"The Idiots" (1998): How to Love Your Inner Idiot. Film Review.

“The Idiots" is a previously underrated movie for me because, unlike all of Trier’s other works, I’ve only seen it twice. Because it is a product of the then-new Dogma 95, it has a certain aesthetic that can be difficult for the untrained viewer to grasp. That’s what happened to me many years ago, when I put this movie aside and only rediscovered it now.

Let's approach this movie this way: inside every man lives his own personal idiot. A clinical idiot, for sure. And what this idiot represents in and of itself is kind of wonderful: it frees its owner from the constraints of social norms, false values, and helps him experience immediate joy. But what happens when this inner idiot meets in practice with the outside world, with other non-idiots or with the socially approved version of his personality? That's when conflict happens. The clash of fantasy and reality. A tool that should serve to better understand oneself ends up alienating one's understanding of others.

So, remaining an idiot outside of performance art proves impossible for almost all of the characters. The further we delve into the story, the more we see that becoming an idiot becomes a type of escapism for them, but in no way a new chapter of life or a soaring above the ordinary. According to Trier, another human attempt to find happiness only somewhere within themselves proves to be a failure.

So how does one view the transformation into an idiot? That it's a psychological practice,
an unrealizable utopia, an art manifesto, a child's play, or a means of manipulating society? Or a little bit of everything? Trier teases his characters, reminding them that sooner or later they will have to return to reality. But on the other hand, Karen seems to turn out to be the most trudging idiot of them all in the end and goes all the way to victory. Does that mean it's possible? What do you think?