Menthe: The Benefactor (1979)

• 49%
• 1979
• Drama
• Inger Hvidtfeldt
• Annette Linnet
• Carl-Henrik Trier

Based on the sadomasochistic novel by Dominique Aury, "Story of O", tells the story of a voluntary female submission. But it also draws on the narrative style of Marguerite Duras as if retouched by Jean Genet. The title has been translated into English as Minze - the fairies but it would probably be more accurate (if apparently awkward) to translate it as Mint - the blessed one. The question of the addressee's name is disputed through the dialogic narrative that unfolds as Menthe' ' s history is elliptically told by the speaker, who attempts to entice her to travel with her to the "South". Besides the ecstatically mutilated woman who reappears at the center of von Trier's Golden Heart trilogy and in the figures of "Grace" and "She", this film also introduces the Ascension pattern which has its counterpart in the final shot of The Orchid Gardener also where the Dreyer-esque "Jew" appears to impale the film itself as if it were "Vampyr".