Jeff Smith unpacks Robby Müller’s handheld camera work in Lars von Trier’s wrenching fable, showing how it alternates choppy realism with calculated stylization.

Directed by Lars von Trier • 1996 • Denmark
Starring Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Katrin Cartlidge

Lars von Trier became an international sensation with this galvanizing realist fable about sex and spiritual transcendence. In an Oscar-nominated performance, Emily Watson stuns as Bess, a simp...