A delightfully messy, misanthropic throwback to glossy 40s international melodrama. Think Casablanca with a mean streak. His triptych of a discontinuous, failed Europe ends here, in a far more accessible way than the visions seen in The Element of Crime or Epidemic - it's only upon careful scrutiny that the film
reveals itself as truly bizarre. Time and space seem completely immaterial, as trains move backward and events rewind in surprisingly subtle ways. Lars von Trier puts forth unusual insinuations, that Europe and Germany are dream spaces where nothing seems to make sense, a widespread extrapolation of the mere mechanical failure that plagues the continent in The Element of Crime. Here, EVERYTHING has failed, not the least of which is Leopold Kessler, a starry-eyed idealist thoroughly shit upon at every turn. Meant to be a commentary on the gendered notions of idealism, and the man's attempt to seize power and subsequent failure, it's sort of difficult to watch. Jean-Marc Barr's performance is a little ridiculous, but you sort of get the feeling that von Trier wants it to be. Europa seems serious, but it's too glib to be taken completely at face value. You always get the idea that it's got something more to say than what's sitting at the surface/narrative level, and that justifies its idiosyncrasies. Even divorced of critical or auteurial theory, this is a fun watch, probably the most accessible of von Trier's movies. Highly original, visually captivating and finely observed, Europa will probably alienate viewers who are observant but not creative; everyone else should enjoy themselves thoroughly.
October 14, 2010
