Europa: Night Train
By December 03, 2008
Seduction by locomotive. Gliding on silvery reels of steel, tricked out with Lars von Trier’s stated panoply of “front and back projections, double exposure, and clearly choreographed camera . . . Read more »
Film Info
- Denmark
- 1991
- 107 minutes
- Color, Black and White
- 2.35:1
- English, German, Danish
- Spine #454
“You will now listen to my voice . . . On the count of ten you will be in Europa . . .” So begins Max von Sydow’s opening narration to Lars von Trier’s hypnotic Europa (known in the U.S. as Zentropa), a fever dream in which American pacifist Leopold Kessler (Jean-Marc Barr) stumbles into a job as a sleeping-car conductor for the Zentropa railways in a Kafkaesque 1945 postwar Frankfurt. With its gorgeous black-and-white and color imagery and meticulously recreated (if then nightmarishly deconstructed) costumes and sets, Europa is one of the great Danish filmmaker’s weirdest and most wonderful works, a runaway-train ride to an oddly futuristic past.
Cast
| Leopold Kessler | Jean-Marc Barr |
| Katharina Hartmann | Barbara Sukowa |
| Lawrence Hartmann | Udo Kier |
| Uncle Kessler | Ernst-Hugo Järegård |
| Siggy | Henning Jensen |
| Pater | Erik Mørk |
| Colonel Harris | Eddie Constantine |
| Narrator | Max von Sydow |
Credits
| Director | Lars von Trier |
| Producer | Peter Aalbæk Jensen and Bo Christensen |
| Executive producers | Gerard Mital, Gunnar Obel, Patrick Godeau and François Duplat |
| Screenplay | Lars von Trier and Niels Vørsel |
| Cinematography | Henning Bendtsen, Jean-Paul Meurisse and Edward Klosinsky |
| Production design | Henning Bahs |
| Music | Joakim Holbek |
| Costume designer | Manon Rasmussen |
| Editing | Hervé Schneid |
| Sound designer | Per Streit Jensen |
| Sound recordist | Pierre Excoffier |
Disc Features
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Audio commentary featuring director Lars von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen (in Danish, with English subtitles)
- The Making of “Europa” (1991), a documentary following the film from storyboarding to production
- Trier’s Element (1991), a documentary featuring an interview with von Trier, and footage from the set and Europa’s Cannes premiere and press conference
- Anecdotes from Europa (2005), a short documentary featuring interviews with film historian Peter Schepelern, actor Jean-Marc Barr, producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen, assistant director Tómas Gislason, co-writer Niels Vørsel, and prop master Peter Grant
- 2005 interviews with cinematographer Henning Bendtsen, composer Joachim Holbek, costume designer Manon Rasmussen, film-school teacher Mogens Rukov, editor/director Tómas Gislason, producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen, art director Peter Grant, actor Michael Simpson, production manager Per Arman, actor Ole Ernst
- A conversation with Lars von Trier from 2005, in which the director speaks about the “Europa” trilogy
- Europa—The Faecal Location (2005), a short film by Gislason
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Howard Hampton
New cover by Jason Hardy
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Seduction by locomotive. Gliding on silvery reels of steel, tricked out with Lars von Trier’s stated panoply of “front and back projections, double exposure, and clearly choreographed camera . . . Read more »
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