Europa | |
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Directed by | Lars von Trier |
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Cinematography |
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Edited by | Hervé Schneid |
Music by | Joachim Holbek |
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Running time | 114 minutes [5] |
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Budget | |
Box office | $1 million [7] |
Europa (known as Zentropa in North America) is a 1991 experimental psychological drama period film [8] [9] directed and co-written by Lars von Trier. An international co-production between Denmark and five other European countries, this is von Trier's third theatrical feature film, and the third and final installment in his Europa trilogy, following The Element of Crime (1984) and Epidemic (1987). [10]
The film features an international ensemble cast, including Germans Barbara Sukowa and Udo Kier, expatriate American Eddie Constantine, and Swedes Max von Sydow and Ernst-Hugo Järegård. This was German-born French-American Jean-Marc Barr's first collaboration of a series of films with von Trier.
Europa was influenced by Franz Kafka's Amerika , and the title was chosen "as an echo" of that novel. [11] The music, including the main theme, was composed by von Trier's then brother-in-law and frequent collaborator Joachim Holbek, who also composed Riget (1991–2022) and Manderlay (2005).
In the U.S.-occupied zone of Germany after the end of World War II, the entire population is under close surveillance.
A young American of German descent, Leopold Kessler, comes to Germany and gets a job as a train conductor for the railway company Zentropa with his uncle. Leopold sees Germany from the perspective of moving trains, train stations or dormitories. As he tries unsuccessfully to conform to society's rules, he witnesses the country's inner turmoil and the aftermath of its recent past.
Before that, he falls in love with a young German woman, Katharina, the younger sister of Lawrence Hartmann and daughter of the founder of Zentropa, Max Hartmann, who is secretly associated with a group of underground Nazi terrorist conspiracy Werwolf. Katharina invites Kessler to dinner at her half-bombed family mansion. With the help of false testimony from a Jewish American, who claims he was the lifesaver, Max Hartmann receives a clean bill of health and is rehabilitated, but he later commits suicide out of shame. Later, Leopold marries Katharina in the cathedral, but shortly afterwards she disappears without a trace.
One day, the Werwolf group demands that Kessler use explosives to blow up the train. He makes the necessary preparations, but he then rediscovers Katharina, who makes the same demand of him. He tries to tell an American officer about the explosives, but circumstances prevent him from doing so. At this time, Leopold's superiors are trying to test his professional suitability. In desperation, he plants the explosives and sets the clockwork, but pity for the potential victims makes him turn it off.
In the meantime, the occupation authorities have uncovered the Werwolf cell. Kessler sees Katharina in handcuffs. She convinces him that it was he who made the mistake, because there are no innocent people in Germany, since during the war years its citizens either killed or betrayed. Kessler, driven to despair, pulls the emergency brake to prevent the train from leaving Germany, and reluctantly decides to detonate the explosives after all. As a result, one of the trains explodes on the bridge as intended. It crashes into the river and several people are killed, including Kessler's uncle and Katharina. Kessler too is drowned in the sunken train, and floats out to sea.
Europa employs an experimental style of cinema, combining largely black and white visuals with occasional intrusions of colour (which later inspired Steven Spielberg's 1993 Holocaust film Schindler's List ), having actors interact with rear-projected footage, and layering different images over one another to surreal effect. The voice-over narration uses an unconventional second-person narrative imitative of a hypnotist.
The film's characters, music, dialogue, and plot are self-consciously melodramatic and ironically imitative of film noir conventions.
Morando Morandini writes: "More than the characters, what counts is the technical-formalistic apparatus: color contrasted with black and white, superimpositions, distorting lenses, dynamic camera, expressionistic-style set designs. Anti-German in substance, it is profoundly German in form". [12]
The film was shot throughout Poland (Chojna Cathedral (Marienkirche) and the Chojna Roundhouse) and in Denmark (Nordisk Film studios, Copenhagen and the Copenhagen Dansk Hydraulisk Institut). The cathedral where the main characters are getting married is that of Chojna, whose roof was destroyed by the Soviet army during the war.
Von Trier's production company, Zentropa Entertainments, is named after the sinister railway network featured in this film, which is in turn named after the real-life train company Mitropa.
Europa was released as Zentropa in North America to avoid confusion with Europa Europa (1990).
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The film received largely positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an 82% score based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. [13]
The Lexicon of International Film gave a positive review: "A straightforwardly told mixture of thriller and melodrama, which is based on the classic role models of the genres, but goes beyond the given limits due to its unusual visual creative will. At the same time, an attempt is made to use film as a means of mass suggestion. Worth seeing because of the optically sophisticated form". [14]
The film won three awards at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival (Best Artistic Contribution, Jury Prize, and Technical Grand Prize). [10] Upon realizing that he had not won the Palme d'Or, von Trier gave the judges the finger and stormed out of the venue. [15]
In 1991, the film received the Grand Prix for Best Film at Film Fest Gent.
The Criterion Collection released the film on DVD in 2008. The package contained several documentaries on the film and an audio commentary by von Trier. In 2023, Criterion released a 4K restoration of the film as part of the Blu-ray box set, Lars von Trier's Europe Trilogy. [16]
Lars von Trier is a Danish film director and screenwriter.
Dancer In The Dark is a 2000 musical psychological tragedy film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It stars Icelandic musician Björk as a factory worker who suffers from a degenerative eye condition and is saving for an operation to prevent her young son from suffering the same fate. Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Cara Seymour, Peter Stormare, Siobhan Fallon Hogan and Joel Grey also star. The soundtrack for the film, Selmasongs, was written mainly by Björk, but a number of songs featured contributions from Mark Bell and some of the lyrics were written by von Trier and Sjón.
The Element of Crime is a 1984 experimental neo-noir crime film co-written and directed by Lars von Trier. It is the first feature film directed by von Trier and the first installment of the director's Europa trilogy – succeeded by Epidemic (1987) and Europa (1991).
Ernst-Hugo Alfred Järegård was a Swedish actor.
Riget is a Danish absurdist supernatural horror miniseries trilogy created by Lars von Trier and Tómas Gislason. Set in the neurosurgical ward of Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet, each episode of the show follows the hospital's eccentric staff and patients as they encounter bizarre and sometimes supernatural phenomena. The series is notable for its wry humor, its muted sepia colour scheme, and the appearance of a chorus of dishwashers with Down syndrome, who discuss in intimate detail the strange occurrences in the hospital. The main theme's song was written by von Trier himself.
Breaking The Waves is a 1996 psychological romantic melodrama film directed and co-written by Lars von Trier and starring Emily Watson in her feature film acting debut, and with Stellan Skarsgård, a frequent collaborator with von Trier.
Epidemic is a 1987 Danish experimental medical dark comedy-horror film co-written and directed by Lars von Trier; it is the second installment of Trier's Europa trilogy, following The Element of Crime (1984) and succeeded by Europa (1991).
Denmark has been producing films since 1897 and since the 1980s has maintained a steady stream of product due largely to funding by the state-supported Danish Film Institute. Historically, Danish films have been noted for their realism, religious and moral themes, sexual frankness and technical innovation.
Udo Kierspe, known professionally as Udo Kier, is a German actor. Known primarily as a character actor, he has appeared in more than 220 films in both leading and supporting roles throughout Europe and the Americas. He has collaborated with acclaimed filmmakers such as Lars von Trier, Gus Van Sant, Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Walerian Borowczyk, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Dario Argento, Tom Shadyac, Charles Matton, Guy Maddin, Alexander Payne, and Paul Morrissey.
Barbara Sukowa is a German actress of screen and stage and singer. She has received three German Film Awards for Best Actress, three Bavarian Film Awards, Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, Venice Film Festival Award, as well as nominations for European Film Awards, César Awards and Grammy Awards.
The Europa trilogy is an experimental film trilogy created by Danish writers Lars von Trier and Niels Vørsel, comprising his three feature films The Element of Crime (1984), Epidemic (1987) and Europa (1991).
Zentropa, or Zentropa Entertainments, is a Danish film company started in 1992 by director Lars von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen. Zentropa is named after the train company Zentropa in the film Europa (1991), which started the collaboration between von Trier and Jensen.
The Bavarian Film Awards have been awarded annually since 1979 by the state government of Bavaria in Germany. They are among the most highly regarded awards for filmmaking achievement in Germany. There are several categories for actors and actresses.
Antichrist is a 2009 art horror film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a married couple who experience the accidental death of their infant son, after which they retreat to a cabin in the woods to grieve, where the man experiences strange visions and the woman manifests increasingly violent sexual behavior and sadomasochism. The narrative is divided into a prologue, four chapters, and an epilogue.
Dogme 95 is a 1995 avant-garde filmmaking movement founded by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity". These were rules to create films based on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, and excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology. It was supposedly created as an attempt to "take back power for the directors as artists", as opposed to the studio. They were later joined by fellow Danish directors Kristian Levring and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, forming the Dogme 95 Collective or the Dogme Brethren. Dogme is the Danish word for dogma.
Melancholia is a 2011 science fiction drama film written and directed by Lars von Trier and starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Kiefer Sutherland, with Alexander Skarsgård, Brady Corbet, Cameron Spurr, Charlotte Rampling, Jesper Christensen, John Hurt, Stellan Skarsgård, and Udo Kier in supporting roles. The film's story revolves around two sisters, one of whom marries just before a rogue planet is about to collide with the Earth. Melancholia is the second film in von Trier's unofficially titled Depression Trilogy. It was preceded in 2009 by Antichrist and followed by Nymphomaniac in 2013.
Dimension is a 2010 Danish unfinished gangster film written and directed by Lars von Trier. Production began in 1990, the film was shot in over six years from 1991 to 1997. The original intention was to continue production in four-minute segments every year for a period of 33 years for a final release in 2024. In 2002, von Trier lost interest in the project after the death of Cartlidge, Constantine, and Hugo Järegård. The unfinished film consists of the completed footage as a short film at the time, the rest of the film's development was abandoned without them.
Nymphomaniac MANIAC onscreen and in advertising) is a 2013 erotic art film written and directed by Lars von Trier. The film stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Jamie Bell, Uma Thurman, Jean-Marc Barr, Willem Dafoe, Connie Nielsen, and Mia Goth in her debut. Separated as two-part films, the plot follows Joe, a self-diagnosed "nymphomaniac," who recounts her erotic experiences to a bachelor who helps her recover from an assault. The narrative chronicles Joe's promiscuous life from adolescence to adulthood and is split into eight chapters told across two volumes. The film was originally supposed to be only one complete entry, but, because of its length, von Trier made the decision to split the project into two separate films. Nymphomaniac was an international co-production of Denmark, Belgium, France, and Germany.
The House That Jack Built is a 2018 psychological horror art film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It stars Matt Dillon, Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Sofie Gråbøl, Riley Keough, and Jeremy Davies. Its plot follows Jack (Dillon), a serial killer who, over a 12-year period from the late 1970s into 1980s, commits numerous murders in the U.S. state of Washington. Utilizing Dante's Inferno as a metatext, the film is structured as a series of flashback vignettes relayed by Jack to the Roman poet Virgil, during which Jack attempts to make an argument for his crimes.
Coproduction Office, founded in 1987, is composed of four production divisions in Berlin, Paris, Copenhagen and London, and an international sales company, all specialised in Auteur Cinema. Coproduction Office’s founder Philippe Bober has produced forty films to date with twelve of these having been selected to screen in Competition in Cannes, winning two Golden Palms: Triangle of Sadness and The Square both by Ruben Östlund.