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Double Take: ‘The House That Jack Built’

‘The House That Jack Built’ is a divisive parade of depraved obscenities, and according to the Double Take duo: it rules. Here’s why.
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By  and  · Published on May 13th, 2019

The House that Jack Built

MS:  Verge asks Jack: “did you build this house to tear it down?” And Jack admits that he didn’t, that it was the result of compulsion and the same twisted energies that drove him to murder. His incomplete house is not great art. It’s a source of frustration and a symptom, or maybe even a cause, of his misdeeds.

AS: I like that. The idea that destruction is, actually, Jack’s failure.

MS: And all the talking Jack does is delivered very confidently and I think this is another wrinkle that makes this film so challenging.

AS: Matt Dillon is so good. Jack believes what he’s saying. And it’s on us to know the difference between Jack’s beliefs and the film’s. Dillon sells that so well he makes the character compelling.

MS: I haven’t seen Extremely Wicked, but I’d imagine it’s like: “here’s a man who can trick people.” Jack does a great job of showing not telling how manipulative and enamoring its psycho is.

AS: The wine rant ends with Jack talking about how a lot of people think the things we do in our art are the things we can’t do in our real life.

MS: This is the part where there’s a montage of von Trier’s filmography right?

AS: Yeah.

MS: As if there was any confusion about how personal this film is.

AS: Right. And Jack says that he disagrees.

MS: Yeah this is a great example of how tricky it is to disentangle Jack from von Trier. That said, I think Jack saying “decrepitude is high art that leads to icons” not actually being true of his own productive life is a huge hint to us about how seriously we should take Jack. The fact that there are folks who took Jack to be the moral mouthpiece of this film—

AS: You’ve got your own issues to deal with if that’s the case.

MS: Maybe it’s possible to think of the “we don’t own up to the icons we create” thing in the context of how culturally we’ve given serial killers what they wanted: everlasting fame. We don’t really take responsibility for that. The last part of the rant we haven’t dug into is the oak tree Verge brings up. It was associated with the poet Goethe and winds up in the middle of a concentration camp. What did you make of it?

AS: I think there’s a bit of this idea that you can’t divorce a moment from its history. You can’t separate the Holocaust from others aspects of history and literature and poetry, but you also can’t divorce this film and its violence from the historical past of violence and how this film talks about genocide. You have to be able to see those parts, to look at these things, and parse them, and figure out what it’s trying to say.

MS: I agree. A lot of people have said that von Trier uses Jack as a surrogate and I don’t think that’s the whole picture. When I watched the film that’s not the impression I got.

AS: Von Trier has done a bit of the surrogate thing with Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) in Nymphomaniac. I think that’s the movie he puts himself in. It was his post-Cannes controversy film and the film starts with Joe being found beaten up in an alley and that’s von Trier post-Cannes being like “I just got fucking wrecked.”

MS: “Hey that’s me. I’ll bet you’re wondering how I ended up in this situation.”

AS: (laughing) Yeah, literally! He’s just been destroyed and he’s like, “we’re gonna pick up the pieces and Joe is gonna go and tell her story” and von Trier is gonna try to tell his story. Obviously, there is an aspect of von Trier putting himself into The House That Jack Built by using his own film clips. It’s certainly him getting personally involved. But he’s not the only director who does that. One thing that I thought of in comparison was the scene in Roma of the kids…

MS: The great Venn-diagram of children and egotistical directors: Roma and The House That Jack Built.

AS: Yes! And these kids who are basically standing in for Cuaron and his siblings, and there’s a scene when they all go to the movies and they watch what is essentially the 1970’s version of Gravity. It’s very similar. And that moment really annoyed me because it felt like in the middle of this film, where Cuaron is purporting to tell the story of this maid who raised him, he’s kinda poking you in the ribs and being like “Hey! Remember when I made a really cool space movie? This is actually all about me!” And Cuaron is not the only one. I think a lot of directors do this. They make films about their inspirations and what they love and they make films about how committed they are to their craft and how talented they think they are. And when von Trier does it, he does the same thing, but the difference is he’s honest about it.

MS: You and I lost our goddamn minds during awards season because people were praising Roma and we were kinda sitting our hands and feeling like no one was giving Cuaron the same criticisms of ego that von Trier got. And people were lobbying these criticisms at von Trier of being an egomaniac and it’s like…have you watched a movie!?

AS: (laughing)

MS: Directors are egotistical people for the most part! Jack is a very personal film, of course it has ego in it.

AS: And Verge even calls Jack out saying “You’re using children to manipulate me.” That’s what movies do, they use women and children and animals to manipulate you. Von Trier is just honest!

MS: And Verge says to him “All the women in your stories are quite stupid.” Stuff like that is why I don’t subscribe to the idea that Verge is just this strawman that allows Jack to continue on his wine rants. Verge pulls us away from the riptide of Jack’s personality. I think there are times when Jack says something very compellingly and argues—not that he argues well, but he uses turns of phrase and rhythms to get you listening—and then Verge reminds us that Jack is telling us these stories, that they’ve been created and what he’s creating is weird.

AS: I think the movie kind of takes the piss out of Jack. There are so many jokes about him. One of the lines I wrote down was “I am also sensitive. I cannot sleep on a sheet with even one wrinkle.” That’s a fucking joke, that’s such a good joke that this serial killer is saying that. And the rant he does where he asks why men are born guilty: that men are always assumed guilty and women are always the victims and how that’s so damaging. He’s saying this while he’s killing a woman. We’re not supposed to believe him, we’re not supposed to think he’s right. We’re supposed to be like, “Oh, no, you’re just a fucking idiot who believes the bullshit you’re spouting.”

MS: Exactly. Matt Dillon’s performance rules.

AS: Yeah, he’s so good. I think that’s why people react strongly to the film: he presents this character in such a compelling way. He totally sells it. He’s doing a great job playing this character who believes his own bullshit.

The House That Jack Built

MS: I think that’s a great way of putting it. I think the tone that Dillon hits is really cool. He’s playing a character who is absolutely convinced that he’s the smartest person in the room, but he also has a layer of desperately wanting people to think that he’s smart. And we’re in on the joke. We know he’s not smart. That tension keeps him from being a protagonist. Full credit to Matt Dillon! It’s really solid.

AS: There are some really good little things he does. In Incident two when he’s cleaned up the crime scene, I love the way he pushes up his glasses when he says “this room should be inspected with a magnifying glass.” It’s dorky! And it undercuts the idea that this is a cool, provocative serial killer. This is some dumbass who’s trying to seem smarter and more important than he actually is. And even when he gets away with it, it’s not because he’s smart, it’s because of the rain!

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Anna Swanson is a Senior Contributor who hails from Toronto. She can usually be found at the nearest rep screening of a Brian De Palma film.