The Idiots

[PatTheRat]

This film was on ch4 the other night, as part of the banned season. I watched most of it but fell asleep towards the end. The last bit I can remember is where the new member of the group (Karen, I think) is visited by her father, and he takes her home.

Can anyone tell me what happened after this?

[MargeB]

DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS FILM YET.

It all starts converging on the film's meaning, which is 'finding the inner idiot'. Anyone can play the fool, or 'spaz (sic) as they call it (sorry, hate that term): but can you do it when it really counts? Can you come out as a spaz?
I'm sorry to say you did fall asleep as the film came together quite well. One by one, the members were placed in situations where they had to act the idiot, but they all failed to do so. Then, the girl who objected to what they were all doing, but did accept the basic principle, went home and really acted it up in front of her parents. They weren't happy, and her Dad assaulted her for it.
I thought it was a really excellent film, threw out all the niceties and got down to exposing social prejudices and just how unskilled most people are at dealing with those who seem very 'different' from themselves.
I'd recommend you see the end bit if you can.

[MargeB]

sorry, when I say 'act the idiot', I mean that they had to do it in very difficult situations....like in front of a loved one, for example. They picked these by spinning a bottle.
I think the whole 'put them together with some mentally-handicapped people' was just a device to make deeper point, which is that the social constraints we place on ourselves, and good manners and suchlike, while having a place, ultimately end up doing more harm than good, because they stop us from showing to each other who we really are.
People who use phrases like 'you're talking $$$$', 'stop acting the fool', and 'you need to start taking life seriously' need to watch this film. Seriously.

[MargeB]

And I just loved the 'jumpstarting' sequence.

[kempie]

MargeB - you forgot to mention the most important detail of Karen's return home, which I think is the crux of the film.

Stoffer challenges his followers to take their life style back into the 'real world'.  Karen rises to the challenge and accompanied by Susanne returns to a family that we always half-assumed rejected her only it turns out that SHE rejected THEM.  We learn of the death of her baby son and that she didn't go to the funeral, presumably because she was with the 'Idiots'. The scene in the sitting room surrounded by her grieving, stone-cold husband and relatives where she begins to twitch and drool is nothing short of unbelievable and heart-rending.  We can see in their chill why she left them but we can also see how horrifying her behaviour is in the context of insurmountable personal grief.  Susanne, with tear-strewn face, can bear no more and tells Karen to stop (I believe because Susanne finally understands that while the 'Idiots' were acting out of boredom Karen was doing so as a defence mechanism).

Also, I thought it was Josephine who returned home with her father, even though she was in love with Jeppe.