Digital Wanderer

I recently watched Manderlay, meaning the sequel to one of my absolute favorite movies - Dogville. By the way, there's some multi-level irony at that link, so don't get the wrong idea.

What do I have to say?
I don't understand people who interpret Dogville according to what they see and hear, according to what is happening on the screen. It's obvious that the director wouldn't spend 3 hours just to spoon-feed the viewer things that are fundamentally simple. Moreover, the narrative feels like a school textbook - first the event, then its explanation, then the consequences and changes from what happened are shown. If it were merely that, Dogville wouldn't be as good a film as it is.
In reality, this is a certain kind of postmodernism. In regular postmodernism, everything just looks like a game of symbols, and there is no "real" meaning. Here, however, what happens looks perfectly logical and understandable, and you could even come up with several plausible explanations for it. Then take it as a moral lesson, which is what many critics do. But personally, I'm left with the feeling that the author gives us the opportunity to perceive the film this way exclusively for the sake of mocking the naive viewer or critic. Nor is it true that "the film contains many different ideas to think about." You can, nobody's arguing with that, but should you? In fact, the film sinks directly into your subconscious, when you yourself don't understand what impression it made, but its influence on you is real and exists, although it contains no "real" meaning, as is expected of a postmodernist film. And such a film is something worthwhile. If in standard postmodernism new meaning emerges thanks to deconstruction, with von Trier it's thanks to reconstruction. Support for this point of view can be found in Lars's interview  or right here in this clear and simple article about postmodernism.

Getting back to the point. In "Dogville" everything really was the way I described. But with Manderlay - I'm not sure. The plot and events themselves are way too simple to embed that same "NLP-coding" into them that lets you befuddle the user. On the other hand, it's hilarious to even imagine, as if von Trier was genuinely interested in racism or the theme of slaves who want to stay slaves ("if you were a slave, you'll stay one for life" - postmodernism everywhere). Naturally, he merely used this as building material for a game with the audience. The bummer is (as pointed out quite rightly by ears_of_tin), that von Trier, using different "bricks," is building the exact same building that he already built once. Everyone does that, no doubt about it, and sometimes it turns out beautifully. But from Lars, you expect more!
Here again, the mocking grin of postmodernism peeks out - von Trier quotes himself in ways both big and small. For example, in Dogville the viewer constantly thinks they understand everything, and the voiceover only reinforces this impression. But in the next moment, the situation suddenly changes. Even though it's logical, and understandable, and more or less predictable, it feels very uncomfortable. And when Dogville ends, the viewer breathes a sigh of relief - they understand everything again - everything's over, and that's that. But with the release of Manderlay it suddenly turns out that everything has changed again, and the picture that had already settled in the viewer's mind is uncomfortably shattered, just like it was throughout the whole first part. True, there are some strange stretches in the behavior of the characters, especially the main heroine, who drearily keeps stepping on the same rake, having taken plenty of lumps in the first part.

On the other hand, it might just happen that the architecture of the new project is different after all, but we simply can't realize it, paying attention only to the construction technology. It might also happen that ears_of_tin is wrong, and the architectural ensemble isn't finished yet, and will only become whole with the release of the third film - it's not for nothing that von Trier conceived a trilogy.

The conclusion is this - Manderlay is a good movie, although weaker than Dogville. But we have to wait for the third part to understand that we won't actually be able to understand anything.