Christian Slater’s fate

Von Trier really has it in for rational, comforting men.

Look what he did to Kiefer Sutherland in Melancholia, Bettany in Dogville. Here Slater plays a loving father who reassures Jo that there is nothing to fear about death and is ready to slip away peacefully - then Von Trier has him go completely insane, barking with rage then sobbing uncontrollably as delirium consumes him. Eventually he is put into restraints and one morning is found dead with faeces all over himself, the bed, the floor.

They roll him over to clean his arse and the last shot of him is his dead face looking at Jo with a creepy maniacal smile.

Von Trier is a twisted genius and this is one of those repulsive moments where he really rubs your face in the relentless cruelty of nature and laughs at humanity’s delusions of dignity, grace, spirituality. It’s made even worse by the fact Jo is regularly getting fucked in the morgue during her father’s ordeal.

I love Von Trier but he’s a sick bastard and loves sticking it to ostensibly decent, stable male characters.