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The Idiots

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6.5/10 • 568

1998-04-281h 54m

ComedyDrama

Society is the mother of all Idiots.

With his first Dogma-95 film director Lars von Trier opens up a completely new film platform. With a mix of home-video and documentary styles the film tells the story of a group of young people who have decided to get to know their “inner-idiots” and thus not only facing and breaking their outer appearance but also their inner.

Directors
Lars von Trier
Editors
Molly Malene Stensgaard

Top Billed Cast

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  1. Bodil Jørgensen

    Bodil Jørgensen

    Karen

  2. Jens Albinus

    Jens Albinus

    Stoffer

  3. Anne Louise Hassing

    Anne Louise Hassing

    Susanne

  4. Troels Lyby

    Troels Lyby

    Henrik

  5. Nikolaj Lie Kaas

    Nikolaj Lie Kaas

    Jeppe

  6. Louise Mieritz

    Louise Mieritz

    Josephine

  7. Henrik Prip

    Henrik Prip

    Ped

  8. Luis Mesonero

    Luis Mesonero

    Miguel

  9. Knud Romer Jørgensen

    Knud Romer Jørgensen

    Axel

Reviews1

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CinemaSerf Avatar

CinemaSerf

Aug 25, 2023

7/10

I'm really not one for surreal cinema, so after the first ten minutes of this I was starting to dread it. Well, I didn't. It's really quite a fun observational drama that follows a disparate group of friends who live on the outskirts of Copenhagen in an house that their leader "Stoffer" (Jens Albinus) is supposed to be selling. They survive on a diet of eating, drinking, getting stoned and shagged but mostly by implementing scamming scenarios in which they all pretend - to varying degrees - to be, well, idiots! It proves quite a successful ploy for getting free meals, cash - they play well on the embarrassment their behaviour can be for the "ordinary" folk who really just want them to go away! These are partially cynical activities, but they also serve to illustrate just how mundane day-to-day life can be, and with the aid of their new member "Karen" (Bodil Jørgensen) - who does actually, we discover, have some rather more serious baggage - we embark on quite a funny two hours of slapstick-cum-darkly, sometimes debauched, humorous antics. Now, personally, I didn't much like the "Stoffer" character - he had a degree of megalomania about him, but the rest of this mixes the serious with the foolish, the characterful with the banal and raises a smile all quite engagingly - even if some of it can be borderline excruciating to watch!

Media

  • The Idiots backdrop
  • The Idiots backdrop
  • The Idiots backdrop

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Status
Released
Original Language
Danish
Budget
$2,500,000.00
Revenue
$7,200.00
Keywords
mentally disabledstagingnormalityfreedomlifestylecommunetest of courageidiotpublicitysocial controlmockerysimulationbodily disabled personpsychologycoercionfound footagedogme 95semi-erect peniserect penis