A couple weeks ago I watched the 5 Obstructions again. Up until then I saw it as a documentary about Lars Von Trier imposing obstructions on Jorgen Leth to inspire him to make films, which it is; but I always thought there was something else to it, more profound. This time, since I already knew everything that was gonna happen, I just paid attention to the underlying messages, particularly the 5th obstruction. Then I realized that they did discover something deeper in the human psyche.

First, I think the translation of perfect has a double meaning. Partly perfect in the sense of immaculate or flawless. But ends up meaning more like quintessential, or a common element that makes all humans ‘human’.

And how they discovered this element was thus; Lars intended to help Jorgen to make series of new films by enforcing obstructions on him, thinking the limitations would be instrumental in getting to the “scream” inside of Jorgen. However, as Lars did not foresee, Jorgen used the obstructions to only conceal himself all the more. Largely because he was afraid to make a “crappy” film.

Lars was sure his idea would get Jorgen to fail at some point in some way, causing him to get up, brush himself off and thank Lars for helping him see he it’s o.k. to be imperfect. But Jorgen, being human did everything to avoid making himself vulnerable to the world around him and exposing his inner self. Jorgen did not show any imperfection in his films.

Now, Jorgen is an extreme case, and of course I’m still figuring this out, but that’s my theory. Here is the script Lars wrote for Obstruction 5, which was read by Jorgen as the films narration. What do you think?


You’ll also notice, the only way Lars could get Jorgen to thank him for this discovery was through written script.

In Jorgen's original film, he asks, "What is the perfect human?" I think they found part of it in the documentary.

I think perhaps people may look for external limitations, or at least context, for shelter a lot of the time. For example, I would say Bjork is classic example of the opposite of that. Just some interesting food for thought. Oh, and of course, you can let me know if any of what I said doesn’t make sense.