Danish writer/director Lars von Trier is set to remake The Five Obstructions, his 2003 documentary about filmmaking, this time with Martin Scorsese working opposite him, THR reports.
Both directors have an awards list longer than the eye can see, so what they will produce together should certainly be interesting.
Von Trier was a leading and founding figure in the Dogme 95 movement, though his later films have shifted away from the movement. Dogme was a group of predominantly Danish filmmakers who created their films by abiding by a strict set of rules. For example, filming must be done on location, and no exterior props can be used that aren’t already there; any music must be played within the scene itself and not later added over. Von Trier made the original The Five Obstructions with his mentor, Jørgan Leth, a fellow pioneering experimental documentary filmmaker. In it, he challenges Leth to remake his 1967 short film, The Perfect Human, five times, each time with a different set of rules, the first of which is to remake it in Cuba, using shots no longer than 12 frames (less than a second).
Naturally, we can expect to see a great new set of obstructions for von Trier to pose to Scorsese. Exactly what Scorsese is going to be remaking is unknown. He has a few short films (It’s Not Just You, Murray!, The Big Shave) from early in his career, and THR speculates that since there were rumours earlier in the year that von Trier was looking to remake Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, one of the scenes in that could be the subject of Scorsese’s challenge.
Scorsese is currently finishing up work on Hugo Cabret, starring Asa Butterfield, Chloë Moretz, Jude Law, and Johnny Depp, which is due out on 9th December this year. Von Trier’s latest film, Melancholia, is premiering at Cannes next week, and stars Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Kiefer Sutherland, and we have to wait until 30th September to watch it in the cinema.
With two such influential directors working together on a project like this, I personally can’t wait to see the end results. Von Trier’s new set of rules will of course be the make or break aspect of it, and I fully anticipate it being a thoroughly interesting film when it’s finished. If it were me, I think I’d challenge Scorsese to rework the script without the letter ‘e’, just as a handful of novelists have set themselves the challenge. What obstructions would you pose Scorsese if you were in von Trier’s place?
