Fem benspænd, De

All of his meddling failed to produce the desired result, which was to force Mr. Leth, a chilly perfectionist, to make an imperfect film.

According to A.O Scott.

A perfect summary of The Five Obstructions.

Good stuff, this film. Not for everyone though.

Inspiring.

It makes me think about how set my ways are. Like Mr. Seth, I always have a particular approach to my work, to problems, to thinking.

It hardly changes.

By imposing these five obstructions to Seth, von Trier wants to violently force Seth out of his comfort zone.

His goal is clearly to shatter Mr. Leth's nearly superhuman composure, to wrench him out of longstanding habits and techniques and to break down his aesthetic and psychological defenses.

He fails miserably.

The irony of it all is that his failure is to get Mr. Seth to fail.

It goes to show how stubborn humans are and how a movement such as Dogme, with its Vow of Chastity can be so valuable to innovation and art.