Product Details

• Actors: Jean-Marc Barr, Max Von Sydow, Barbara Sukowa
• Directors: Lars von Trier
• Format: Black & White, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English, German
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Criterion Collection
• DVD Release Date: December 9, 2008
• Run Time: 107 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001GCATWK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,846 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Europa (The Criterion Collection)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Striking and visually beautiful...a haunting, labryinthine film." --Roger Ebert

"A movie cultist's dream...it plays like an ideal collaboration between Wim Wenders and David Lynch." --The Washingon Post

Product Description

You will now listen to my voice . . . On the count of ten you will be in Europa . . ." So begins Max von Sydow s opening narration to Lars von Trier s hypnotic Europa (known in the U.S. as Zentropa), a fever dream in which American pacifist Leopold Kessler (Jean-Marc Barr) stumbles into a job as a sleeping-car conductor for the Zentropa railways in a Kafkaesque 1945 postwar Frankfurt. With its gorgeous black-and-white and color imagery and meticulously recreated (if then nightmarishly deconstructed) costumes and sets, Europa is one of the great Danish filmmaker s weirdest and most wonderful works, a runaway train ride to an oddly futuristic past.

SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Audio commentary featuring director Lars von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen (in Danish)
The Making of Europa (1991), a documentary following the film from storyboarding to production
Trier s Element (1991), a documentary featuring an interview with von Trier, and footage from the set and Europa s Cannes premiere and press conference
Anecdotes from Europa (2005), a short documentary featuring interviews with film historian Peter Schepelern, actor Jean-Marc Barr, producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen, assistant director Tómas Gislason, co-writer Niels Vørsel, and prop master Peter Grant
2005 interviews with cinematographer Henning Bendtsen, composer Joachim Holbek, costume designer Manon Rasmussen, film-school teacher Mogens Rukov, editor/director Tómas Gislason, producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen, art director Peter Grant, actor Michael Simpson, production manager Per Arman, actor Ole Ernst
A conversation with Lars von Trier from 2005, in which the director speaks about the Europa trilogy
Europa The Faecal Location (2005), a short film by Gislason
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Howard Hampton

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hypnotic, July 29, 2004

By 

M. DALTON (Brisbane, Queensland Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Zentropa (DVD)

Surely one of the GREATEST directors of all time, this is his masterpiece. Armed with the most hypnotic narration I've ever heard & an extraordinarily abstract form, the story is constantly propelled forward by Max Von Sydow's unmistakable voice. Along with DANCER IN THE DARK, DOGVILLE & BREAKING THE WAVES, ZENTROPA is an unforgettable journey. Please plead with this film's distributor to give it the beautiful widescreen DVD release it deserves.....

21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is how movies are made..., May 23, 2000

By 

Nikolaj Hawaleschka (Denmark, Europe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zentropa [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"Zentropa" (or "Europa" as it is called in Europe) marks the end of Lars von Trier's (the director) Europe-trilogy, which started in 1986 with "The Element of Crime" followed by "Epedemic". "Zentropa" is a real film-noir in Hitchkock style. The movie, like the rest of the Europe-trilogy, was a co-production between Lars von Trier and Niels Vørsel; both great screenwriters.

The thing which is so special about "Zentropa" are: 1) It is made without ANY digital effects. 2) It is shoot in B/W. 3) All importent elements in the movie have colour (a thing Spielberg stole from Trier, when he made "Schientlers List"). 4) It has a great story. 5) It is a Trier film.

The cinematography is great, so is the acting; especially Max von S. is great. Also notice that Lars von Trier himself has a small role.

If you want to know more about this film, you should read the book "Lars von Triers elements". If you are just looking for some saturdaynight entertaintment...this is not what you want. However if you want so see a quality movie in world class, this is a modern classic... Don't miss it.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A milestone in cinema, a gravestone for the human condition, April 20, 2002

By 

Jeff Dunn (Alameda, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zentropa [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Zentropa is simply the greatest film since "Citizen Kane." An American works as a sleeping-car conductor on a German railroad in late 1945. Viewers should note carefully the course of a dinner conversation early on in the film where neutrality is condemned by a priest: this is the theme of the film, with a profound relevance to today's political events. Try as he might, the American's attempts to be a understanding "nice guy" serve only to tighten the noose. Yet to be passionate and follow one's beliefs wherever they lead is shown to lead to disaster as well. We are doomed to go through the night of mass murder and war if we are to see the light of day.

The cinematography, utterly commensurate with the claustrophobic theme, brilliant in its conception, an encyclopedia of noire technique; most of the acting; and the conclusion, rivetingly harrowing as any in cinema--all come together in a magnificent work of art that belongs on the shelf of anyone who understands the power of cinema to speak to the heart and mind co-equally.