Episode 312: DOGVILLE (2003)

Trylove

Content warning: This episode includes references to and discussion of sexual assault.

Happy first episode of 2025! Here’s a discussion of a movie where a series of horrendous things happen.

In Lars von Trier’s DOGVILLE, Nicole Kidman plays a stranger seeking escape from gangsters in the Rocky Mountains. Luckily for her — or not — the humble town of Dogville provides ample refuge, and Tom (Paul Bettany) is enticed by the opportunity to inject some new blood and prove there’s more to his town than the rest of the world thinks. Dogville’s modest inhabitants warily allow her two weeks to prove her value before they decide whether or not to send her packing.

A minimally staged, occasionally grueling examination of good and evil, of desire and impulse, of worldliness and provinciality, DOGVILLE is either a masterpiece or a pretentious stinker. Listen in to find out which we think it is!

**References: **

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#NicoleKidmansFearlessPerformances #DCP

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Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “Happy at Work - Concerto for Oboe in D Major” composed by Tomaso Albinioni, conducted by Allan Wilson, and performed by The English Concert Orchestra from the DOGVILLE soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 312: DOGVILLE (2003)

2:26 - Chapter 1: The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

5:24 - Chapter 2: Tom the podcaster

22:09 - Chapter 3: The townspeople and Tom’s “moral experiment”

33:21 - Chapter 4: Grace as audience stand-in, as bait, as object of desire and derision

44:21 - Chapter 5: Why there are no sets

54:33 - Chapter 6: Americanness, puritanical Christianity, and what Dogville “wants”

1:17:57 - Chapter 7: The Junk Drawer

1:30:46 - Chapter 8: To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 2003

1:34:00 - Chapter 9: Cody’s Noteys: Our 2025 Movie Resolutions