The day after I saw this film for the first time, I had to sit down and watch it again. Not because I thought I'd missed something, but because the story and visuals are so compelling that it's the kind of film you're drawn to watch again and again.
Lars Von Trier has created a world of darkness - both literal and figurative. I can't recall a single scene in this film that takes place in broad daylight. The characters move through a surreal night-time world, where everything seems to be touched by corruption and decay. The places they inhabit - a leaky basement, a dirty hotel, the shell of a broken-down bus - all contribute to the overall sense of squalor and disease that overcomes the viewer.
The story essentially follows a man as he follows the trail of a serial killer. As the plot unfolds, there are hints of some kind of surreal (almost supernatural) cycle or pattern into which the detective has fallen. As the film builds to a climax, the viewer's feelings of uneasiness grow along with a sick kind of fascination when the realization of what is happening takes hold.
This film, with its mixture of dreamlike visuals and a nightmarish story, is one of the best foreign-language films I have ever had the privilege of seeing. I would highly recommend it to fans of David Lynch, Jeunet & Caro, Soderbergh's "Kafka," or as a good introduction to Von Trier.
Lars Von Trier has created a world of darkness - both literal and figurative. I can't recall a single scene in this film that takes place in broad daylight. The characters move through a surreal night-time world, where everything seems to be touched by corruption and decay. The places they inhabit - a leaky basement, a dirty hotel, the shell of a broken-down bus - all contribute to the overall sense of squalor and disease that overcomes the viewer.
The story essentially follows a man as he follows the trail of a serial killer. As the plot unfolds, there are hints of some kind of surreal (almost supernatural) cycle or pattern into which the detective has fallen. As the film builds to a climax, the viewer's feelings of uneasiness grow along with a sick kind of fascination when the realization of what is happening takes hold.
This film, with its mixture of dreamlike visuals and a nightmarish story, is one of the best foreign-language films I have ever had the privilege of seeing. I would highly recommend it to fans of David Lynch, Jeunet & Caro, Soderbergh's "Kafka," or as a good introduction to Von Trier.