ZENTROPA
A film review by Thomas E. Billings
Copyright 1992 Thomas E. Billings
Synopsis: A few months after the end of World War II, an idealistic young American returns to his native Germany. There he takes a job as a sleeping car conductor on the reconstructed Zentropa railway line. He gets involved with a beautiful woman, pro-Nazi terrorists, and U.S. occupation forces. A stylish fantasy that is interesting, but of only average quality.
Denmark, 1991, 113 minutes. Director/Writer: Lars Von Trier
The story centers on Leopold Kessler, an idealistic young American of German origin, who returns to Germany right after the end of World War II (late 1945); his return is something of a goodwill gesture. Thanks to the influence of his uncle, he gets a job as a sleeping car conductor on the recently reconstructed railway line, owned by the Zentropa Corporation. In the course of his job, he eventually gets involved with a beautiful woman, the head of the Zentropa Corporation, pro-Nazi terrorists (referred to as "werewolves" in the film), and U.S. occupation force authorities.
The above plot description is deliberately vague, to avoid spoilers, and because the plot develops rather slowly in the first half of the film. The film is very stylish -- in fact, the stylishness gets in the way at times. Most of the film is in black-and-white, with a few scenes in color and some scenes that are a mixture of color and black-and-white. Part of the dialog is in English, part is in German (with subtitles in the German portions).
The film is presented as a sort of dream, with a narrator voicing over scenes to describe the character's emotions or thoughts at times. Back-projection is used (not very well, I might add) to superimpose scenes, particularly when the narrator calls for a scene change. Although the narrator does provide important information at times, I felt that the film might have been better if there was no narration. The film develops slowly in the first half, however the pace gets frantic in the last half. There is some humor in the film, but not very much.
To summarize, I would describe the film as a stylish fantasy, that is of only mediocre quality. A newspaper review (San Francisco Chronicle, 4/24/92) described the film as "think of BLADE RUNNER crossed with BRAZIL". The preceding quote is so marketable that I wouldn't be surprised if the U.S. distributor (Miramax Films) uses it in their advertising when the film is released later this year. After seeing the film, I would counter the quote by saying that it is technically correct in some ways. However, if you go to this film expecting a film of the quality of BRAZIL or BLADE RUNNER, I suspect that you will be very disappointed!
The comparison to BLADE RUNNER comes from the post-apocalyptic state of Germany after World War II, which is comparable to the vision of Los Angeles presented in BLADE RUNNER. Comparisons to BRAZIL can be made because of the authoritarian bureaucracy present everywhere, and perhaps to the atmosphere of the film (the latter point being subjective). Instead of these comparisons, I would offer a different comparison. Because the film is mostly in black-and-white, and presents post-war Germany as a world of its own, comparisons to the work of Canada's Guy Maddin are reasonable. Maddin's films are in black-and-white, and present worlds that are quite different from our own; his films include TALES FROM THE GIMLI HOSPITAL and ARCHANGEL. So I would say that ZENTROPA is what you might get if Guy Maddin did a conventional film.
There is one other piece of information that I want to pass on. This film is/was released in Europe under the name EUROPA. Do not confuse ZENTROPA with a recent German film released in the U.S. under the name EUROPA, EUROPA -- they are two different films!
U.S. Distribution: currently on the film festival circuit. The U.S. distributor is Miramax Films, and general theatrical release is planned for sometime later this year.
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