Film Home Entertainment (2005) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2005) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2005) (Argentina) (VHS)

Special Effects

• Gearless ApS (visual effects)

Other Companies

• Bureau Detry  accountant
• Danmarks Radio (DR)  financing
• Det Danske Filminstitut  financing
• EF Rental  equipment
• Flat Black Films  animation produced by (segment "The Perfect Human: Cartoon")
• Klippegangen ApS  post-production facilities
• Mainstream ApS  sound design
• Rekorder ApS  video transfer to 35 mm
• Triangle 7  sound equipment (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
• Trust Film Sales  public relations
• Ze Light  light equipment (segment "The Perfect Human: Brunelles Brussels")
• Zentropa Music ApS  music consultants
• Zentrope Administration  production lawyer (as Zentropa Administration)

Also Known As:

"Five Obstructions" - France
"The Five Obstructions" - International (English title)
"Пять препятствий" - Russia
"Öt akadály" - Hungary (imdb display title)
"As Cinco Obstruções" - Brazil (festival title)
"Cinco condiciones" - Spain (DVD title)
"Lars Von Trier'den Bes Engel" - Turkey (Turkish title)
"Le cinque variazioni" - Italy (imdb display title)
"Oi pente dokimasies" - Greece (festival title)
"Piec nieczystych zagran" - Poland
"Viisi kampitusta" - Finland (TV title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Denmark | Switzerland | Belgium | France

Language:

Danish | English | French | Spanish

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Switzerland:16 (canton of Zurich) | Australia:M | Hungary:14 | Norway:A | Singapore:NC-16 | Spain:13 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:Unrated | Argentina:13

Company:

Almaz Film Productions S.A.

Trivia:

The song played during The Perfect Human: Havana is "Planting the Seed" by David Holmes, which was also used in Ocean's 11 and appears on that movie's soundtrack.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The Story of Film: An Odyssey: Episode #1.2" (2011)

CREATIVE CONSTIPATION

Six films within a film. What's left? First they deconstructed, now they're reconstructing? Or is this merely further deconstruction of the deconstructed? Whatever it may or may not be, isn't it all a bit like pacing back and forth, back and forth, wearing a rut in the carpet?

The film has 3 components:

I. In 1967 Jørgen Leth made "The Perfect Human," an aseptic, detached, ultramodern, minimalistic, black-and-white short that Lars Von Trier swears he's seen at least 20 times and related to more than any other piece of celluloid in his life. It's a cerebral study that through willful self-consciousness forces you to concentrate on the act of perceiving, the artifice of film, and the intrusion of human will on reality that is "Art." A man in a tuxedo, against a blank white background, snaps his fingers and gyrates to unheard music while a voice intones, "This is the perfect man." We regard The Human as object, discussed by a voice which is also an object. The subject, the "I," is missing. Action is reduced to stasis. This short appears in bits and pieces throughout the whole film.

II. Fast forward to present time, a documentary of Von Trier chatting amiably with Leth, dictating terms under which the latter is to revisit, and thus reinvent, his past by remaking "The Perfect Human." We learn as the film progresses that these terms, or "obstructions," are meant to coerce Leth out of artifice into naked unselfconscious expression, into confronting himself and truth. Consider a man running an obstacle course. If the obstacles are sufficiently difficult or complex, the man has to do everything he can just to surmount them. He has no energy left over for superfluities or distractions. He may even forget that he is running a race. The man of action, commanding all his resources, is purely himself, his humanity exposed.

Von Trier, as is well known, wants film to be both film and non-film, to be true to itself and to transcend itself, an irresolvable paradox that some, myself included, would say is self-imposed and, well, obstructive. Can something be both transparent and opaque? That's the postmodernist's dilemma.

The present-time documentary also includes Mr. Leth preparing for and making his 5 films, and the two reviewing the finished results.

III. Finally, there are the remakes, or "Obstructions," themselves. The original is not remade in its entirety in any of the "Obstructions," nor are they literal, faithful reproductions. Rather, the remakes are loosely based on the original.

"Obstruction One" is conditioned on no take lasting longer than 12 seconds, on it being filmed in Cuba because Leth has never been there, on all the questions asked in the original by the narrator being answered, and so on. Because it is the first, it is the best. We see the raw bones of film, the magician's legerdemain unmasked, the denuded reconstruction of a deconstruction (or is it the deconstruction of a deconstruction?). Particularly memorable is a woman reclining on a divan, a restive mechanical human animal, its breathing jerky, chopped up in short takes.

In the second "Obstruction," Leth is required to go to the most horrible place he knows on earth, but not show the horror. In the third, he is given no rules. The fourth requires him to remake his film in the form of a cartoon.

Thus the grand structure of the movie is a chess game, the film maker vs. his fan, the artist vs. his audience, Leth vs. Von Trier. Von Trier hopes to make Leth expose the personal anguish that he is sure Leth formalizes in the dress of perfection called "Art." He seeks to obstruct Leth's escape from the imperfection of his life into the perfection of his creations, the illusory "Perfect Human." To Von Trier, the gloomy Dane, creation is somehow the civilized disguise of personal failure and suffering, a distancing from the existential chaos of self.

In the last "obstruction," illustrated by clips from the rest of the film, Von Trier has Leth read a letter that Von Trier has written to himself, in which he admits that it is he, not Leth, who has all along been lying through Art and seeking confessional release; that it is he, not Leth, who has been hiding in the celluloid shell of the Perfect Man. Talk about introversion, Chinese boxes.

As a foil to all this involuted artifice, there is a short documentary segment in which Leth, sitting behind the shut glass of his car in traffic in Bombay, is approached by a woman carrying a baby, begging for alms. The restrained anguish on her gaunt face, the unknowing innocence of the child, and the decrepitude of old Leth fumbling impotently for change casually intrude into and shatter this film with more messy "truth" than Von Trier and Leth seem ready to admit into their sterile and fastidious workshop.