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Director: Lars Von Trier
Cast: Matt Dillon, Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman
Lars von Trier’s THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT has its North American premiere Wednesday, November 28, with a special one-night-only show of the director’s cut—the same version that was shown at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and prompted both a 10-minute standing ovation and more than a few disturbed walkouts.
USA in the 1970s. We follow the highly intelligent Jack (Matt Dillon) through 5 incidents and are introduced to the murders that define Jack’s development as a serial killer.
We experience the story from Jack’s point of view. He views each murder as an artwork in itself, even though his dysfunction gives him problems in the outside world. Despite the fact that the final and inevitable police intervention is drawing ever near (which both provokes and puts pressure on Jack) he is – contrary to all logic – set on taking greater and greater chances. The goal is the ultimate artwork: A collection of all his killings manifested in a House that he builds.
Along the way we experience Jack’s descriptions of his personal condition, problems and thoughts through a recurring conversation with the unknown Verge – a grotesque mixture of sophistry mixed with an almost childlike self-pity and in-depth explanations of, for Jack, dangerous and difficult maneuvers.
This special one night only screening of the director’s cut features an intro by Lars Von Trier & Matt Dillon.
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155 MIN
Megan Griffiths, born in Athens, Ohio, is a writer/director working in film and television. She recently directed two episodes of the Duplass Brothers’ HBO anthology series Room 104 and an episode of the Epix comedy Graves, starring Nick Nolte. Prior to this, she wrote and directed the thriller The Night Stalker, starring Lou Diamond Phillips as serial killer Richard Ramirez. Her film Lucky Them starring Toni Collette, Thomas Haden Church and Johnny Depp premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was distributed by IFC Films. Megan’s film Eden, based on the true story of a young woman captured into the world of human trafficking, was a breakout at SXSW 2012, winning the Emergent Narrative Director Award, the Audience Award for Narrative Feature as well as a Special Jury Prize for lead actress Jamie Chung. Megan’s feature The Off Hours, distributed by Film Movement, premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. She is the vice president of the board of the Northwest Film Forum and is an active advocate for sustainable production.
