Under the able guidance of Horst Schneider, Lars von Trier’s “Dogville” (2003) will be shown in Kino Bauer on the upper square tomorrow night. This will be the second movie in the series he has unleashed upon our drowsy town (“The Motovun Cinema,” November 2, 2008). In spite of my initial enthusiasm, a few days ago I started wondering about this particular film, though. Situated at the end of a road in the Rocky Mountains during Prohibition, von Trier’s invention smells quite a bit like, well, Motovun. Even the movie’s title is redolent of our tiny hilltown, famed for its truffles and its many cooped-up dogs that yelp and howl day in and day out. Will anyone in the audience take it amiss that the inhabitants of Dogville are so utterly nasty, too? Will they recognize themselves, perhaps? Will they conceive of this movie as a thinly-veiled attack on their precious selves? And, most important, will they lash out at poor Horst and all of his helpers, including myself? Hard to tell in advance, but such worries are surely not farfetched, for, all things considered, Dogville and Motovun are not very far apart.

Addendum (November 30, 2008)

The movie delighted me no end. I could see it over and over again. Any time, for that matter. Knowing how it ends, and it ends most splendidly, I would not mind the horror that precedes it an iota. As for the recognition by the audience, which I wondered about only a couple of days ago, everything went as smoothly as possible. The recognition was there, all right, but not by the long-standing inhabitants of Dogville. Sorry, Motovun. Most of them left Kino Bauer long before the end. All they will remember is their insuperable boredom. But all the others will know, wrongly, why this particular cinematic delight was chosen for tonight. For it was chosen solely on account of Lars von Trier’s fame. Well-deserved fame, I should add gladly.