All right, for that, I'm gonna be lenient. I'm going to break two of your figurines first, and if you can demonstrate your knowledge of the doctrine of stoicism by holding back your tears, I'll stop. Have you got that.
Vera
Dogville quotes
Page 9 of 16To plunder, as it were, a God given right. I'd call that arrogant...
Grace
A cleanin' lady for a cleanin' lady? You be talkin' nonsense, Mister Ben!
Olivia
It was such a relief when you turned up and you were the one all the men had eyes for. You know, Tom and them. I've had to put up with it for so long... Frankly, I just didn't have the energy for it anymore.
Liz
I have to get some sleep. My days are gonna be much busier now.
Grace
Dogville is another round of brazen disrespect from cinema's baddest boy. But the movie, despite its ultimate nuttiness, has a quiet, consuming power that sneaks up on you and doesn't go away.
Wesley Morris in The Boston Globe
I do love you, Grace.
I'm glad you love me. I love you, too. I really do.
They are good kids. And I love them. Please don't say such nice things about the kids. I cry too easily. Both in sorrow and in joy.
Vera
Our last conversation, the one in which you told me what it was you didn't like about me, never really concluded — as you ran away. I should be allowed to tell you what I don't like about you. That I believe would be a rule of polite conversation.
The Big Man
My darling Tom. You can have me if you want me. Just do what the others do. Threaten me. Tell me that you'll turn me in to the law, to the gangsters and I promise you, you can take whatever it is you want from me. I trust you, but maybe you don't trust yourself? Perhaps you've been tempted, you've been tempted to join the others and force me. Perhaps that's why you're so upset.
Grace
I believe smashing them is less a crime than making them.
Vera
Sensibly, Grace chose to hope for the best rather than fear the worst, and planned to spend the day calmly washing her clothes and herself, which for some reason or another she was sure none of the characters from Tom's fictitious township would dream of doing.
Stupid or not, Tom was soon a passionate spokesman for locking Grace in her shed that night. If the vehicles were indeed a sign that the call Tom had placed five days earlier on behalf of the community to the number indicated on the card from his bureau drawer had at last led to action, and Grace was now to be eliminated from their lives, it would surely look good if the town had also locked her up.
Grace was lying on the bed when Jason was sent up with the key. Grace heard it turn in the lock, but she was deeply absorbed by arguments and thoughts on matters she had otherwise avoided for the best part of a year now.
What's amazing about von Trier's alienating ploys is how quickly they make the movie enthralling. What starts out as distracting works to bring us in closer to what we should be concentrating on: the passion of Nicole Kidman's tragic heroine, and what her suffering says about the hope of all mankind.
Bob Strauss in The Los Angeles Daily News
Vera, remember how I taught your children... Remember how happy you were, when I... When I taught your children about the doctrine of stoicism and they finally understood it.
Grace