The Second Danish to Danish Part II

Into Something Unexpected

    After burning my retinas while trying to distinguish certain shapes through the sepia tint of The Element of Crime, I didn't know much what to expect for Lars Von Trier's second movie. 

 

when one watches The Element of Crime

    I mean, I did have an idea of what the second film was going to be but only from a strictly surface point of view. Though let us take a look at what it could have meant seeing it back then when his second film Epidemic came out in 1987.

The Unexpected Follow Up

    1987. Cannes Film Festival. As an imaginary film fan that doesn't exist at festivals like this, you try to catch as many screenings as you can. You check out Barbet Schroeder's Barfly and are surprised to see a Cannon films playing as you have heard through the grapevine that its looking like the writing is on the wall for Cannon films production. You check out Wim Wenders Wings of Desire and believe again that films have something worthwhile to tell. Then you notice something playing in the Un Certain Regard section; Lars Von Trier's Epidemic

    Okay you think. I like The Element of Crime. Strong debut for a new voice in the cinema that is full of old men that don't know when to give it up. Though this thought will be one of diminishing value as you get older and realize that Martin Scorsese is pulling off feats of magic in his older age but this realization will only come in time when you yourself get old as shit. So you get yourself some popping corn, do they even have this at Cannes?, and sit yourself down and watch the following:

The Film

    Lars Von Trier and his writing buddy Niels Vørsel go about in trying to write a new screenplay in the span of one work week. This obviously taking place in another timeline where their script entitled 'The Policeman and The Whore' aka The Element of Crime became corrupted data on a 5 inch floppy drive and they have to start from scratch. The funniest part of the entire film being that Von Trier admitting that he didn't care much for the script but could admit there was a few parts that were good.

    The week goes on and as they start brainstorming, they come up with the story of a plague starting to spread with an idealist doctor as the main character wanting to go out into the world and try to cure it. Though as Von Trier states as they create their timeline of the film in progress, this all taking place in a fun scene of a camera pointing at a wall and the two writers are physically painting a line across a wall, that it should be the idealist himself should be the one who is in fact spreading the disease. Soon enough, a sickness starts to spread in the actual world they live in and now blurs the line of reality as to fiction bleeding into the real world.

The Initial Reaction

    My imaginary time traveling self would be very confused as to what the fuck I just got finished watching. I travel all the way to the bum end of France to see this? I mean, I always enjoyed these type of meta films that go about in showcasing the process of making a film. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. No examples come to mind at the moment but I'm sure if I place my brain to work that something should come up. Hopefully something before the end of this review but I digress.

    To see this would leave me wondering if the boy Von Trier shot his load with the first film. Then I would go about enjoying the other films in the festival with this bad taste in your mouth.

In the Initial Reaction in the Actual Present

    Watching this in the now of 2026 with Von Triers entire filmography existing to compare and contrast one film to another, there is something more here but before I get into it, let me just say what I thought of the film; I very much enjoyed it.

    The cuts between the two films with the movie they are speculating shot in beautiful 35mm while the reality of the writers trying to write something seems to have been shot in 16mm that was then blown up to 35mm. The amount of grain between the two sequences being the biggest indicator. Or maybe I'm just bullshitting. Not too sure. Anyway, it all looks great.

    Also, the fact that Von Trier was either needing or wanting to place himself at the center of it makes far more interesting being that the world knows about those depression episodes that debilitate him but maybe this was before he was suffering from those symptoms that DJ Khaled proclaimed to have. 

 

Lars Von Trier after Breaking the Waves

    Seeing what I can only assume is his process by being a guy yammering to his buddy about wanting to make a film, he makes a pretty decent main character to follow. He also becomes the star of the disease bits as the doctor wanting to try and change the world for the better.

    Then the ending comes around of the virus starting to spread but it means something more. Its of a wanting desire for the world to suffer through this apocalyptic disease in order to avoid the responsibility of having to actually make a film. A real solid ending and one that I am sure many creative types have had when hitting brick walls in their creative process.

In the Larger Context

    Seeing this film being sandwiched in-between his debut The Element of Crime and his third film Europa, I now see the connection. This film at the heart of it all is a cinematic bridge. A true exercise in not only showcasing a filmmaker at work substituting making am actual film but more so of a filmmaker needing to film a movie in order to get the ideas out of his head. A far more valuable source of brainstorming than butting his head against the wall.

    Without this film, it is tough to see if Von Trier would have had the courage to make something like Europa. As it is in this film where the idea of the idealist failing to make change comes to be. Though the bigger implications is that without this film, would he even dare tread into the ideals of the Dogme 95? Something that becomes inherent for him to be placed inside of a box so that he would able to think outside the box. This idea being one that he must have seen in one of his favorite filmmakers, Andrei Tarkovsky.    

    The philosopher Slavoj Žižek had mentioned this idea when it came to the work of Andrei Tarkovsky. That the inherent roadblocks of bureaucracy when dealing with the Soviet Union were the kind that forced a filmmaker like him to have to work in creative ways to pull off a film. Being constricted in a box and having to work against it. Then when Tarkovsky left the Soviet Union for Europe, he was unable to create work similar to the kind that he made since the freedom was something he couldn't comprehend.

 

truly a man to read when it comes to the filams

Important but Minimal

    There isn't too much to say about Epidemic. It's a film that will interest fanboys and completionist of Lars Von Trier filmography but even their opinion would be similar to mine. As a whole, if you need to know the thought process of creation to go from one film to another then give this a watch. If not then give it a pass and head straight to Europa. 

A Journey Into the Danish Part 1

What Has Come Is All That Will Be

    Another night comes along where sleep seems to be nonexistent. Tiredness arrives soon enough when the sun rises but its not enough of a tired state of mind for the sandman to come along and do something about it. Coffee and whatever else to keep the engines chugging along during the work week until Friday night comes along when you can relax and drift into something resembling rest. 

i can't get no sleep

    It was during one of these restless nights when I searching the youtubes for something interesting and came across an interview Lars Von Trier had given on the Louisiana channel. I couldn't remember the last time I had thought about Mr. Von Trier. The two films I own of his come across my vision every once in a while but I never had a true emotionally reaction declaring that I would need to watch one of those two movies right at that moment. The two movies? Keep reading to find out. 

    It was an interview that was conducted five years ago from this sentence being written and even without knowing, it would have been easy to identify that the man has Parkinson's. This kind of disease comes about in showcasing itself even when standing still. It was a familiar sight as I have seen it many before in my personal life. Seeing how the spirit of the man keeps going but the edge is off. For the man I know and love is debilitated to the point of being unable to do simple tasks as they used to with ease. If what I saw in the video is any indication, as 5 years later it probably did not get any better, then its most likely Lars Von Trier will never make another film. 

 the interview in question

    I hope I am wrong but from all of various interviews I have read of him from the past and the various people he has worked with; he always seemed like a guy that reached a point of fragility that a simple break of the mental prowess would cause him to just fall into a deep depression. Unable to work and even when working, just having to profusely apologize for his lack of engagement. Just go look into and read about the production of Antichrist. Troubled to say the least. It sucks but it what is what is.

 troubled production but GREAT MOVIE!

    Dwelling on this reality made me want to finally get around to purchasing that Europe Trilogy that was released on Criterion some time ago. I already own the Criterion DVD's of The Element of Crime and Europa but never got around to seeing Epidemic and wouldn't you know it, it was already sold out & out of print. Goddamn cinephiles.

dammit

    Disenchanted I was at my laziness to buy the movies before this but fate had other desires. I then went about in searching for some other avenue of obtaining these films legally as I am too lazy to do so illegally and saw that UK distributor Curzon is releasing a smaller boxset, apparently they had released a similar bigger boxset last year, with all of Lars Von Trier's films. It is the 22nd as I write this and far later that I post it but on the 22nd, excitement was growing as the next day it will hopefully be shipped out.

    Days passing before that goddamn box was in my hand but now with this boxset in hand, it will be an interesting experience/journey/good movie watching time to go through this chronologically though I would like to say a few words about the first film as it is one that I have experienced.

the box in question

The History I Have With The Element of Crime

    I forgot where I had first seen the strange images of the film or maybe it was during those first few years of Youtube where I was just looking for as many new trailers for films I haven't heard of that I came across one for The Element of Crime.

    Hypnotic, strange, and most important of all; foreign, but not just foreign in the sense of it being a foreign film but more so in the otherworldly sense. These were images that were not computing as a regular film. Watching the trailer unfold, I was seeing something that I hadn't seen before and stuck out as truly foreign. As time goes on and more movies have been seen there are very few films that I could consider to be in the same space visually as this one. I suppose the closest thing that comes to mind is Mandy as the tone of those images reach a similar point of foreign but the feeling that is conveyed between the two films are something entirely different. Where Mandy has a far more hopeful tone in its sense of dread, there seems to be no hope when it comes to any shot in The Element of Crime. Obviously Von Trier's biggest influence for this is Andrei Tarkovsky but I wanted to delve elsewhere.

    And so, with these images circulating in my brain to try and come up with a film that explores the usage of them I just had to find a copy. Traveling through the available locations in search of it but it all came down to purchasing a copy off of Ebay. What a beautiful, maybe 50/50 beautiful, website it used to be.         Receiving my copy and trying to negotiate the time to be able to watch it without the oversight of either my mother, who probably could care less, and my older sister, a real witch of a person, looking to see what I was watching on the living room TV as that was where the DVD player. .
    So I watch the film and I couldn't really comprehend what the fuck I saw. The pace of it moved along fine enough and the whole mystery in of itself was interesting as I was also trying to fulfill that need of film noirs but the reveal of the killer didn't seem that satisfying. 

    It was a movie that kept me pondering and thinking but I couldn't be able to make heads or tails of it. I didn't even bother to involve my friends around me to watch it because i felt as though it had fallen too far into the 'far out' type of media that they would ever venture into enjoying. Though as time went on, we would all enjoy the spectacle of something like El Topo so maybe there was time to bring it up again before we all went all separate ways in life but c'est la vie.

Watching The Element of Crime for What Feels Like the First Time 

watching the film now

    I put in the movie and the initial feelings of 'aw shit, here we go again' that were rising to the surface were familiar as the opening shots showing off the still strangeness world of Cairo was setting the stage for the nostalgic nightmare to start up.
    The film stars Michael Elphick as Fisher. A former detective that is in the middle of a hypnoses therapy session where he is trying to process a murder case he was called for. The period of time before the event and this hypnotherapy is unsure but the movie doesn't hold your hand as the setting shifts from a hot room in Cairo to a desolate hallucinating world of a Post World War 2 Europe. He is brought in to hunt down Harry Grey, a killer who was thought to have died but apparently is killing again, and does so by following the procedures placed in the police manual The Element of Crime that was written by his mentor Osborne.
    Slowly, Fisher begins to travel down this disjointed memory to solve a murder mystery that will leave nothing gained and everything lost.

From the Film

    I remember being somewhat entranced when I first had seen the film so long ago and watching it now, I couldn't believe the power that the film had over me.
    Seeing the hell world of post war Europe was far more compelling as an older man than a young moron as the destruction was far more visceral for some reason. Maybe since then having seen the various landscapes of destruction that the past wars have brought or maybe because I have seen more movies where the false sensibility of a destroyed landscape looks weak compared to the imagery in this film. I can't say for certain but there is something in the images here that hit me harder emotionally than before.
    You know what this hellscape reminded me of? Apocalypse Now. Not just in tone but in the overall journey, for lack of a better word, that the film showcases. A broken man being jettisoned down this path that he cannot avoid and having to deal with the hellscape of their environment. The plus side for something like The Element of Crime though is that the images feel far more brutal in their godlessness. 
    This world that Von Trier is showing is one where God has left and here were humans rummaging around trying to make sense of it of what was left behind. Everyone and everything is lost as there is not a single drop of hope within any frame of the film.
    In the middle of this godless world is a murder mystery. Now the notion of solving a mystery is that there is a sense of order bringing brought to the world from the chaos that was created from the mystery. This movie negates that notion by creating a mystery that isn't presented in any way as ordinary or orderly. Clues come about in fragments and in those fragments, information that could be gleaned is nothing near something that would bring a eureka moment. There is only obsession and ultimately madness that comes about as Fisher traverses through this nightmare. Slowly we believe that we are getting closer and closer to the killer of these lottery murders until the final realization of the killer is one that deflates the entire notion of bringing order. Flipping expectations on their head so the notion of calling this a film noir seems so strange to me but I digress. 

    The ending of the film after the mystery is solved seems to come out out nowhere and feel like a non sequitur but I actually think its what grounds the whole film. Fisher, after having killed a child and finding out that his mentor was in fact the lotto murderer after Harry Grey had been dead, is sitting in the rain and for no reason other than a feeling that he has, which he doesn't announce to the audience via voice over, walks over to a storm drain and looks inside to see a creature hiding in the dark. Then he asks to be woken up by the hypnotist but there is no one there. 

    Though this feels like out of nowhere, I think this moment is the only time that Fisher is actually seeing himself for the first time as to what he really is. Looking into his bare soul to see a frightened animal. One that has no strength to go on and no one to count on. 

what is left 

   Haunting to say the least but what was fascinating was the commitment Michael Elphick had with this role. I haven't read anywhere or anything in regard to Von Trier and him having issues during the production of the film so maybe, he just clicked with the material. Or maybe he was just a professional the whole time. No clue but as the film is weighted entirely on the performance of Fisher to carry the movie, he does it with a lot of gusto. His narration sounds like a truly broken man retelling a tale and just the amount of rain and general unpleasantness that he had to be in a state of mind for; it's one hell of a performance. What's most interesting is how he plays the main character as someone suffering from a terrible case of PTSD. Whether it was the war or just his life in general state of mind, there is just a consistent state of disarray that Fisher lives in. One particular moment in the film, possibly the breaking point for the character, is where he is driving and as he drives in this frantic state, there are images of bombed out Europe being projected onto him. There is no reference to these images as they just exist but it has to mean something. It has to. 

merrily merrily merrily

 

And So 

    There is a sense of wonder here that I hadn't felt for some time. Feeling something otherworldly. Truly otherworldly. Maybe I mentioned this when reviewing Possession but that movie as a whole was going somewhere else but staying grounded in our reality while this film travels into another dimension. 
    Nothing here looks tangible as grounded reality unless you either place it within a dream world or maybe even shove it into a genre like Science Fiction. The wonder comes from seeing these strange images that create no true logical sense but nonetheless maintain a sense of narrative follow through that enables to keep me engaged in the material without ever taking a second to subconsciously realize that a certain moment isn't working. It all works though depending on how much you care to invest into the film.    
    Just seeing how every shot takes place at night, has rain pumping nonstop, and everything is draped and covered in sepia tone lighting. I could only imagine that the production must have been truly hell. How the fucking a guy like Michael Ephick could turn out a performance like this and not go infuckingsane is just a testament to the movie gods. 

Concluding Thoughts

    What a debut film. There is already so much potential here in craft with what this film manages to accomplish by transporting you into another dimension is something that I have seen fumbled over and over again by veteran directors. Though I must admit that this review didn't delve into the character of Kim (played by Me Me Lai) but I couldn't find a way to delve into the character because there isn't much there. Not even fulfilling the notion of a femme fatale or damsel in distress. She just exists in this nightmare world as someone there. This possibly being the fault of the director as she serves more so a purpose for Fisher to have an interaction with someone more so than form a relationship.
    As I delve into Lars Von Trier filmography, I think to myself as to what a strange odyssey this will be to see the growth of potential and thematic interests of filmmaking that he has committed to after this film.  
    Now as it has been twenty something years since first buying that Criterion DVD with the Spine#80 on the side of it, I am watching it again for what seems like the first time and I can't help but kick myself for not being able to enjoy it for a longer time than now.

Ζει Or How I Read a Novel Before Seeing the Film

waking up in America    

    Another Saturday morning to wake up and see the state of the world. Still no good. Troubling times we live in amigos. Needed a breath of fresh air and luckily for the past week or so Past Francis Booth, who I can hardly trust, went about in feeling the tremors below his feet and navigating down the road of life with a specific goal in mind; To Read a Book. 

Fundamentals

    Compared to last year, I've been pretty slow in starting up my reading habit. It's already March and I only have just three books finished so far. Though I believe I get some leeway since the book I chose to start off the year with that big ass Neal Stephenson novel Cryptonomicon but I digress. 

 Girth Thy Name is Novel

    My second book was then King Rat by James Clavell which felt like something you would place against a film like The Great Escape and showcase the hell of a World War 2 POW Camp in the Pacific Theater.

 the copy i was reading with its green tinted pages

    Then after reading those two novels, I decided that I need to go further into my reading list or what can also be referred to as the books I purchased with the intent of reading but never getting around to it and just kept adding them to the infinite void of books I will eventually get around to reading. All of this to say that I finally got to reading Z by Vassilis Vassilikos and being that this is a place where I review films, I decided that it was about time to give the movie a watch as that existed on my to watch list for the longest time as well

The Novel

    The basic plot of the novel revolves around this progressive deputy/political powerhouse by the name of Z who after giving a speech imploring for a better tomorrow against the current totalitarian democracy that is running the country of Greece is assassinated. This event taking up the first part of the novel with the rest of the novel dealing with the conspiracy around his murder, first acknowledged as an accident, starting to unfold involving those in power pulling the strings of men who only just need a push to get a job done. The kind of guys that don't care how much dirt, or blood, will get on their hands.

    The tone of the novel shifting between the procedural moments of an investigator and reporter digging more and more into the crime to uncover the truth to moments of characters dealing with the tragedy. Something I didn't really expect to see when having first picked up the novel but reflecting back on those moments, probably opened up a bigger understanding in my brain on how to tell a story.

how i see myself after reading the tender moments in Z

    What also fascinated me about the novel is how the passage of time is presented via these tender moments of the wife longing for her dead husband or through the various other characters that can't help but think of Z and the power he resonated in their hearts.

    For the wife moments, you realize the truth regarding the state of their marriage as it was nowhere near being the perfect marriage. Which goes a long way in showcasing how even perfection escapes the legacy of a martyr but even so, there was so much love and the pain that now comes and goes the more you read. Theses moments of growth that would be impossible to see if the novel had been a run of the mill police procedural and ultimately she reaches this moment of acceptance and has to make a decision to move forward in life. This moment being the end of the novel and it was an ending that I didn't even know I needed more so than the conclusion of the investigation into the death.

    The lyrical nature of the novel, I had to read a translation as I am uncultured, left me with the opinion that the novel itself is a memorial and letter of love towards the memory of the actual politician whose unfortunate end prompted the need to write this. How the death created this feeling of hope lost that stays present even as the conspiracy unfolds but ultimately hope is revived by the end even though the aftermath of the investigation itself left everything up in the air. Nothing is certain as to the consequences for those involved except that no one person in the eyes of Justice is truly placed as the singular figure to take the blame. At least, not enough to be considered guilty of masterminding and facing the consequences of their action. 

    Bittersweet in the grand scheme of things but hope comes from the fact that Z is now forever. Z lives becomes the go to phrase and with that fire going, it will never go out. Now, after having finished the novel it was time to give the movie a watch.

The Film

    Z is directed by Costa-Gavras, who would go on to make a career with such fantastic political thrillers such as State of Siege and The Confession, who adapts the novel with Jorge Semprun and has to shoot it in Algiers due to not being able to film in Greece because of the right-wing government that was running the place. With Yves Montand playing the title character of Z and Jean-Louis Trintignant as The Examining Magistrate the film shifts the novel into a different direction but nonetheless a cinematic one.

   A straight from novel to film adaptation seems impossible. To capture those highs and lows of the assassination to the funeral and having to change from the multiple point of views from the various characters would cause the script to have something like 300 pages to truly get the job done right of a straight adaptation. Maybe a miniseries could work but the problem with that is that modern day television looks terrible and dead so it most likely would be a faithful adaptation that was shot with digital muted tones. Which makes me sick just thinking about it.

    And so with the jettison of the lyrical nature of the novel the film shifts into the world of documentary styled filmmaking. Something that would set the standard for political thrillers to follow after its release. For looking at a list of political thrillers, its easy to connect the dots of this film having an influence on something like All The President's Men and Traffic. This film also having often being repeated as an influence on William Friedkin when going about in filming The French Connection. What influenced this film though? I figure Roberto Rossellini's films played a role but most likely 1965's The Battle of Algiers was a big influence on the film but I'm only guessing. You should go see that movie too. It's great.  

it's pretty great 

 

    Moving away from the slowly unfolding narrative is having this film play more along the way of a crime being solved. The novel leaves little as far as mystery is concerned as a lot of the set up to the assassination you read about beforehand and then the crime happens. It wasn't written in a way to thrill you in trying to figure out the criminals but more so deals with the aftermath of what the assassination means to those that care before ultimately reaching the end when the entire conspiracy is told via a letter written by one of the main persons in the conspiracy. 

     

    The film starts off with leaving the audience having to play catch up as we see leftists scramble to get a venue for Z to give his speech while government officials are surviving a speech about mildew that must be destroyed much like communism. Then Z gives his speech as the film builds up to the moment of the assassination. With the rest of the film, about an hour and forty or so minutes, having The Examining Magistrate going about in slowly unfolding the events that occurred. A reporter showing up as in the novel to investigate the assassination but the movie now using flashbacks from the various testimonies to have both the main characters and audience discover the reasons at the same time.

    The biggest bummer of the film though is that it jettisons the real emotional weight of the wife's arc. There is a moment right after the death when she appears and its her silent suffering that really sets the tone for this arc to occur but she leaves the film and doesn't appear until the end and thats a shame.

    Overall though, its fantastic with an ending that goes about in showing the actors and the real people they are playing side by side. A person reading off the end results of the investigation with the strange high amount of suicides regarding various witnesses, the lack of convictions, and ultimately the right wing government taking over the country to make it all moot. The film then shows the now restricted list of banned books, music, teachings of philosophers and other works of art but most importantly, they had ban the letter Z as Z, a slogan for He Lives, references the martyred deputy.

The End

    A great book that transforms into a great movie with being able to coexist for anyone interested. I couldn't believe I waited so long to give it a watch but I am glad that I did sit down and read the novel beforehand. Now onto the next question that will be split into 2; what to read and what to watch next?