“If I wanted to carry a weapon, I’d come here sooner.”
What’s it all about? Leopold Kessler (Jean-Marc Barr) is a naïve American who travels to post-WWII Germany to be a sleeping car conductor, only to become entangled with a group of Nazi partisans. EUROPA also stars Barbara Sukowa as Katharina Hartmann, and Udo Kier as Lawrence Hartmann.
EUROPA, the visually-striking third theatrical film by Lars von Trier, is meditative in its first two acts, often losing the audience by overwhelming them with artistry and melodrama. The third act, however, does win back the audience with the culmination of the pro-Nazi schemes, but EUROPA’s story ultimately disappoints because of its unlikable protagonist.
It seems so foreign to me that an American would decide to live within 1945 Germany as a civilian. The “Allied” perception of Nazi Germany is strongly cemented almost seventy years after the Second World War, so much so that it is uncomfortable to imagine that an American would be so willing to show Germany “a kindness” immediately after the war. Now, I am not trying to demonize the German people on the whole; Kessler is living with Germans with blatant pro-Nazi sentiments — sentiments that are known to Kessler before he learns of the Werwolf conspiracy. The film does, however, aptly criticize Kessler for being a “lukewarm” individual, someone who never picked a side, and states that these are the people that will be punished. Kessler eventually does become involved with pro-Nazi terrorists, but it is not because he agrees with their politics. He’s just doing it because of peer pressure, really. He even screams at his love interest, saying he’ll do anything because he doesn’t have loyalties to either the Allies or Nazis. So, when Kessler inevitably starts making mistakes, the audience and the film itself don’t care — even with the inclusive second-person narrative — and they sit back passively at his eventual downfall.
Favourite Scene: The bathtub scene is gruesomely beautiful. I’d get into what happens in this scene, but it would spoil a semi-major plot detail. Let’s just say that the transition from colour to black-and-white is perfectly used in this scene, as well as the film’s use of rear-projected footage.
Waiting for the End of the World is TIFF Bell Lightbox’s retrospective of Danish enfant terrible Lars von Trier’s key films, highlighting the daring unpredictability and constant evolution of this most exciting of contemporary filmmakers. EUROPA will screen in Toronto on Saturday, November 12 at 8:00 PM; and Thursday, November 17 at 9:15 PM.
Notes: Directed by Lars von Trier; Produced by Peter Aalbæk Jensen, Bo Christensen; Written by Lars von Trier, Niels Vørsel; Starring Jean-Marc Barr, Barbara Sukowa, Ernst-Hugo Järegård, Eddie Constantine, Erik Mørk, Henning Jensen; Music by Joachim Holbek; Cinematography by Henning Bendtsen, Edward Klosinski, Jean-Paul Meurisse; Editing by Hervé Schneid.
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I have this on DVD from its Criterion release. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it. Although I should correct you that technically, it’s von Trier’s fourth film since he did a TV movie of “Medea” based on a script by Carl Theoden Dryer back in 1988.