Screening the Metaxu: Archetypes of Folly in Lars von Trier's Golden Heart and Depression Trilogies

Candidate: Alice Yao, Communication and Culture MA

Rooted in the idea of metaxu or "in-between", this project looks to Lars von Trier's cinema, which, along with the man himself, has drawn as many detractors as admirers for its unflinching depiction of the extremes of human experience. Focusing our attention on the female protagonists of the Golden Heart and Depression trilogies, this work reads them through the archetype of holy foolery. The holy fool exists on a paradoxical continuum between self-humbling ascetic and provocateur, mocking the world while also revering it. The protagonists are read alongside three of the holy fool's most salient aspects: 1) their display of madness, 2) their vacillation on a continuum of passivity and activity, and 3) their transformational self-emptying. Just as the holy fool does not provoke merely for provocation's sake, von Trier's cinematic extremities are both destructive and reparative.

Keywords: metaxu; holy fool; Lars von Trier; Simone Weil; William Desmond; provocation