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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.