Calling LVT the poster child of provocation is like saying Woody Allen makes comedies. It’s neither controversial nor ambiguous. He burns the mark of the beast into your mind by knowing precisely how to piss you off, get you thinking, and he amps it all up with a boatload of visceral and unforgettable imagery. I know intelligent people who love and hate his films. I think there are good arguments on both sides. They’re certainly not for everyone. 

What I admire about the provocateur are the challenges he sets for himself with every film he makes. The boundaries he pushes, for better or worse. The no-fucks given. His films possess wild, fearless range, stretching from fantastically controlled impressionism to ugly-VHS minimalism, and the collective result always feels like a tap dance between order and chaos. He’s always out to disrupt conformist norms of genre filmmaking. He’s a buffoon and a sadist, a comedian and a fierce iconoclast, and his films, having huge Bergman and Dreyer influence, thrive on that delicate tension between faith and nihilism. 

He’s the kind of director I don’t just recommend to anyone. But if you can take the journey with him, take it. He’s one of the most rewarding and original filmmakers out there.