TORONTO, March 23 (UPI) -- Nicole Kidman describes working with Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier on his stripped-down, 1930s drama "Dogville" as unusual, yet stimulating.
In "Dogville," which opens in the United States Friday, Kidman plays a woman on the run from gangsters. She finds refuge in a small town and agrees to work for the townsfolk in return for their protection.
Shot in a studio with few sets and props, "Dogville" boasts a cast that includes Lauren Bacall, James Caan and Patricia Clarkson.
"With Lars, you don't feel like you're making a movie," Kidman said in Toronto recently. "You feel like you are entering into a world. Particularly because of the way we did it. We were in Sweden in a very small town and we all lived together and it's more you become part of Lars's psyche in a way. ... You eat breakfast with him. You go to work and you eat lunch together. You are almost joined at the hip and that's a very exciting thing. It's a very confronting experience."
Noting how she was aware of von Trier's "complicated relationship" with Bjork, his "Dancer in the Dark" star, and was a huge fan of his other films, Kidman said: "I arrived there going: 'I'm here. I'm open. I'm raw and I'm ready to work.'"
"It's not about trying to achieve a performance," she said. "It's more he's trying to get inside you or inside your head. It's just highly unusual and at the same time addictive and stimulating."
