DVD Review: Criterion Release of Lars von Trier’s ‘Europa’ Hypnotizes

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CHICAGO – Lars von Trier opens his brilliant “Europa” by literally trying to hypnotize his audience. A barely lit train track moves slowly across the screen as Max von Sydow calmly incants a hypnotizing speech and countdown. “On the count of ten, you will be in Europa.” Is he speaking to the audience or to the man who just appeared on the screen when he says, “You are in Germany. The year is 1945.”?

“Europa” is von Trier’s attempt to deconstruct the war movie, the thriller, the standard Hitchcock rip-off, and even his own nightmares in one fever dream of a film. “Europa” (released under the name “Zentropa” in the States, so as not to avoid confusion with “Europa Europa”) announced the arrival of a massive international talent, one that would go on to make great films like “Breaking the Waves”, “Dancer in the Dark”, and “Dogville”.

Von Trier may have slightly lost his way in recent years, but “Europa” is a beautiful example of a young filmmaker on the verge of truly honing his copious abilities. It was a great selection for Criterion, a company known for producing some of the best DVDs in the history of the format around films that might not have been given the initial audience that they deserved.

Europa is available on DVD on December 9, 2008.

With its strikingly unusual backgrounds (filmed separately from the foreground for no reason other than style) and deconstruction of the filmmaking process (something von Trier would become even more obsessed with in later films), “Europa” is kind of like the Lynchian nightmare that Europe might have collectively had after World War II.

Europa is available on DVD on December 9, 2008.

An American pacifist named Leopold Kessler (Jean-Marc Barr) joins the Zentropa railways as a sleeping-car conductor. This may be Frankfurt in 1945, as the narrator announces, but it feels more like Kafka’s Frankfurt. With striking black-and-white imagery, interspersed with seemingly random shots of color, “Europa” is a weird ride through a nightmare world where the war didn’t really end and the future and the past have collided into a dangerous mess. Femme fatales, nefarious Nazis, and more unexplainable plot threads than your average David Lynch movie, “Europa” can’t really be explained. It needs to be seen.

To that end, Criterion has remastered “Europa” in a newly restored high-definition digital transfer that meticulously removed thousands of instances of dirt, debris, and scratches from an original print of the film. Presented in 2.35:1 widescreen, “Europa” is a typical-for-Criterion video transfer - nearly perfect. The audio is even better with a soundtrack that was mastered at 24-bit from the 35mm LT/RT optical track. It’s merely two channels but it’s fantastic - crisp, clear, and with the right emphasis on von Trier’s obsession with sounds like moving trains and falling rain.

The two-disc Criterion release of “Europa” includes one of the most extensive collections of special features that the company has released this year. Criterion is well-praised for including special features that truly enhance the experience of the film instead of just adding to it and this title is no exception.

Europa is available on DVD on December 9, 2008.

The first disc includes a commentary in Danish from Lars von Trier and producer Peter Aalbark Jensen, “The Making of Europa” (1991), and the original theatrical trailer, along with a new and improved subtitle translation of the film itself. The featurette, which runs about 40 minutes long, is particularly informative and places “Europa” in the context of von Trier’s “Europa Trilogy”, which includes “The Element of Crime” and “Epidemic”. From storyboarding through post-production, the documentary was allowed rare access in to von Trier’s process. It’s a must-see for his fans.

The second disc of “Europa” reaches a little deeper into the archives in a way that only Criterion can do. “Trier’s Element” (1991) is another behind-the-scenes documentary that features an interview with von Trier as well as footage from “Europa“‘s set and its Cannes premiere and press conference. “Anecdotes from “Europa”” (2005) is a short documentary that features interviews with historian Peter Schepelern, actor Jean-Marc Barr, Aalbaek Jensen, assistant director Tomas Gislason, co-writer Niels Vorsel, and prop master Peter Grant. Further interviews from 2005 with a large amount of the cast and crew remembering the production of “Europa”, including one with von Trier himself, are included separately. Finally, Gislason made a short film in 2005 called “Europa - The Faecal Location” and critic Howard Hampton wrote an excellent booklet for the release, one of Criterion’s best of the year.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com