The Five Obstructions

The Five Obstructions, by Lars Von Trier is a movie that follows Jorgen Leth through a series of obstacles to expressing his own voice through film. Trier contracts Jorgen to create a series of five films following the same script as the 1967 moive The Perfect Human. As Trier gives his subject guidelines to filming that include including no single edit more than 12 frames, traveling to miserable Bombay, India; and even using only cartoons to express himself, the tone of each film c hanges despite using the same script.
The first thing that struck me by watching this film, was the different emotions that were evoked by each of the four films Jorgen produced. The original film The Perfect Human was filmed in black and white with no set. To me, it conveys introspective message reflecting on what it means to be a human, and what it means to be an imperfect being. However, as each obstruction is added, and locations and sets are introduced into the scene, new emotions are introduced. For example, when Jorgen places the impoverished Indians behind him as he eats a lavish meal in a tuxedo, the movie quickly becomes a commentary about the division between socioeconomic classes and reflects the assumption that a perfect human is unsympathetically wealthy.
However, the overarching theme of the documentary is more a commentary about expression. Trier creates these obstructions in hopes that Jorgen will have to expose his weaknesses and therefore a part of himself he has previously been too afraid to show. However, no matter what obstructions Trier gives to Jorgen, the movie he produces is of good quality and seems to continue to comment on another aspect of what it means to be human. At first, Trier is frustrated at Jorgen's success, however by the end it is clear what has come from the experiment. Taking away someone's defenses and trying to find the voice that resides below all of the general tools they use to hide behind is not the only way to discover who a person really is. For Jorgen, taking away the tools he would normally use and putting him in unfamiliar situations only made his personal voice much stronger. The audience was able to see a different side of his personality because he was given different means through which to express his same point of view.
Trier's development of the Dogme 95 movement, which aims to create true to life films by the exclusion of expensive effects, also mirrors the idea of The Five Obstructions. By eliminating effects, the voice of the film maker comes through more honestly. Some of the obstructions placed under this style include using a hand-held camera, not using extra light, and filming on location to create a more authentic and live action effect.
Whenever the means through which a piece of art is altered, it automatically follows that the message will change. The aesthetic quality of the media creates different emotions within the viewer. In this class, multimedia will give each person a new way to express themselves because we are no longer confined to the traditional means of aural and written communication. By channeling my voice through new media, I will be able to convey the message I am trying to share with a new set of tools.

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