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| The interesting French poster for Lars Von Trier's Epidemic |
Danish master co-writer/director Lars Von Trier (Dogville (2003)) and co-writer Niels Vørsel (The Element of Crime/Forbrydelsens Element (1984), co-writer) are working on the script for a new film and have a week before they are to present their 1½ years of work to the important Danish Film Institute consultant. Pressed by the deadline, with nothing conventionally good to turn in, they choose to write a new film called Epidemic about the bubonic plague in Europe, meanwhile a real, new epidemic manifests itself in their present.
Epidemic, Von Trier's second film, is the follow-up to The Element of Crime and the second film in his Europe trilogy, which concludes with Europe (1991). It is a deeply strange mix of meta-filmmaking reflections, Von Trier's own phobia of and amusement with hospitals and their authorities and trippy Europe-lore. It points ahead to both The Kingdom/Riget (1994-97) and the detour structure of Nymphomaniac (2013), and so is especially interesting for fans of Von Trier.
While Element of Crime was, to some degree, pretentious, Epidemic is almost free of this burden. Its unpredictability, atmospheric locations, absurdism and dark sense of humor keeps one interested throughout. It is an experimental work by a filmmaker in his infancy, - which I often find are rewarding works, - and a deeply weird one at that. - What other film has a high-point which is the cutting open of a paste of tooth paste? But Epidemic is more than just a bizarre cult item. It is memorable through several scenes; some amusing, such as Vørsel recounting his pen pal relation to American teen girls, some troubling and sad, such as Udo Kier's (Nymphomaniac) earnest and deeply personal recount of a terrible story from his first days alive, told to him by his mother only recently on her death bed; and finally there is the film's last scene around the dinner table, which is truly harrowing.
Related posts:
Lars Von Trier: Nymphomaniac (2013) short version, vol. 1 & vol. 2, or, Lars Von Trier's Suck It Melancholia (2011) - Von Trier's heightened reality doomsday reflections
Antichrist (2009) - Von Trier's cabin-in-the-woods psycho-horror
The Boss of It All/Direktøren for det Hele (2006) - Von Trier's hilarious absurd comedy
Dear Wendy (2005) - Vinterberg and Von Trier's unpopular, gun-themed megaflop (writer)
Dogville (2003) - Von Trier's implacable, truly unique drama
Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Dancer in the Dark (2000) or, Selma the Immigrant
The Element of Crime/Forbrydelsens Element (1984) - Von Trier's ultra-strange debut
Watch the end credits of the film here with its very 1980s theme song
Cost: 1 - 1.1 mil. DKK ~ approximately 0.2 mil. $
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown (but likely a huge or mega-flop)
[Epidemic was released September 11 (Denmark) and runs 106 minutes. It was made on the extremely low budget mainly as an experiment to see if a worthwhile film could come from it. The experiment became a precursor for the Dogme movement, which Von Trier co-founded in 1995. Producer Jacob Eriksen's (Rocking Silver (1983)) production company Elementfilm A/S produced only this film. Epidemic was initially shown in just two countries; Denmark and in Portugal at the Fantasporto Film Festival, where Element of Crime had also screened. In its native Denmark, just 5,474 paid admission, which makes the film a major flop despite its tiny budget. Many have subsequently seen it: 3,747 IMDb users have given Epidemic a 6.2/10 average rating.]
What do you think of Epidemic?
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