Danish Dish 4; The Main Entrée

Into the Unknown I Go with a 4th Danish Feature Motion Picture

Danish Roast Pork with Crackling (Flæskesteg)

    I have been struggling to get through this strange weekend in which I was to spend three days in a foreign city three hours away but circumstances beyond my control caused it all to fall apart on that 1^st night. Spending the next couple days struggling to come up with something to do but when money and time have been wasted in trying to achieve a worthwhile weekend that was meant to escape the horrors of everyday reality, the brain goes into rest mode and doesn't give a much of a fuck about achieving anything worthwhile

    And so it is Sunday and work is less than a couple hours away and with the feeling of hopelessness dwelling inside to face the week ahead, I decided that I might as well get around to watching the fourth Lars Von Trier's film Breaking the Waves to at least try to send myself in a new direction for the week ahead.

    Of what I expected, I had no expectations as I hadn't seen the film before and only ever just heard about it but never about anything that was in depth about it. Especially after hearing all the shit my buddy was telling me about the fucking bells but more on those later.

The Film

    Taking place in the northern part of Scotland in a very remote coastal town lies a very secular and strongly religious group of town folk and in the middle of it is Bess. Bess is a woman with a soft way of seeing life as she retains this sense of child like wonder with the world. She has one on one conversations with God where she would speak to the holy spirit with her eyes open and then close her eyes to vocalize the response from God. The townsfolk treat her with cautious hands as she has had mental issues before that got her committed. Most likely having to deal with the death of her brother.

    At this moment of time that this film catches up with her, Bess is getting married to an oil rig worker. He comes into her life with great affection and a joy for life that is on par with Bess. Living on the same level and just like her, he is the complete opposite of what everyone in town strives to be. Though this guy has no Church affiliation, loves to get his beer drinking done, and can't get enough of making love. They get married as soon as he arrives from the oil rig and the honeymoon is one of fruitful expectations as we see them and know that the love they have will last

    Unfortunately, his job calls him back too soon and through a tumultuous goodbye for now, Bess is having trouble being able to deal with the adversity of loneliness. In her conversations with God, she pleads that he comes back to her. God asks if she is sure about this and she replies that basically she would want nothing more than for her husband to come back. Her prayer is answered as he has a near death accident when a loose pipe knocks into his head while on the job. He arrives back to the remote part of the island and he can't seem to cope with his current situation as he is now paralyzed from the neck on down.

    In his anguish, he asks his wife for a simple favor; that she go out and find herself a lover and retell her tale of the affair to him so that he could live vicariously through it. Without this request being fulfilled, he does not believe he will be able to keep on living. The movie follows Bess as she tries to navigates her way to try and save her husbands life while also dealing with the consequences of the rigid townspeople and her own family that look at her with disdain for acting out of what is expected of her. Reaching the boiling point of her becoming excommunicated from the community. Bess is being torn internally from knowing what to do until having an epiphany that leads to the film ending on a note of tragic that transcends & transforms into an ending of  great spiritual release.

Powerful Impak!

Its why I spelled Impact as Impak!

    Whoa. Mr. Von Trier, I didn't expect you to be pulling off 180 degree turns from your last feature into this. What feels like a completely new ground he has ventured into as the film follows Bess, with no judgment from the camera, to end up with such a beautiful ending.

  The Goods

    There are many pieces of this film that I want to go through and a bit uncertain as to how to go through all of them but nonetheless, I will try my best and so let us speak of structure/style. 

    The film is broken up through 7 chapter breaks with beautiful panorama shots that used with a standing still camera, which the images in the frame are in movement, and 1970's pop/rock song playing along with the image. Setting a tone that feels far more congruent with the film more so than an idea that was shoehorned into the film. Stuff like this can always work against the flow of the film as a whole but it works here. The only film that comes to mind that feels as though it ham fists this stuff into the film was that last Suicide Squad film. Enjoyable as far as comic book movies go but damn did all those needle-drops feel unnecessary and mostly just a point of place to have James Gunn show off another favorite piece of music he enjoys. Here though, its perfect. Working to enhance this strange fairy tale of a story.

    Hand held. That's the name of the game here when it comes to cinematography. There is a beautiful loose feeling to the entire film that goes well with following around a character like Bess. She is far too free in her nature to be shot with camera movements that require a stedicam or a dolly track. The film was made with the understanding that the only feasible option had to be a hand held camera. 

    The amount of control Von Trier managed to give up in the sense of rigid composition to do strictly this type of cinematography must have been tough. Looking deeper into the matter, I came across this clip from Mark Cousins pretty good documentary series The Story of Film where Von Trier was interviewed about his influences.

    Apparently the American television show Homicide: Life on the Streets was a mind blowing event for him as he saw the television show was shot with hand held but that the editing of a certain scene where the it was cut within the frame was something truly revolutionary. The idea of being able to cut within a shot to a shot in the same scene but its not a clean cut.

    What else catches the eye is the strange look of the film. Something that looks like film but then again doesn't? Sepia tones similar to The Element of Crime but not a total complete washing over the film itself to maintain that tint. Warm tones that fall into each frame but looking into the matter I came across this interesting tidbit of information. Apparently, the film was shot in film and then transferred over into digital tape then transferred back to film. Along with Von Trier breaking the 180 rule, cutting within the frame, and the strange tones all throughout. It is a film that was given a true sense of free for all when striving to capture this story as best as possible.

Bess

    Emily Watson. The movie wouldn't be much of anything if they couldn't have someone carry the film and what a sight to see her become this character and create someone so empathetic and what on paper could be seen as just a Marquis De Sade model of a woman being used and abused but without the artistic, is that possible?, integrity of the work itself but Emily Watson really does wonders with the role. She never plays the character as though looking down on her or the situation that she finds herself in. She leads her on  righteous as possible path to the destiny of the character and for that, obviously with the film being so critically acclaimed and such, she deserves so much for the role. It must been real tough to be in this mindset day in and day out as there is no glamour that some actors need to thrive. There is no happy ending for the character as there is only abuse and pain to be endured and for her having to play this character with all this baggage waiting; what a performance.

Music

    The music. The usage of the time music is pretty solid. 

 "All the Way from Memphis" – Mott the Hoople
"Blowin' in the Wind" – Tom Harboe, Jan Harboe & Ulrik Corlin
"Pipe Major Donald MacLean" – Peter Roderick MacLeod
"In a Broken Dream" – Python Lee Jackson, featuring Rod Stewart
"Cross-Eyed Mary" – Jethro Tull
"I Did What I Did for Maria" – Tony Christie
"Virginia Plain" – Roxy Music
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" – Procol Harum
"Hot Love" – T. Rex
"Suzanne" – Leonard Cohen
"Love Lies Bleeding" – Elton John
"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" – Elton John
"Whiskey in the Jar" – Thin Lizzy
"Child in Time" – Deep Purple
"Life on Mars" – David Bowie
"Siciliana" (Sonata BWV 1031 / 2nd movement) – Johann Sebastian Bach
"Gay Gordons" – Tom Harboe, Jan Harboe & Ulrik Corlin
"Scotland the Brave" – Tom Harboe, Jan Harboe & Ulrik Corlin
"Barren Rock of Aden" – Tom Harboe, Jan Harboe & Ulrik Corlin
"Happy Landing" – P. Harmann 

    As you can see from the tracklist, the music in this film is very mixed and very good. 

The Filmmaker in Question 

    What a sense of growth. When it comes to certain filmmakers, you can understand that they are on a certain path of film making that is more or less set in stone. Some of my favorite directors like John Milius, Robert Altman, or Steven Spielberg are like this. You watch a film out of their repertoire and you can kind of get a sense of what they accomplished with just about the rest of their entire catalog. There is no surprise to be had when watching one of their films and you can be guaranteed quality will be there. They understand the craft of film making to such a degree that as long as they stick to their essentials then they can provide a pretty solid movie all around.

    Then there are certain filmmakers that seem to grow more and more as well as take risks in the films they strive to make. Being able to understand as a fan that the next film will be something different than their last. You get a stronger sense of someone wanting to truly strive for perfection or for something more. Akira Kurosawa, Jim Jarmusch, and Martin Scorsese come to mind when thinking of filmmakers such as this. Similarities in style and execution can be seen in between all of their films but the ultimate goal of each film is different than the last and achieves them ultimately in original ways inherent to only those films

    Lars Von Trier, as I write this with under the idea that I have only seen 4 of his films, is a filmmaker that I would place as one of those striving for true originality. Willing to break the rules of conventional filmmaking with the last film. As this film was shot under the rigid guidelines, though very flexible in execution, of the Dogme 95.

    A quick overview of that Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg set down as a set of rules to follow when creating a film. As stolen from Wikipedia:

These were rules to create films based on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, while 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 movie studio. 

     1. Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).    
    2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot.)                                                                                                   3.The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted.
    4.The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera.)
    5.Optical work and filters are forbidden.
    6.The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
    7.Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.)
    8.Genre movies are not acceptable.
    9.The film format must be Academy 35 mm.
    10.The director must not be credited.

     The only other movie that I have seen to be certified as a 'Dogme 95' was Julian Donkey Boy by Harmony Korine. What a fucking terrific movie that is but for another review.

    The overall idea is probably one of the more interesting things to come out of the 1990's when it just comes to art in general. Somebody out there wanting to set a goal for filmmakers to follow and unfortunately, America chose poorly by having Harvey Weinstein shove Pulp Fiction down our throats for the next couple of decades. 

    Though this film is certified under this banner, it is not necessarily following the rules to the letter as certain rules are broken throughout the film. But the overall execution of the film manages to be certified under the Dogme 95 banner as the rules play more so as to be able to think out of the box and experiment. As it is known that creativity thrives when having restrictions to overcome.

When It Ends 

    And what I want to bring up with this striving for originality is the ending. Bess gets herself into a situation where she ultimately sacrifices herself for the sake of her husband's survival. Understanding that God understands and condones the situation and will give permission to allow this martyrdom to occur.         She gets herself killed and with her being the spurn of the town but still a part of them, they allow her to be buried in the town cementary. But her husband already knows the deal about them condemning her to hell and so he switches out the body for sand. 

    Taking her to the oil rig and sending her off into the freedom of the ocean. The husband waking up the next morning and when reaching the deck, hears the sounds of bells ringing. Though it is not only him that hears as everyone else around all stand on the oil rig deck and listen to the chiming of these bells. Then we cut to a shot in the sky as we see this bells from heaven ringing over the oil rig.

Now I Get It

    After watching the film, I now understand the true significance of the bells but not as to why my friend reacted so negatively towards them. The bells are there to announce that Bess has arrived in Heaven and depending on the amount of cynicism that runs through your blood, it is easy to dismiss them. For me though, I welcomed the sound of the bells entirely and really am considering it as a top 5 film of all time for me. 

Future's song 'Mask Off' is a good song to keep on repeat when writing a review about the Lars Von Trier film 'Europa' Pt.3

 Can I Have a Danish with my Kafka?

the all father

    The end of the Europe trilogy is at hand and what a film to end it all on. Now, to those that go about in parading their cinematic knowledge without giving the Wikipedia a glance, let me explain the trilogy as a whole. Shit happening in Europe. The first story was taking a murder mystery and placing it in a hypnotic and hallucination vision of post World War 2 Europe. The 2nd takes place primarily in Denmark as the world slowly succumbs to a killer disease via two writers trying to get writers block for a script that's coming due.

    This third and final entry is one that dives into quite interesting terrain and could be seen as the true blossoming of Lars Von Trier as a cinematic milestone at this time. I don't believe it is hyperbole to say this as this film was released in 1991 and Cinema was going to change for what can be described as the worst of times but at the time, the false assumption was that it was the best of times. It was a time when a strange cloud was forming in the horizon and behind that moon shaped cloud was a film that would have enough force to destroy film for the remainder of the 1990's but before the massacre of Pulp Fiction, film was doing pretty good.

 

if only Clint Eastwood had better taste

    It is 1991. Krzysztof Kieślowski has just made The Double Life of Veronique. Barton Fink has just won the Palm d'Or and upon hearing the news, Lars Von Trier walks out of the auditorium and flips off everyone on the way out. What a beautiful last breathe before the end.

The Film

    Before the nitty gritty comes the plot; Leopold Kessler is an American with German roots. It is 1945 and he feels as though he must do something to help out war torn Germany. A personal moral calling he has placed unto himself as no one is asking for his services.

    He travels to Germany and meets up with his Uncle who works at Zentropa trains. What seems to be the only train service still running during these terrible post war times. He gets a job as a sleeping car conductor, in the first class area, and begins to 'help' out, though what he is doing and calling it help can be considered two different things, as he goes about in navigating through the world of post World War 2 Germany.

    As he continues on his idealist work, he gets himself involved and pulled in various directions; one is a group of Nazi loving saboteur's calling themselves Werwolf's. Another is the US Army wanting to know if he could possibly get any information that would help them in figuring out who is part of this underground sympathetic Nazi group. Then there is his Uncle who holds nothing but contempt for his nephew and wants him to do nothing more but succeed as a sleeping car conductor but as German love goes, its tough.

    Getting pulled in all these directions and then falling in love leads to a climax culminating into the ultimate moment of self assertion and the absolute failure of self assertion when Leopold acts upon his own decision for the first time throughout the entire film which turns out to be the worst one that he could make.

The Nitty Gritty Prelude

    First off let us talk style. This movie has a lot of style. So much fucking style that I gotta break the stylistic decisions that were made in this film. Will it be in order? Of course not. This is free flowing and if you don't like it then free flow yourself the fuck outta here.

The Nitty Gritty Act 1 

    Lets talk about the visuals. The overall mood and feeling of this is in between that of a 1940's or 1950's World War 2 picture like those Humphrey Bogart joints and an art film tipping the line of something commercial and something inaccessible to the layman schlub. It's an interesting take for the material being that those kind of films don't really exist especially during these turbulent 1980's. Then again, this is a film outside of the United States so maybe the world is thriving while the US is lagging and getting fatter while world cinema is getting stronger.

    Though the real cool choice is not only shooting it in black and white film stock which really makes it just look so slick as there is a clear understanding of putting shadows to work and it gives off such cohesive solid look overall but there is a twist to this. There are several moments in the film where the black and white film is being projected into the background and the actors are in the foreground being filmed in color stock. The sort of fading hue that looks to be reminiscent of the technicolor prints of the past. 

getting sick shots like this

    Taking it even more step to the extreme, the film has these moments occur with actors in the foreground interacting with people are objects in the background or vice versa. Having to spend more time timing it so that when they leave the frame, the will appear on time in the background/foreground. Beyond just scenes, this effect is also used to express emotional distress without having to involve interior monologue or anything but strictly visual expressions of these moments.

sick shit all around

    Real solid stylistic choice that feels far more integral to the telling of this film more so than being some pandering to make the film seem more exciting for mass appeal or something cheap and derivative to capture the attention of those with art crowd sensibilities.   

The Nitty Gritty Act 2

    Visually the film achieves so much and now, let us dive into this nitty gritty. There is a theme here regarding the idealistic individual. The kind of the guy that goes about his way, without any sense of wanting acknowledgment for their selfless act, or so they say?, in trying to make the world a better place but never truly considering the limitations of what their goals are.

    War torn Germany is a desolate place. In the history books and in the fictional world but then again, is this the true state of the world after such a war? There is a narrator that follows the character all throughout the film, It cannot be God for this is a godless world. It must be some other force propelling the story forward but we are introduced to this world under the calming voice of Max Von Sydow who tells us to fall under hypnosis and instructs us at the count of 10; we will arrive in Europa.

    And so, we must come to the point that this Germany is one in which one must be under hypnosis to enter and what a fucking hellscape that any idealist would have to deal with in order to make a difference in this world but what is the ultimate goal of the idealist? As the film goes on, Kessler fucks up again and again and yet, still believes that he is making a difference by working as a sleeping car conductor. The world throws shit his way and he still believes in making a difference. Up to a point.

    There was a mention in the previous film about idealists and Von Trier commits to showcasing the failure of idealism at the climax of this film. Spoilers ahead and if you haven't seen it yet then that's a you problem.

    In the climax, Kessler is instructed to plant a bomb on the train as it crosses a bridge. The passengers on the train range from poor civilians, first class passengers, army brass and everyone else that can fit onto a train and thus gives the reason why these Werwolf's want it bombed. Though none of this interests Kessler as his only reason for action is to try and save his wife. This frantic situation being even more so since on this specific trip he is taking a test to be a certified sleeping car conductor. The US army also want to meet him on the trip and have a conversation about what the hell is going on with his relationship with these saboteurs. It all boiling down to him regretfully rigging the bomb to blow and jumping off the train.

    He lies in a field and feels at ease knowing that he succeeded and that his wife will be safe. Believing ultimately that he had no choice in setting the bomb off as he wants to save his wife but then, his good morals get the better of him and he gets back up to chase down the train. Time going against him but with only a second to spare, defuses the bomb and saves everyone on the train. The true action of man believing he can make a difference.

    Turns out his wife was using him, the US Army couldn't give 2 shits about him, and there is little to no chance of him having a chance to pass the test. Rage flies within him and he steals a soldiers Thompson machine gun and fires it into the ceiling. Demanding that the train stay exactly where it is but even with a gun, the world doesn't care and the train continues on its way. It's at this moment that Kessler makes a true decision strictly out of his own need to since he has nothing left. He reconnects the bomb and train explodes over the bridge with everyone inside of it.The train tumbles into the water below and Kessler is stuck in the bathroom to die but before dying, he sees a father holding his now dead son. He had met them earlier when the father was asking for some information and now the last thing he hears is the screams of a father no more. This scream reminding him what his selfless acts amount to. Nothing good. 

    I have seen this film quite a few times before and it always there this realization but without the conversation of talking with other film fanatics and such, it was never one that I was able to gauge and realize. To be an idealist in trying times is to suffer and if you are unwilling to suffer then you must not truly be an idealist. Maybe that's just the positive spin to it all but I can't just be a permissive no matter how hard I try.

The Nitty Gritty Act 3: The Wrap Up

 

    I feel as though I made a point or stumbled into believing I have a point to make. There is so much here and it is a shame that in its wake, it did not leave much of an impression. Nonetheless, Europa remains one of the most fundamental films in my building blocks of cinema. Certainly now a piece of foundation I don't have to worry about and replace with something else. 

    Truly one of my favorite films, most definitely in the top 15 but possible that it can crack the top 10, of all time and so far my favorite Lars Von Trier film.

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?

Out of the Blue and Into the Nosferatu

The End is the Beginning is the Beginning of The End

   It is the end of February and I haven't gotten around to writing anything about a movie. Though to be fair, it has been a challenging month. For the past 3 weeks I have been having to spend every Saturday watching a movie in the Twilight franchise. Sometimes 2 movies in 1 day. IN 1 DAY. That's a lot of subpar movie watching but when in a relationship, sometimes these things are mandatory but don't forget that it is also known in the Geneva convention as; NO ESCAPE.

I saw them all but did i survive?

    So as of yesterday, 2/21/26 JUDGEMENT DAY, after having survived through the last two films that make up Twilight: Breaking Dawn, I was able to regroup today on this holy Sunday and sit down to watch something worth my while. I decided on a vampire movie that would help get the bad taste of the previous 5 vampire movies out of my mouth. Something tough and mean. Something German.

Felt Pretty German to Me

    Now, I had a copy of Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht for some time but never managed to find the right time to give it a watch. Halloween 2025 would have been a good time but I believe it was around that time that I had seen that recent Robert Egger's film Nosferatu.

Spoilers: Pretty Meh

    Now a quick aside; Robert Egger's is a pretty talented filmmaker. His films like The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman are just great so it was a surprise to see how not good Nosferatu was.

    The performances were pretty good overall but man, nothing in the rest of the film offered much to grasp onto. The gray/dead tones all throughout, the bleakness that turned more into boredom as the film goes on, and the critical point of Count Orlok not having any true terror behind any of his actions. 
    Sure, we see that the gray world has turn to a shittier state of gray and people going crazy but goddamn, beyond just being an exercise in style there is just isn't much there.
    I was so affected by this subpar rendition that I forgot that it was Halloween and soon enough I found myself nearing the end of the year watching the Roman Polanski film The Ninth Gate. Now, after going through the entire Twilight Saga and critically verifying my hill to die on as being on Team Jacob; I went about in watching Werner Herzog's adaptation of Dracula.

The Film

    The story follows just about the same rhythms of the novel Dracula except with a good chunk of characters and relationship being nixed to shift the focus of the hour and forty something minutes to just the major love triangle of Jonathan Harker, Count Dracula, and Lucy.

    Jonathan and Lucy are happily married but Lucy is having some crazy dreams. Jonathan gets an opportunity to make a real estate deal with Count Dracula in Translyvania from his boss Renfield. He goes out to Translyvania where he meets the albino man to make a deal but it might be one with too high of a price. 

    What separates this from say the other Dracula adaptations from the 1931 Tod Browning film to the fairly modern Francis Ford Coppola adaptation and ending with the Robert Egger's dull gray version is that there is a real sense of grounded reality in this one. I will get more into that later on but what is also drastically different here is with the material having possibly the least amount of time of interaction with Lucy and Dracula. There is not a hint of suave to Klaus Kinski's Count Dracula. He looks like a guy that has been living underground for centuries and shows it by having a single awkward conversation with Lucy and then the movie shifts to her having to sacrifice herself for the greater good.

ay carumba!

    Another change was the character of Dr. Van Helsing becoming far more disinterested and above all useless to the story. Portrayed far more as a man of science that denies any belief of superstitions or folklore dealing with anything that can't be proven with SCIENCE!

    The whole town goes to shit when the Count arrives to town  with some rats who have the plague. Which happens to be right around when Jonathan comes back. He having lost his mind completely as he is unable to recognize any of his friends let alone his wife Lucy. 

     Lucy faints in distress but hunts down an answer and comes across a book that Jonathan received which delves into occult myths and understands immediately that she was dealing with a blood sucker. 

    I don't think there was a mention of the word 'Vampire' in the film. The laws of bloodsuckers stating that its up to a woman with a pure heart to keep the bloodsucker locked down until dawn comes around. 

    Lucy offers herself and the Count takes the bait. Dying as the dawn breaks but what is interesting is that he dies as though it is a heart attack. His body still on the ground in physical form as Van Helsing finds Lucy dead. He shows up and his survival instincts kick in and he goes straight for the hammer and stake to get the job done.
   The twist here is that Jonathan has now taken the role of the villainous vampire. Having whats left as an authority to arrest Van Helsing for killing the Count. With his vampire buck teeth and pale as the moon skin, he rides off into the desert and the most likely destination being that he is heading back to Transylvania to live out his life. Maybe to finish that real estate deal.

What I Got

    With the various differences, it feels more like a straight forward take on the material and leaves you feeling fulfilled when its all said and done. I'm sure its a possible reflection of the original 1922 Nosferatu film but I haven't had a chance to give it a watch so I cannot say yay or nay towards this observation. Regardless, the more streamlined the material gives the story to feel more grounded.

    Now, when I say more grounded I mean that it feels more a part of our world than another world. As we watch Jonathan Harker travel to Transylvania, we find ourselves watching him travel across actually vast landscapes. Real wide plains. Real tall mountains. A real sense of scale that the world Harker lives in to give a far more credible feeling of being real. There are no sets depicting cinematic space distorted landscapes in order to create scale. There is only the real world that these characters live in.

    Also, I want to give a special shout out to that intro credit sequence. I don't know where it was shot but the fact that mummified remains, or at least nearing the end phase of decomposition, are screaming in a silent face of pain is a terrifically horrifying way to not only start the film but also set a tone. Where this tomb was located I can only assume in Count Dracula's massive castle but no answers are given and we are left wondering. 

    What also helps ground the film is the amount of time spent showcasing scenes with actual physical props. A piece of the story deals with the Count arriving to the city while bringing the plague. Now, in the other films this is shown as best as could be with a few amount of rats running around. Maybe even CGI rats with the more recent films. Herzog shows an insane amount of rats running around. Even on a minuscule budget, there is great effort showcasing that the city and citizens are losing a sense of stability and civility as the film goes on with images such as more and more coffins being taken to the cemetery. Reaching a point where coffins are now out in the street with no one around to carry them. We see a family that has the plague sitting down to eat their final meal with the rats. This truly feels like a once prospering society losing it. Also, the way the film was staged and photographed was also visually striking when comparing it to Werner Herzog's other films. Far more stylized than his other work in terms of mood lighting and creating interesting framing for the characters to maneuver and none of it feels awkward or out of place.

    The performances are great but i suppose having to work against Klaus Kinski bringing the heat would require one to step it up. Though Isabelle Adjani is something great. She is able to play like a woman that is both feminine and strong but in a soft way. She isn't running around punching people out or shit. Instead, she is far more proactive in the role of Lucy more so than the other portrayals of the character. She just doesn't become a victim but more so comes to realize that as the world is burning around here and people of authority do not care to listen and so she must do what she has to do to get the job done.
    Lastly, the music is pretty good. Especially that one Wagner piece that plays here and there. 
    

The Beginning is The End is the The End of The Beginning

    I cannot say that I am surprised that the film was good. Werner Herzog makes good movies. I will say that Kinski surprised me since a majority of Herzog's films has him playing characters that are too tough to love but the amount of sympathy I had for this Count Dracula, who didn't say or do much, in that last scene especially was a strange feeling that caught me off guard. Seeing him totally white in the eyes and yet the facial expressions saying so much, goddamn did that crazy sack of shit just know how to act. Though I can't say the film is anywhere near being romantic in the slightest so it cannot reach GREAT status, as a stripped down take on the Dracula story though its pretty solid.