Dogville

a mysterious woman named Grace (Nicole Kidman) hides from the criminals who pursue
her. The town is two-faced and offers to harbor Grace as long as she can make it worth
their effort, so Grace works hard und… More
Release date: March 26, 2004 (USA)
Director: Lars von Trier
Screenplay: Lars von Trier
Film series: USA - Land of Opportunities
Narrator: John Hurt
Idioms, slangs and vocabulary used
In his dotage = DECLINING YEARS, winter/autumn of one's life; advanced years, old age
By his own lights = based on his own belief = به صلاح ديد خود
Mutt = a breedless dog = سگ بی اصل و نصب
A tad disappointed = a bit = يخده
Misgivings = doubt = شک و شبهه
Alabaster looking hands = white and smooth
Put aloe on your hands = a kind of gel
Wood shavings = small pieces of wood after sawing
Iambs and pentameters = unit of ↑rhythm in poetry, that has one short or weak
beat followed by a long or strong beat, as in the word 'alive'
Cyclops = a very big man in ancient Greek stories who only had one eye in the
middle of his forehead
Entrancing view = enchanting, bewitching, beguiling, captivating, mesmerizing,
fascinating; charming,
Hymnal = a book of hymns = کتاب سرودهای مذهبی
Doesn't matter a jot = unimportant = اصلا مهم نيست
Flywheel = a heavy wheel that keeps a machine working at a steady speed =
فلایویل – گردانه
To resort to plebiscite = VOTE, referendum, ballot, poll. = همه پرسی
Call us pronto = quickly
We need some counterbalance = an equal and opposite effect to something such
as a change, feeling etc: Riskier investments tend to be counterbalanced by high
rewards. = اقدام يا کار متعادل کننده
Why do you edge away? = withdraw or retreat gradually = تحويل نگرفتن
She was right on the button = exactly right = قربون دهنت =راست می گه
Profit from others' misfortunes = taking advantage of people's misery
He would drive to the gates of hell and back for ten dollars = he would do
everything = زمين و به زمان می دوزد برای چندرغاز
If you catch my drift = do you follow me? ؟ متوجه ای
There will be a surcharge = an additional charge or payment
Copious belongings/lies = existing or being produced in large quantities: He could
drink copious amounts of beer without ill effect. She listened to me and took copious
notes. = دروغ فراوان
See the light of day = to be born = to come into existence
Don't be hateful or reproving = critical, criticizing = ملامت گر
Misplaced augury of conciliation = a sign of becoming friends = نشانه تنش زدايی
Get it all out of your system = relax = غصه ای را از خود به در کردن
Trudge the streets = walk with heavy steps = کشان کشان رفتن
Ominous words = THREATENING, menacing, baleful, forbidding, sinister, inauspicious,
unpropitious, portentous, unfavourable, unpromising; black, dark, gloomy; formal minatory
کلمات تهدید آميز =
If you want to divest yourself, we can accept money = to be generous
Full synopsis
Dogville is a very small American town in the Rocky Mountains with a road leading up to it,
but nowhere to go but the mountains. The film begins with a prologue in which we meet a
dozen or so of the fifteen citizens. They are portrayed as lovable, good people with small
flaws which are easy to forgive.
The town is seen from the point of view of Tom Edison (Paul Bettany), an aspiring writer who
procrastinates by trying to get his fellow citizens together for regular meetings on the subject
of "moral rearmament." It is clear that Tom wants to succeed his aging father as the moral
and spiritual leader of the town.
It is Tom who first meets Grace (Nicole Kidman), who is on the run from gangsters who
apparently shot at her. Grace, a beautiful but modest woman, wants to keep running, but
Tom assures her that the mountains ahead are too difficult to pass. As they talk, the
gangsters approach the town, and Tom quickly hides Grace in a nearby mine. One of the
gangsters asks Tom if he has seen the woman, which he denies, and so the gangster offers
him a reward and hands him a card with a phone number to call in case Grace shows up.
Tom decides to use Grace as an "illustration" in his next meeting - a way for the
townspeople to prove that they are indeed committed to community values, and willing to
help the stranger. They remain skeptical, so Tom proposes that Grace should be given a
chance to prove that she is a good person. Grace is accepted for two weeks in which, as
Tom explains to her after the meeting, she has to convince the townspeople to like her.
On Tom's suggestion, Grace offers to do chores for the citizens - talking to the lonely, blind
Jack McCay (Ben Gazzara), helping to run the small shop, looking after the children of
Chuck (Stellan Skarsgård) and Vera (Patricia Clarkson), and so forth. After some initial
reluctance, the people accept her help in doing those chores that "nobody really needs" but
which nevertheless make life better, and so she becomes a part of the community.
In tacit agreement, she is expected to continue her chores, which she does gladly, and is
even paid small wages in return. Grace begins to make friends, including Jack, who
pretends that he is not blind. Grace tricks him into admitting that he is blind, earning his
respect. After the two weeks are over, everyone votes that she should be allowed to stay.
But when the police arrive to place a "Missing" poster with Grace's picture and name on it on
the mission house, the mood darkens slightly. Should they not cooperate with the police?
Still, things continue as usual until the 4th of July celebrations. After Tom awkwardly admits
his love to Grace and the whole town expresses their agreement that it has become a better
place thanks to her, the police arrive again to replace the "Missing" poster with a "Wanted"
poster. Grace is now wanted for participation in a bank robbery. Everyone agrees that she
must be innocent, since at the time the robbery took place, she was doing chores for the
townspeople every day.
Nevertheless, Tom argues that because of the increased risk to the town now that they are
harboring someone who is wanted as a criminal, Grace should provide a quid pro quo and
do more chores for the townspeople within the same time, for less pay. At this point, what
was previously a voluntary arrangement takes on a slightly coercive nature as Grace is
clearly uncomfortable with the idea. Still, being very amenable and wanting to please Tom,
Grace agrees.
At this point the situation worsens, as with her additional workload, Grace inevitably makes
mistakes, and the people she works for seem to be equally irritated by the new schedule and
take it out on Grace. The situation slowly escalates, with the male citizens making small
sexual advances to Grace and the female ones becoming increasingly abusive. Even the
children are perverse: Jason (Miles Purinton), the perhaps 10-year-old son of Chuck and
Vera, asks Grace to spank him, until she finally complies after much provocation. Soon
thereafter Chuck returns home and rapes Grace, as it becomes obvious that she is hardly
able to defend herself against exploitation.
After Tom discusses the possibility of escape with her, Grace is blamed by Vera both for
spanking Jason and for being raped by Chuck. In revenge, Vera threatens Grace with
destroying the porcelain figurines created by the town shop that she had acquired with the
little wages she was given, Grace begs for mercy, reminding Vera of how she taught her
children about stoicism. In response, Vera challenges Grace to stand up without shedding a
tear while she destroys the first two of the porcelain figurines. Grace not being able to hold
her tears, Vera destroys the remaining figurines. The symbol of her belonging in the town
gone, she now knows that she must leave. With the help of Tom and Ben, the freight driver,
she attempts escape in his apple truck, only to find herself raped by Ben and then returned
to the town.
The town agrees that they must not let her escape again. The money that she used to pay
Ben had been taken by Tom from his father, and Grace is blamed for the theft. Tom refuses
to come forward because, he explains, this is the only way he can still protect Grace without
people getting suspicious. At this point, Grace's status as slave is finally confirmed as she is
collared and chained to a large iron wheel which she must carry around with her, too heavy
to allow her to move anywhere outside the town. More humiliatingly still, a bell is attached to
her collar and announces her presence wherever she goes. Tom is the only male citizen of
the town that does not rape her.
This culminates in a late night general assembly in which Grace following Tom's suggestion
relates calmly all that she has endured from everyone in town. Embarrassed and in complete
denial, the townspeople finally decide to get rid of her. When Tom informs Grace to console
her, he attempts to make love to her, having been the only adult male townperson who
hasn't had sex with her. Grace, however, refuses to have sex with him. Angry partly at
Grace's rejection, but even more at himself for his realization that he would eventually stoop
to force himself upon her like everyone else in the town, Tom ends up personally calling the
mobsters, and later proposes to unanimous approval that she be locked up in her shack.
When the mobsters finally arrive, they are welcomed cordially by Tom and an impromptu
committee of other townspeople. Grace is then freed and we finally learn who she really is:
the daughter of a powerful gang leader who ran away because she could not stand her
father's dirty work. Her father confronts her in his big limousine and tells her that she is
arrogant for not holding others to the same high standards to which she holds herself. At first
she refuses to listen, but as she looks again upon the town and its people, she is compelled
to agree: she would have to condemn them to the worst possible punishment if she held
them to her own standards, and it would be inhumane not to do so.
So she accepts to be again her father's daughter, and immediately demands that the whole
town be eliminated. In particular, she gives the order to have Vera look on at the murder of
each of her children, having been told that it would stop if she can hold back her tears. The
film ends in a crescendo of violence: the town is burned and all its citizens are brutally
murdered by the gangsters on direct order from Grace, with the exception of Tom, whom she
kills personally with a revolver. As the ashes of Dogville smolder around her, she finds and
spares the only surviving resident, Moses the Dogville dog. Ironically, the only "dog" that
hasn't wronged her was the town dog that had disappeared while the town was revealing its
true nature. (Imdb)