>>213366846
It's about choice. The choice to do good or bad, and the ways in which evil will twist things to try and excuse itself.
Von Trier presents his own pride as his biggest downfall, and parodies himself. His OCD, his depression, and his need to try and make art out of grotesqueries.
The Dante influence is symbolic. The religious core is salvation vs damnation, like most religious films. But this isn't about choosing the grace of God.
It's about being such an evil demented bastard that you spit in the face of all that is good. A Luciferian belief that things can be better under your influence, and that you can rewrite the very nature of art and beauty.
Jack wants to excuse his violence as being a secret method of artistic achievement because he's delusional and egomaniacal.
He values inversions because inverting something shows you are in control. That's why he values negatives over positive photographs. That's why he finds beauty in rot, or life in decay.
He's sort of a spiritual contrarian. A pretentious psycho who wants to get the best of reality itself.
Von Trier himself has this prideful nature as an artist. Wanting to provoke people and have them play on his own terms.
He's damning and satirizing himself, and condemning the worst parts of his conscience to hell.
