Europa (1991)
Genre: Thriller / Drama
Duration: 114 minuten
Alternative title: Zentropa
Country:
Denmark / Sweden / France / Germany / Switzerland
Directed by: Lars von Trier
Stars: Jean-Marc Barr, Barbara Sukowa and Udo Kier
IMDb score:
7,5 (23.623)
Releasedate: 27 June 1991
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Europa plot
"World War II had finished, but it left indelible marks."
Film about a naive American young man of German descent who thinks he can help with the reconstruction in post-war Frankfurt. The story is set in post-World War II Germany. The young American Leo Kessler gets a job as a conductor on a night train of the German railway company Zentropa. Leo is driven by idealism and the will to help a country in moral and psychological distress. His figure contrasts with the unyielding people in his new environment. During his journey he comes into contact with the beautiful German Katharina Hartmann, the daughter of Zentropa's director. After Leo and Katharina's marriage, he is accepted into her family and the naive and virtuous Leo becomes entangled in a web of intrigue.
Actors and actresses
Leopold Kessler
Katharina Hartmann
Lawrence Hartmann
Narrator (voice)
Colonel Harris
Max Hartmann
Pater
Siggy
Uncle Kessler
Doctor Magnus
Reviews & comments
Ferdydurke
-
- 1353 messages
- 854 votes
Finally revised in its entirety, and my suspicions have been confirmed: excellent breakthrough film by Von Trier,
certainly one of his better works.
A typical film also within his oeuvre: inventive in form, and not too subtle in content. But for him, the latter usually works out well, as far as I'm concerned.
A railway company in full operation, just after the war in Germany: then you know it. Von Trier is still not afraid to transform one of the carriages in the train on the Frankfurt-Berlin line into a concentration camp barracks.
The fact that the Americans, because of their plans for Europe at the time, left the Nazi 'infrastructure' in administration and industry in Germany largely intact is also just not being shouted from the rooftops.
But that explicitness fits seamlessly into the style of this film, the selling point: a heavily dramatic hypnotic fever dream, with a beautiful role by Sukowa and a successful artifice in the form of Von Sydow's voice-over.
And with the rising tension also hilariously ridicule the German regulation: this way there is also something to laugh about, what more could you want.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Hansiro
-
- 168 messages
- 1689 votes
On the count of ten, you will be in Europe
Lars von Trier knows how to conjure up beautiful shots on your screen, the combination of a black and white film with some characters in color I have never seen before, yes Sin City did this too, but not in this way. Some of the shots were just living paintings, especially the one where those kids drag the train in. And the suicide scene was a work of art in itself, how von Trier portrays this is really phenomenal
I had some trouble sympathizing with Kessler myself, so I didn't fully agree with his motives, but I think that was the intention.
And what a beautiful opening scene, so intense, so intriguing, I will remember it for a long time to come!
On the count of three...
Translated from Dutch · View original
Robi
-
- 2410 messages
- 2470 votes
In post-war Germany, an American returns to Germany because he thinks it's time to be nicer to the Germans again. But in Germany, the Americans are now in charge and busy distinguishing the good from the bad Germans. And the Germans themselves are not (yet) waiting for "good" Americans. Quite a beautiful and poignant story. But the director has chosen to make a beautiful and artistic film. A very special film, for sure. However, due to this artistic and distant approach, the story of the film itself does not come out well. And that's a pity. Although it remains a special and beautifully designed film. And that is certainly worth a lot.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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