Europa (film)

Infobox Film | name = Europa


caption = DVD cover
director = Lars von Trier
producer = Peter Aalbæk Jensen Bo Christensen
writer = Lars von Trier Niels Vørsel
narrated by = Max von Sydow
starring = Jean-Marc Barr Barbara Sukowa Ernst-Hugo Järegård Eddie Constantine Erik Mørk Henning Jensen
music = Joachim Holbek
cinematography = Henning Bendtsen Edward Klosinski Jean-Paul Meurisse
editing = Hervé Schneid
distributor = Nordisk Film
released = 12 May, 1991 (premiere at Cannes)
22 June, 1991 (Germany)
16 August, 1991 (Denmark)
22 May, 1992 (USA)
2 July, 1992 (Australia)
runtime = 112 min.
language = English and German
budget =
imdb_id = 0101829

"Europa" is Lars von Trier's third theatrical feature film, released in 1991. It was released as "Zentropa" in North America in order to avoid confusion with the film "Europa Europa" (1990). Co-written by von Trier and Niels Vørsel, it tells the story of a young, idealistic American who hopes to "show some kindness" to the German people soon after the end of World War II. In US-occupied Germany, he takes on work as a sleeping car conductor for the Zentropa railway network, falls in love with a "femme fatale", and becomes embroiled in a pro-Nazi terrorist conspiracy.

The film features an international cast, including the French-American Jean-Marc Barr, German actors Barbara Sukowa and Udo Kier, expatriate American Eddie Constantine, and the Swedes Max von Sydow and Ernst-Hugo Järegård.

tyle

"Europa" employs an experimental style of cinema; combining largely black and white visuals with occasional intrusions of colour (two years before "Schindler's List", which featured the same effect), having actors interact with rear-projected footage, and layering different images over one another to surreal effect.

The film's characters, music, dialogue, and plot are self-consciously melodramatic and ironically imitative of film noir conventions.

Awards and recognition

The film won three awards at the Cannes Film Festival (Best Artistic Contribution, Jury Prize, and Technical Grand Prize). Upon realizing that he had not won the Palme d'Or, von Trier gave the judges the finger and stormed out of the venue.Fact|date=May 2008

Von Trier's production company, Zentropa Entertainments, is named after the sinister railway network featured in this film, which is in turn named after the real-life train company Mitropa.

External links

*imdb title|id=0101829|title=Europa
* [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/vontrier.html Biography of Lars von Trier]

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=Jury Prize, Cannes
years=1991
tied with "Hors la vie"
before="Hidden Agenda"
after="Dream of Light" tied with
"Samstoyatelnaya zhizn"