Directed by Lars von Trier • 1991 • Spain, Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, Switzerland
Starring Jean-Marc Barr, Barbara Sukowa, Udo Kier
“You will now listen to my voice . . . On the count of ten you will be in Europa.” This ominous, hypnotic induction by Max von Sydow inaugurates the entrancing final installment of Lars von Trier’s Europe Trilogy. An idealistic American (Jean-Marc Barr) travels to postwar Germany to take a job as a sleeping-car conductor for the Zentropa railways—and finds himself plunged into a murky, Kafkaesque world of intrigue and betrayal where the shadow of Nazism hovers menacingly over everything. With its ravishing cinematography (in black and white, color, and at times a stunning mix of both), dreamlike use of rear projections, and lush fusion of melodrama and noir conventions, EUROPA is a sublimely stylized cinematic fugue.
This commentary is presented in Danish with English subtitles and features director Lars von Trier and producer Peter Aalbaek Jensen.
This documentary, produced by Same Films in 1991, covers the making of EUROPA from its conception as the third chapter in director Lars von Trier’s Europa trilogy through the painstaking storyboarding process to the film’s full-scale production.
This documentary features an interview with director Lars von Trier as well as footage from both the set of EUROPA and the film’s premiere and press conference at Cannes in 1991.
