The House that Jack Built (4 Stars)

When the film starts and you hear the voice of a psychopath calmly talking about his crimes you might think that it's a character like Dexter Morgan from the television series "Dexter". Yes, there might be some similarities that we glimpse here and there in scenes scattered throughout the film, but this is a very different character. Dexter Morgan is a fantasy psychopath, a man who has learnt to curb his urges by only killing those who deserve to die. Jack is a real psychopath, a man who kills purely because it gives him pleasure. He tries to excuse himself by saying that he wants to create art, but he's never satisfied with what he creates. In truth, it's an addiction. He feels a rush of pleasure after killing someone, but the longer he goes without a new kill the more emptiness he feels.

Jack's voice isn't as a narrator. He's having a conversation with an unseen character called Verge, who eventually identifies himself as Virgil, the author of the Aeneid. Verge doesn't condemn Jack for what he's done, but he does question the honesty of Jack's motives.

Jack is a killer. He's killed more than 60 people. He recounts five "incidents" to Verge. Each incident is the killing of one or several people. In the first incident he kills a woman he meets by chance. In the second incident he kills a woman he has selected. In the third incident he kills a woman and her children. In the fourth incident he kills his lover. In the fifth incident... I'll let you find that out for yourself when you watch the film!

The anonymity of the victims is shown by the fact that the women aren't named in the film. There's only one exception. Jack's lover is called Jacqueline. Does this signify that he's only able to love himself? Even if that's the case, he doesn't call her by her name. He calls her Simple.

At the same time Jack, who considers himself an architect, has been building a house. He's never been satisfied with the result, so he's knocked it down three times in the last 12 years. Is it possible that Lars Von Trier is talking about himself? I'm not saying that he's confessing to being a serial killer – as far as I know – but he's made three films in the last 12 years, "Antichrist", "Melancholia" and "Nymphomaniac". Are these the three pieces of art that he created and was unhappy with? If that's the case, he's getting progressively closer to his ultimate masterpiece, because "Nymphomaniac" shows great resemblance to "The House that Jack Built". Both films distil extreme experiences, sex and murder, into abstract entities by stripping them of their emotions. Both films have two characters discussing incidents in the past. Both films have unnamed characters. A murderer kills anonymous women, whereas a nymphomaniac has sex with anonymous men.

My opinion that Jack represents Lars Von Trier is strengthened by by the parallels with Dante's Inferno. Virgil accompanies Dante the poet into Hell. This is emphasised in a scene that recreates the famous painting by Eugene Delacroix, "Dante's Boat".

"Dante's Boat", Eugene Delacroix, 1822

"The House that Jack Built", Lars von Trier, 2018

Lars Von Trier could hardly be any less subtle. It's like he's screaming at the audience, "Look! This is what my film's about!"

Is this Lars Von Trier's final masterpiece? I mean in his own eyes, because he's his own harshest critic. We'll have to wait to see what he does next.