The Orchid Gardener

The Orchid Gardener
Directed by	Lars von Trier
Produced by	Filmgruppe 16, Lars von Trier
Written by	Lars von Trier
Starring	Lars von Trier, Inger Hvidtfeldt
Release date(s)	6 May 1977
Running time	37 minutes
Country	Denmark
Language	Danish

The Orchid Gardener is a 1977 experimental film with a mysterious and symbolic plot directed by Lars von Trier. The film is interesting in the way the individual scenes are connected and expressed. It could be viewed as a style similar to that of Luis Buñuel (1967, Belle de jour).

Plot

A young, mentally ill man, a visual artist in crisis Victor Marse (Lars von Trier) meets two nurses (Eliza and her girlfriend) during his stay in a sanatorium. These nurses are obvious lesbians. Victor lives with Eliza and her son. He imagines another woman when he is roaming at a coast. He pretends committing a suicide but Eliza does not react to it. Every moment, he stays in front of a blank canvas and thinks. Meanwhile he dresses into Nazi clothes or into women dresses, then he leaves to go to the cinema, and abuses and probably kills a small girl. His masochistic affair with Eliza lasts; he is close to shooting her with a gun but instead she takes out a whip. Victor goes along the streets then he lies naked in front of the canvas on which he has left his bloody fingerprints. After this he drives a funeral car to his work - he is employed in a garden where orchids are grown. Eliza is now the past and in the end, Victor might be dead as someone drives a cross into the ground.

References

• Schepelern P., Lars von Trier a jeho filmy, Orpheus, 2004