EUROPA (1991)

"Zentropa"

Directed by

Lars von Trier

Writing credits

Lars von Trier
Niels Vorsel

Cast

Jean-Marc Barr ... Leopold Kessler
Barbara Sukowa ... Katharina Hartmann
Udo Kier ... Lawrence Hartmann
Ernst-Hugo Järegard ... Uncle Kessler
Erik Mork ... Pater
Jorgen Reenberg ... Max Hartmann
Henning Jensen ... Siggy
Eddie Constantine ... Colonel Harris
Max von Sydow ... Narrator (voice)
Benny Poulsen ... Steleman
Erno Müller ... Seifert
Dietrich Kuhlbrodt ... Inspector
Michael Phillip Simpson ... Robins
Holger Perfort ... Mr. Ravenstein
Anne Werner Thomsen ... Mrs. Ravenstein
Hardy Rafn ... Man in Housecoat
Jáónos Hersk ... Jewish Man
Talila ... Jewish Wife
Claus Flygare ... Father
Jon Ledin ... American Soldier
Baard Owe ... Man with Papers
Leif Magnusson ... Doctor Magnus
Lars von Trier ... Jew
Vera Gebuhr ... Depot Assistant
Else Petersen ... Old Female Assistant
Ben Zimet ... Old Man 1
Thadee Lokcinski ... Old Man 2
Peter Haugstrup .... Piccolo

Produced by

Bo Christensen
François Duplat (executive)
Patrick Godeau (executive)
Peter Aalbæk Jensen
éGrard Mital (executive)
Gunnar Obel (executive)

Original music by

Joachim Holbek

Cinematography by

Henning Bendtsen
Edward Klosinski
Jean-Paul Meurisse

Film Editing by

Herve Schneid

Production Design by

Henning Bahs

Costume Design by

Manon Rasmussen

Production Management

Philippe Guez ... production supervisor
Lars Kolvig ... production supervisor
Lene Nielsen ... production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

Egon Haase ... second assistant director
Elizabeth Frey Harne ... second assistant director
Tom Hedegaard ... first assistant director

Sound Department

Pierre Escoffier ... sound (as Pierre Excoffier)
Per Streit ... sound (as Per Streit Jensen)

Other crew

Philippe Bober ... production assistant
Erik Crone ... production assistant
Jesper Find ... first assistant camera
Tomas Gislason ... continuity
Rolf Konow ... still photographer
Michael Nielsen ... color timer
Monica Steenberg ... production assistant
Lars von Trier ... continuity

Runtime Denmark:107
Denmark/ Sweden / France / Germany / Switzerland
Language English / German
Black and White/ Color (Pathécolor)
Sound Mix: Dolby SR

STORY:

Leo Kessler is a young American with a German heritage. Shortly after the second world war, he arrives in Germany in order to work and to discover the country of his father. His uncle helps him to find a position with the railway company for which he works as a sleeping car conductor. Leo starts to travel through a destroyed Germany - an incomprehensile and almost exotic world for him. On his first trip he meets Katharina, the daughter of the railway company's director, Max Hatmann. Soon after, Leo is invited to the Hartmann residence for dinner. Max Hartmann views the reconstruction of his transportation network Zentropa as his sole purpose for living. He thus has no other choice but to work in cooperation with the Allies. His son Larry, a rather tender soul, is critical towards any concepts of nationalism and concider himself a pacifist. Katharina who makes no secret of her affection for Leo, on the other hand,seems to be closer to the groups of Nazis who stage terrorist actions against Americans. At the dinner, Leo meets Colonel Harris, a tolerated American "friend" of the family, who asks Leo to keep an eye out for any Nazi symphathists...

A rumination on war guilt in the form of a hallucinatory thriller, this is a strikingly original work which tells a Kafkaesque story in a consistenly disturbing and artifical milieu. "I guess you can say Europa is a thriller and a melodrama with a comic element to it...I'm obsessed by Germany. Germany is just a symbol:it's Europe. German society has always demonstrated the most extreme passions: in the character and relationships of individuals and with other countries" comments Von Trier who, using black-white wide screen with surreal injections of color, and making disconcerting use of front-projections, creates a nightmare world of guilt and suspicion. "Each of my films contains a technicai innovation. In Europa, ý've bought myself a lot of funny technical toys. We are working on image superimposition; sometimes we can have up to seven layers of image, in black and white and color. But the main thing is that whe can thus combine two images that could be filmed with different lenses. This way can create an unsettling effect that isn't immediately noticeable but which marks the audince. The same things goes for the camera movements. We are making images that seem perfectly realistic but which turn out to have that element which leads the film off in the planned direction. That's hypnosis."

REVIEWS

Zentropa" is a strange, haunting, labyrinthine film...
Until you get high-definition, laser TV...
The story centers on Leopold Kessler, an idealistic...