The Element of Crime (1984)
Dec 16, 2000Decayed Future Thriller
The first feature film from Lars von Trier, a crime thriller set in a futuristic Europe. There are glimmers of the visual style von Trier would develop but the film also badly drags
Lars von Trier
Epidemic (1987)
Nov 30, 2001Filmmakers at Work/Plague/Hypnotism
Lars von Trier's second and most obscure film. Made on a shoestring budget, it is mostly about two filmmakers trying to make a film about a plague outbreak but does burst out into a fantastic shaggy dog ending
The Kingdom (1994)
Dec 16, 2001Haunted Hospital/Black Comedy
Danish tv mini-series co-directed by Lars von Trier set in a haunted hospital. This comes with a blacker-than-black sense of humour in its interwoven character strands plus moments that are genuinely eerie
Breaking the Waves (1996)
Dec 13, 1999Religion and Miracles
Stunning, emotionally raw work from Lars von Trier with Emily Watson as a wife in a small religious community who is driven to extremes of masochistic self-sacrifice in the belief she is saving her husband's life
The Kingdom II (1997)
Sep 30, 1999Haunted Hospital/Black Comedy
Follow-up to Lars von Trier's haunted hospital mini-series The Kingdom. The story is continued, although the plot seems rickety and either drops elements or veers off on other tangents as though it is being made up as people go along
Antichrist (2009)
Nov 30, 2009Grief, Madness and Torture
Lars von Trier made this deeply unfathomable film after a bout of severe depression. Claimedly a work of misogyny, it features Willem Dafoe trying to deal with a deranged Charlotte Gainsbourg
Melancholia (2011)
Nov 20, 2011Depression and the End of the World
Lars von Trier’s exploration of his depression continues in this nihilistic end of the world film. It is bleak and relentless but the characters are opaque in their motivations. Somehow I prefer von Trier back in agent provocateur mode
The House That Jack Built (2018)
Feb 8, 2019Serial Killer
Lars von Trier, who I would argue is the best director at work in the world, makes a film about a serial killer. The results, as you might expect from von Trier, are outrageous, blackly funny and challengingly provocative
The Kingdom: Exodus (2022)
Mar 11, 2023Haunted Hospital/Black Comedy
Lars von Trier returns to his darkly hilarious haunted hospital saga after a 25 years absence