This is what we are watching: “The Element of Crime” is the key to understanding the brilliant Von Trier
Miscellaneous / / October 10, 2023
There is no way to ignore this uncompromising debut from the Danish director.
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By 1984, Lars von Trier had made several short films and won a couple of awards at festivals - it seems that everyone saw and recognized his talent. It's no surprise that his feature debut, The Element of Crime, caused a stir throughout Europe.
The plot of the film, at first glance, is simple: an investigator tries to understand the thought process of a criminal and gradually goes crazy, merging with the wanted man. The deeper he finds out the motives, the more correct he considers them.
The Element of Crime explores issues that will haunt the director throughout his career. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that if you look into an abyss for a long time, then the abyss will also look into you - this formula manifests itself in Trier’s debut and in most of his subsequent films.
The Dane captures the fascination with evil, its attractiveness, but at the same time focuses on its ability to destroy a person - both morally and physically. But this does not mean that it is necessary to choose the side of good - Trier is not so simple.
“The Element of Crime” also talks about the morbidity of the European man, which Trier has always been interested in. But if in “Europe” the director throws the hero into the very epicenter of agony - post-war Germany, then in “The Element of Crime” the Dane does not concentrate on a specific area. It shows European civilization as such.
The main character returns home from a former colony, Egypt, which allows him to look at his homeland with new eyes. The film's working title ("The Last Tourist in Europe") highlights the problem: the investigator arrives at a place that only looks like a house, which in fact refers to the work Kierkegaard - one of the director’s spiritual mentors.
Despite all the dirt and hallucinogenicity that define the visuals of the picture, Von Trier constantly refers to recognized high art - in particular, to the works Andrei Tarkovsky. Such a mixture of the sublime and the low will always be in his films (for example, the conversations about Bach and fishing in “Nymphomaniac” or Virgil who became Virg in “The House That Jack Built”). It's always interesting to see references and homages in Trier's work, and the first film is no exception.
The Element of Crime is an uncompromising debut. Von Trier presented the public with his real self - arrogant, complex, aggressive, refusing to play based on genre cinema. Years later, The Element of Crime explains the questions and doubts from which Nymphomaniac, Melancholia, Antichrist, and The House That Jack Built grew. And it seems that for complete immersion in these paintings The Dane's debut cannot be ignored.
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