CINEMA: Fabius Burger
Lars von Trier’s Zentropa is, in a way, about speed — most of the film takes place on a train. But at least some members of the audience will fall asleep: the opening sequence is a mesmerising, extended shot of railway tracks, with narrator Max von Sydow hypnotising us, taking us into the heart of Europa at the doom-filled count of 10.
Europa is post-war Germany, under Allied occupation. Young Leopold Kessler (Jean-Marc Barr), newly arrived from New York, is learning to be a train conductor under the supervision of his Uncle Kessler (Ernst-Hugo Jaregard). Leopold falls in love with Katharina Hartman (Barbara Sukowa), the daughter of a rich industrialist and former Nazi, Max Hartman (Jorgen Reenberg), who owns Zentropa, a transport company being used for reconstruction after the war.
Intrigues follow: a group known as the Werewolves purges old Nazis while an American colonel, played by cult figure Eddie Constantine, protects Nazis for a later comeback.
The issues are past atrocities, reparation and the notion that those in power (like the American colonel) will always be corrupt. Zentropa is a bleak, cynical film — Kessler loses his innocence — making the whole journey an allegory. The train is a microcosm not only of post-war Germany but of the relations between politics and power.
As allegory, the film’s meaning is to be read in the highly-planned, artifical visuals, the strange juxtapositions, the unusual use of colour — black and white, except for blood and emotional moments between Katherina and Leopold when colour can’t quite escape the bleak visual surface. The film, too, works by alienation. Much has been made of Von Trier’s claim that his film is a thriller, his technique Hitchcockian. It is: Von Trier uses alienating camera angles and revelation as the method of narration. One remembers the look of the film, if not always the content or story.
This experimentation makes Zentropa a love-it-or-hate-it movie. At times, it does slip into bathos, becoming indulgent when the effects strain and seem drawn-out. The movie may work for you, or perhaps you’ll fall asleep along the way, even without Von Sydow’s help.