Family Matters by Will Lewis


Submitted 1/25/2011 FAMILY MATTERS Containment and Natural Course in Dogtooth (2010) By Will Lewis (Author bio below) Dogtooth (2010), or as it is referred to by its Greek title, Kynodontas, is more than just a film. It's an experience for the audience, and an exploration into rules, morals, and patriarchal hierarchy in the family structure. The film contains a bold satirical undertone in the way it portrays the extremities within the way in which the family operates. Filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos officially joins the ranks of contemporary auteurs, such as Michael Haneke, Todd Solondz, Christophe Honoré, and Gaspar Noé, who have and still are challenging audiences to submit themselves before pieces that push society's boundaries of taboo and extremities through their representation of sex and violence. Lanthimos joins these individuals by making a film that more than likely will take viewers out of their comfort zones and introduce them into a world of difference, potentially making them vulnerable. Many will either ignorantly dismiss the film as “trite” and “pretentious,” or will be completely disgusted by the violence and sex, and refuse to read into the film, however, one thing is certain: no matter what negative criticism this film may pick up when its distributor, Kino International, hopefully acquires more theaters to showcase, the film does engage its audience. The mere negative responses alone will in fact strengthen the core of the film. In the film, plot is the least intriguing element, compared to how the film operates and how it delivers open-interpretive understandings. Dogtooth is about a father who keeps his family inside and around the yard, contained by an electronic gate that he opens primarily for him to venture out and keep him family in. There are no names attributed to the members of the family. They are merely identified by their role within the family: Father, Mother, Older Daughter, Younger Daughter, and Son. By doing so, Lanthimos establishes an environment where the characters are deidentified by their individual characteristics. Each character might do or say something in private, however everything always comes back to the family. The family alone is a unit, a strong base that thrives off everyone working together to strengthen its core. While the family may work together, everything is, on the other hand, dictated by Father. And the only way Father knows how to control his family is through force. The film operates on two different levels. The first level is containment and the second, natural course. Containment is literally and metaphorically shown through moral intent. The fence, set in place by Father, is used just as much to keep, what he feels are negative influences out, than to keep the family in. While his actions may appear extreme or absurd to some individuals, he is doing nothing more than preserving his family's innocence by any means necessary. Every family operates differently. Father reinforces the rule of the house through containment by keeping the family in constant fear of what exists beyond the fence. This is illustrated by him redefining the role of the cat. He paints the cat as a beast, one capable of eating children's flesh, because he wishes to keep the family aligned within his order. “If you stay inside, you are protected,” he tells them after Brother impales a cat with a pair of garden hedge clippers. By getting the entire family on all fours, barking, he sculpts them into dog-like personas to ignite their animalistic side. The father partakes in numerous tasks in order to delude their status to that of a dog. Father brings in Christina to have sex with Brother. This can be associated with a master introducing a female dog to his dog for breeding. When Father discovers that Older Sister traded Christina oral sex for videotapes, he contains his anger, asking her to bring him masking tape. He binds the tape to his hand and repeatedly strikes her in the head. This act can be can be associated with a dog urinating on the floor and the master rubbing the dog's face in the urine. Another example where Father acts with intent to preserve innocence within the family is show in the scene where he plays Frank Sinatra's “Fly to Me to the Moon.” While Sinatra plays on the record player and as he sings each line, Father recites moral subtexts like, “Dad loves us,” “Mom loves us,” “I love my brothers and sisters,” and “My parents are proud of me, because I do my best.” Father uses the language barrier to insert subliminal messages within the workings of the song. Overall, Father makes decisions that better contain the family within the environment and in the submissive grasp of his authority. The second level is natural course. Being in such a hazardously strict household, the kids adapt to the standards by submission due to their susceptibility within their environment. Throughout the course of the film, Older Sister, Younger Sister and Brother are met with temptations. Whenever temptation presents itself, it is human nature to either give in or disregard entirely. In this case, all siblings give into their own curiosities. Father might enforce Nurture, however Nature finds its way into the home. The course of Nature is too powerful for Father to keep out. He continues to assemble borders in between the kids and their curiosities, however it seems the kids are capable of digging through the borders and give into their desires. Nature makes its way into the house more or less in the form of Christina. She is brought into the house for “arranged sex” with Brother. Father sets this up in order to ease Brother's transitional phase into puberty. After having sex with him, Christina approaches Older Sister. Bringing in objects from the outside, Older Sister is fascinated by Christina. One day, Christina teaches her the act of bartering. In return for Christina's head clamp, Older Sister performs oral sex on her. Older Sister takes this knowledge and teaches Younger Sister, offering the head clamp if she returns with licking her shoulder. Bartering is not the only knowledge taught, but also the act of raising the stakes. When Christina attempts to barter with Older Sister again, it is Older Sister who makes the demands for a set of videotapes Christina brought into the house. When Older Sister watches one of the tapes, she later reenacts a scene from what obviously is one of the Rocky films. By doing so, Older Sister develops instinct naturally through observation. This can be taken as a critical jab to individuals who believe media dictates action. In this context, it is not the film itself to create her reenactment, but the strict rules set in place by Father that cause her curiosity towards watching the tapes. Alongside Father's containment of the family, Nature itself adapts within the structured morality. One night, Younger Sister takes a hammer and hits Brother's leg, but when Father and Mother enter, she says, “It wasn't me. I saw the cat with a hammer jumping out the window.” Father suddenly finds himself in a difficult position. He can either punish the son or the daughter: protect the myth of the cat and keep his family vulnerable, or condemning Younger Sister for using the cat as an excuse, thus making him appear weak and potentially exposing his lies. By choosing to punish the son, he does not strengthen his values, but in fact sets an example that it is okay to use his rules against him. One of the rules set in place by Father is that a child may leave the house if their dogtooth falls out. Right from the beginning, the objective is set for all the kids. At one point, Older Sister asks Younger Sister to check the flexibility of her dogtooth. The tension builds to the point where she is forced to take matters literally into her own hands. With a weight in hand, she powerfully knocks her own dogtooth out. The weight itself serves as the metaphorical weight, or pressure compressed on her by the strict rules and harsh environment, and in turn, she uses it to meet the standards of admittance into the outside world. She makes her transition from child to adult by naturally developing the responsibility of taking a stand. It in a way is her own initiation, getting into the trunk, awaiting her freedom, however the film leaves her fate up to the viewer since the film concludes with her still in the trunk of the car. Dogtooth contains a shock value for the sake of breaking norms. In today's society, when popular “shock icons” are Lady Gaga and Eli Roth, who shock for their own sake, then nothing is accomplished. When the idea of “shocking” becomes a household name, the value diminishes. There was a time when Rhett Butler said the word “damn” and audiences were offended. Now that times have changed and course language has become a norm thanks to crude teen comedies, it no longer contains the shock value it once cast. Some of the best films that shock, do so because they encompass something deep that register feelings of alienation. Sometimes they show parts of ourselves we choose not to acknowledge. Maybe they reveal our own inner dark sadistic side, and the only way to cope with the film is to react shocked. What makes these films different may be the fact we victimize ourselves. In order to find what unease's audiences, one should look no further than their own self and how they function in the twisted world around them. One could see Dogtooth showing no more of a horrid world than our own. Rules are rules, values are values, morals are morals, and dogtooths are dogtooths. Official Trailer About the Author ~ William Lewis I fell in love with cinema when I was a child. The spectacle of viewing astonished me beyond all belief. After graduating high school I went to college and studied acting and stage design at Gordon College. Since I grew up in a small town in Georgia, the closest college did not have a film program, however offered one in Theatrical Arts. Once I transferred to Georgia State University, I was finally able to study my true obsession, but also was introduced to the various fields of Film Studies; specifically, Analytical Film Theory. While surrounded by other like-minded cinephiles, I took every film class I could get my hands on, whether I needed it to graduate or not. I was a presenter at the 2010 Georgia State University Research Conference, where I read my essay "Le Mépris: Cinema as Art or Commodity?" It wasn't until taking a class instructed by documentary filmmaker Daniel Robin that I found my passion for production. In that class I completed my first experimental short, entitled WINE FILM on 16mm. After graduating in the Fall of 2010, I relocated to Greensboro, NC, where I am currently working on various experimental films, writing criticisms daily, and preparing for graduate school.

Submitted 1/25/2011

FAMILY MATTERS
Containment and Natural Course in Dogtooth (2010)

By Will Lewis (Author bio below)

Dogtooth (2010), or as it is referred to by its Greek title, Kynodontas, is more than just a film. It's an experience for the audience, and an exploration into rules, morals, and patriarchal hierarchy in the family structure. The film contains a bold satirical undertone in the way it portrays the extremities within the way in which the family operates. Filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos officially joins the ranks of contemporary auteurs, such as Michael Haneke, Todd Solondz, Christophe Honoré, and Gaspar Noé, who have and still are challenging audiences to submit themselves before pieces that push society's boundaries of taboo and extremities through their representation of sex and violence. Lanthimos joins these individuals by making a film that more than likely will take viewers out of their comfort zones and introduce them into a world of difference, potentially making them vulnerable. Many will either ignorantly dismiss the film as “trite” and “pretentious,” or will be completely disgusted by the violence and sex, and refuse to read into the film, however, one thing is certain: no matter what negative criticism this film may pick up when its distributor, Kino International, hopefully acquires more theaters to showcase, the film does engage its audience. The mere negative responses alone will in fact strengthen the core of the film.

In the film, plot is the least intriguing element, compared to how the film operates and how it delivers open-interpretive understandings. Dogtooth is about a father who keeps his family inside and around the yard, contained by an electronic gate that he opens primarily for him to venture out and keep him family in. There are no names attributed to the members of the family. They are merely identified by their role within the family: Father, Mother, Older Daughter, Younger Daughter, and Son. By doing so, Lanthimos establishes an environment where the characters are deidentified by their individual characteristics. Each character might do or say something in private, however everything always comes back to the family. The family alone is a unit, a strong base that thrives off everyone working together to strengthen its core. While the family may work together, everything is, on the other hand, dictated by Father. And the only way Father knows how to control his family is through force. The film operates on two different levels. The first level is containment and the second, natural course.

Containment is literally and metaphorically shown through moral intent. The fence, set in place by Father, is used just as much to keep, what he feels are negative influences out, than to keep the family in. While his actions may appear extreme or absurd to some individuals, he is doing nothing more than preserving his family's innocence by any means necessary. Every family operates differently. Father reinforces the rule of the house through containment by keeping the family in constant fear of what exists beyond the fence. This is illustrated by him redefining the role of the cat. He paints the cat as a beast, one capable of eating children's flesh, because he wishes to keep the family aligned within his order. “If you stay inside, you are protected,” he tells them after Brother impales a cat with a pair of garden hedge clippers. By getting the entire family on all fours, barking, he sculpts them into dog-like personas to ignite their animalistic side. The father partakes in numerous tasks in order to delude their status to that of a dog. Father brings in Christina to have sex with Brother. This can be associated with a master introducing a female dog to his dog for breeding. When Father discovers that Older Sister traded Christina oral sex for videotapes, he contains his anger, asking her to bring him masking tape. He binds the tape to his hand and repeatedly strikes her in the head. This act can be can be associated with a dog urinating on the floor and the master rubbing the dog's face in the urine. Another example where Father acts with intent to preserve innocence within the family is show in the scene where he plays Frank Sinatra's “Fly to Me to the Moon.” While Sinatra plays on the record player and as he sings each line, Father recites moral subtexts like, “Dad loves us,” “Mom loves us,” “I love my brothers and sisters,” and “My parents are proud of me, because I do my best.” Father uses the language barrier to insert subliminal messages within the workings of the song. Overall, Father makes decisions that better contain the family within the environment and in the submissive grasp of his authority.

The second level is natural course. Being in such a hazardously strict household, the kids adapt to the standards by submission due to their susceptibility within their environment. Throughout the course of the film, Older Sister, Younger Sister and Brother are met with temptations. Whenever temptation presents itself, it is human nature to either give in or disregard entirely. In this case, all siblings give into their own curiosities. Father might enforce Nurture, however Nature finds its way into the home. The course of Nature is too powerful for Father to keep out. He continues to assemble borders in between the kids and their curiosities, however it seems the kids are capable of digging through the borders and give into their desires. Nature makes its way into the house more or less in the form of Christina. She is brought into the house for “arranged sex” with Brother. Father sets this up in order to ease Brother's transitional phase into puberty. After having sex with him, Christina approaches Older Sister. Bringing in objects from the outside, Older Sister is fascinated by Christina. One day, Christina teaches her the act of bartering. In return for Christina's head clamp, Older Sister performs oral sex on her. Older Sister takes this knowledge and teaches Younger Sister, offering the head clamp if she returns with licking her shoulder. Bartering is not the only knowledge taught, but also the act of raising the stakes. When Christina attempts to barter with Older Sister again, it is Older Sister who makes the demands for a set of videotapes Christina brought into the house. When Older Sister watches one of the tapes, she later reenacts a scene from what obviously is one of the Rocky films. By doing so, Older Sister develops instinct naturally through observation. This can be taken as a critical jab to individuals who believe media dictates action. In this context, it is not the film itself to create her reenactment, but the strict rules set in place by Father that cause her curiosity towards watching the tapes. Alongside Father's containment of the family, Nature itself adapts within the structured morality. One night, Younger Sister takes a hammer and hits Brother's leg, but when Father and Mother enter, she says, “It wasn't me. I saw the cat with a hammer jumping out the window.” Father suddenly finds himself in a difficult position. He can either punish the son or the daughter: protect the myth of the cat and keep his family vulnerable, or condemning Younger Sister for using the cat as an excuse, thus making him appear weak and potentially exposing his lies. By choosing to punish the son, he does not strengthen his values, but in fact sets an example that it is okay to use his rules against him.

One of the rules set in place by Father is that a child may leave the house if their dogtooth falls out. Right from the beginning, the objective is set for all the kids. At one point, Older Sister asks Younger Sister to check the flexibility of her dogtooth. The tension builds to the point where she is forced to take matters literally into her own hands. With a weight in hand, she powerfully knocks her own dogtooth out. The weight itself serves as the metaphorical weight, or pressure compressed on her by the strict rules and harsh environment, and in turn, she uses it to meet the standards of admittance into the outside world. She makes her transition from child to adult by naturally developing the responsibility of taking a stand. It in a way is her own initiation, getting into the trunk, awaiting her freedom, however the film leaves her fate up to the viewer since the film concludes with her still in the trunk of the car.

Dogtooth contains a shock value for the sake of breaking norms. In today's society, when popular “shock icons” are Lady Gaga and Eli Roth, who shock for their own sake, then nothing is accomplished. When the idea of “shocking” becomes a household name, the value diminishes. There was a time when Rhett Butler said the word “damn” and audiences were offended. Now that times have changed and course language has become a norm thanks to crude teen comedies, it no longer contains the shock value it once cast. Some of the best films that shock, do so because they encompass something deep that register feelings of alienation. Sometimes they show parts of ourselves we choose not to acknowledge. Maybe they reveal our own inner dark sadistic side, and the only way to cope with the film is to react shocked. What makes these films different may be the fact we victimize ourselves. In order to find what unease's audiences, one should look no further than their own self and how they function in the twisted world around them. One could see Dogtooth showing no more of a horrid world than our own. Rules are rules, values are values, morals are morals, and dogtooths are dogtooths.

Official Trailer

About the Author ~ William Lewis

I fell in love with cinema when I was a child. The spectacle of viewing astonished me beyond all belief. After graduating high school I went to college and studied acting and stage design at Gordon College. Since I grew up in a small town in Georgia, the closest college did not have a film program, however offered one in Theatrical Arts. Once I transferred to Georgia State University, I was finally able to study my true obsession, but also was introduced to the various fields of Film Studies; specifically, Analytical Film Theory. While surrounded by other like-minded cinephiles, I took every film class I could get my hands on, whether I needed it to graduate or not. I was a presenter at the 2010 Georgia State University Research Conference, where I read my essay "Le Mépris: Cinema as Art or Commodity?" It wasn't until taking a class instructed by documentary filmmaker Daniel Robin that I found my passion for production. In that class I completed my first experimental short, entitled WINE FILM on 16mm. After graduating in the Fall of 2010, I relocated to Greensboro, NC, where I am currently working on various experimental films, writing criticisms daily, and preparing for graduate school.