THE MALE GAZE IN THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT: AN ANALYSIS OF LARS VON TRIER’S INTERMEDIAL STYLE

UMA ANÁLISE DO ESTILO INTERMIDIÁTICO DE LARS VON TRIER

Abstract

The film is a type of media that has evolved in diversified ways throughout time. Some directors present their signatures on every production, allowing the audience to recognize their styles. Recently, Lars Von Trier’s signature on-screen has promoted heated debates. He challenged critics with his choice for controversial themes and intense use of external references, both literary and artistic. This paper aims at delving into Von Trier’s film The House That Jack Built (2018) to scrutinize the journey of a serial killer and his cruel crimes, focusing especially on the intermedial references and the masculine gaze. The notion of auteur, drawn by André Bazin (1957), studies on intermediality by Irina Rajewsky (2005) and Werner Wolf (2005), and cinematic gaze by Robert Stam (1992) and Todd Mcgowan (2003) compose the theoretical bases of this paper. This study shows that intermediality and the cinematic male gaze, fundamental elements of the director’s style, sustain the construction of his unique signature in the aforementioned production.