There's a great conversation archived here between Paul Thomas Anderson and Lars von Trier, where they talk about Dogville and other matters. Here's my favorite part:

PTA: Do you remember movies well? I never remember movies well, but I can remember the ones I love, and which meant something to me. I remember Breaking the Waves--I was in the middle of editing Boogie Nights, and I was by myself and it was a Sunday night, and when I saw it, it was really like the clouds opening up--suddenly the sun started to shine, as gray as that movie was. But I don't remember details of that movie.

LVT: That is because what you like and what I like in a film is not a whole. We look at films differently than most people, and that's why we don't remember the whole thing properly. But I like, very much, some of the films that I didn't like when I saw them the first time.

PTA: Like what?

LVT: Barry Lyndon is still one of my favorite films, you know. It's a very strange film, but it's still monumental.

PTA: When I saw it, I thought it was very serious, and then I saw it the second time, and I said, "This is fucking hilarious!"

Which is exactly right.