Examining Lars von Trier’s filmography, one detects an almost perfect alternation between the types of projects that served to earn him the reputation of an author on the one hand, and those that the Danes designed almost certainly to justify their own success. more ‘punk’ on the other hand. In keeping with this pattern, for example, ‘Europe’ (1991) – a work of style in which Trier tries to impress the world with his catalog of technical skills – and ‘Breaking the Waves’ (1996) – putting the movie-savvy clerk on his feet – directed one of his most arrogantly outlandish jobs: ‘Kingdom’, A four-part mini-series set in a sinister Copenhagen hospital inhabited by evil spirits and designed as a frenzied mix of soap opera, horror story and social satire.
Shot in the kind of ‘verité’ style Trier would use as the poster for his ‘Dogma 95’ manifesto a few years later, the episodes featured surprising plot elements like a baby with a small demon body and a veteran. the indomitable face of the actor, Udo Kier, is a Greek choir consisting of several dishwashers with Down syndrome and a few frank images of surgical interventions.
After the premiere of four more episodes under the title ‘Kingdom 2’ in 1997, Trier considered directing a third episode, but the death of some of the main characters deterred him. And yet, 25 years later, the filmmaker presented at the Venice Film Festival the five chapters that make up the final chapter of the saga, ‘The Kingdom Exodus’. It recreates a supernatural battle between good and evil, using lots of humor and lots of bad grapes. His scenes parade crippled ghosts, sleepwalking old women with telekinetic powers, and demonic creatures that sometimes take the appearance of an owl, sometimes a particularly histrionic version of Willem Dafoe, but overall he seems less interested in scaring the images. showing A type of business humor similar to that exemplified by ‘The Office’. In any case, and given that Trier’s most ominous film, ‘La casa de Jack’ (2018), which premiered as fiction, this seems to assume for him a break in this transformation between prestige and entertainment. He led most of his career. At 66, as a Parkinson’s patient, you’ve probably decided to just do what you want.
Partly because of his health and partly because of his known fear of flying, Trier did not travel to Venice this year. This prevented him from reuniting with Catherine Deneuve, who directed the movie ‘Dancing in the Dark’ (2000) and won an honorary award from the festival this Wednesday. “I don’t have time to look back,” the actress said at the press conference, where she appeared wrapped in the Ukrainian flag.