Zentropa
Europa
Lars von Trier
Just after the Second World War, a young German-American arrives in Frankfurt wanting to help in reconstructing the country. His uncle gets him a job as a sleeping car conductor with the Zentropa company. However, some employees of the company work the with Allies, while others work with the Nazis, and the all too naïve Leopold can't decide which side to choose...
With : Jean-Marc Barr, Barbara Sukowa, Enst-Hugo Jaregard, Udo Kier, Erik Mork, Jorgen Reenberg
Screenplay : Lars Von Trier, Niels Vørsel
Image : Henning Bendsten
Sound : Per Streit Jensen, Pierre Excoffier
Editing : Hervé Schneid
Music : Joachim Holbek
Screenplay : Lars Von Trier, Niels Vørsel
Image : Henning Bendsten
Sound : Per Streit Jensen, Pierre Excoffier
Editing : Hervé Schneid
Music : Joachim Holbek
Production : UGC
Distribution: Les Films du Losange
Distribution: Les Films du Losange
Europa is a nightmarish fiction about a Europe which has been colonised by war. After Element of Crime and Epidemic, Lars von Trier ends his trilogy of films beginning with the letter "E" exploring the theme of Europe. A fantasised vision of Germany following its capitulation, the film shows a group of "werewolves" which executes people they suspect of collaborating with the Allies. Derek Malcolm describes it as "Orson Welles crossed with Ingmar Bergman with a dash of Fellini stirred in ... so dark a noir that even its shadows had shadows". The black and white aesthetic takes us back to German expressionism and above all von Trier's major influence Carl Theodor Dreyer. Lars von Trier used Dreyer's director of photography, Henning Bendtsen.