Dogville quotes
237 total quotes (ID: 168)Chapter SEVEN
Chapter SIX
Chapter THREE
Chapter TWO
Prologue
Quotes about Dogville
It stalks silently, stark with its minimalism at first, and then pounces unexpectedly with an overwhelming wash of emotion like a rabid animal, with sharp piercing teeth.
Michael Szymanski at Zap2it.com
No matter how you come down on this movie politically, Dogville is a compelling chamber piece with constant cinematic surprises.
Desson Thomson in The Washington Post
It would take a true knucklehead not to understand that Dogville isn't so much Anywhere, U.S.A., as anywhere. It really is a masterpiece — von Trier's first, as it happens.
Glenn Kenny at Premeire magazine
Grace paused. And while she did, the clouds scattered and let the moonlight through and Dogville underwent another of those little changes of light. It was if the light, previously so merciful and faint, finally refused to cover up for the town any longer. Suddenly you could no longer imagine a berry that would appear one day on a gooseberry bush, but only see the thorn that was there right now. The light now penetrated every unevenness and flaw in the buildings... and in... the people! And all of a sudden she knew the answer to her question all to well: If she had acted like them, she could not have defended a single one of her actions and could not have condemned them harshly enough.
If you want my Ma to like you, and let you stay. You'll just have to be nice to me.
Jason
It's a pity that the political point-scoring at Cannes, admittedly fired up by Von Trier's provocateur stance, has diminished the perception of Dogville's artistic worth. Dogville is daunting, non-naturalistic and bold. Von Trier has denied it was intended as an antithesis of Billy Wilder's Our Town; his concerns in the film are bigger than America-bashing. It's a moral parable for our times.
Mary Colbert
A cleanin' lady for a cleanin' lady? You be talkin' nonsense, Mister Ben!
Olivia
You said once, you said once, that there aren't many pleasures in my life. And you know... I go to Miss Laura once a week. And you got me to see that it weren't nothing to be ashamed of. I was gonna go there tonight and of course it costs me. I mean, not as much... not as much as a surcharge for dangerous goods, but still... it does cost me, you know.
Ben
Tom: From a business perspective, from a business perspective, your presence in Dogville has become more costly. Because it's more dangerous for them to have you here — not that they don't want you — since they feel there should be some counterbalance, some quid pro quo.
Grace: That sounds like words that the gangsters would use...
Tom: There is also more of an incentive if you don't wanna stay. See, with all those wanted posters hanging around the place, I can hardly think of anywhere else you could hide.
Grace: That sounds like words that the gangsters would use...
Tom: There is also more of an incentive if you don't wanna stay. See, with all those wanted posters hanging around the place, I can hardly think of anywhere else you could hide.
Is there another way?
Grace
Grace's interview with Jack McKay proved sadly symptomatic of the attitude in Dogville. Reserved but friendly, not without curiosity. Only Jack had expressed his "no" concisely and precisely: Martha needed a monologue almost an hour long to arrive at the same conclusion.
Nobody want's me to work for them. I would really like to offer something in return. You're all running a terrible risk having me here. I mean, I am willing to learn.
Grace
You should be merciful, when there is time to be merciful. But you must maintain your own standard. You owe them that. You owe them that. The penalty you deserve for your transgressions, they deserve for their transgressions.
The Big Man
Whether Grace left Dogville or on the contrary, Dogville had left her (and the world in general) is a question of a more artful nature that few would benefit from by asking and even fewer by providing an answer. And nor indeed will it be answered here.
In which Grace follows Tom's plan and embarks upon physical labour
This first day of spring had also been picked to be Grace's first ever day of work. The day in which she was to set off around Dogville and offer herself one hour per household per day.
This first day of spring had also been picked to be Grace's first ever day of work. The day in which she was to set off around Dogville and offer herself one hour per household per day.