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IMDbPro

Europa

  • 1991
  • R
  • 1h 52m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
22K
YOUR RATING
Jean-Marc Barr in Europa (1991)
Trailer 2 for Europa
Play trailer1:19
2 Videos
58 Photos
DramaThriller

Just after W.W.II, an American takes a railway job in Germany, but finds his position politically sensitive with various people trying to use him.Just after W.W.II, an American takes a railway job in Germany, but finds his position politically sensitive with various people trying to use him.Just after W.W.II, an American takes a railway job in Germany, but finds his position politically sensitive with various people trying to use him.

  • Director
    • Lars von Trier
  • Writers
    • Lars von Trier
    • Niels Vørsel
  • Stars
    • Barbara Sukowa
    • Jean-Marc Barr
    • Udo Kier
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.6/10
    22K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Lars von Trier
    • Writers
      • Lars von Trier
      • Niels Vørsel
    • Stars
      • Barbara Sukowa
      • Jean-Marc Barr
      • Udo Kier
    • 69User reviews
    • 63Critic reviews
    • 69Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 18 wins & 9 nominations

    Videos2

    Europa
    Trailer 1:19
    Watch Europa
    Europa
    Trailer 1:18
    Watch Europa

    Photos58

    Jean-Marc Barr in Europa (1991)
    Jean-Marc Barr in Europa (1991)
    Jean-Marc Barr in Europa (1991)
    Europa (1991)
    1 sheet movie poster
    Jean-Marc Barr in Europa (1991)
    Europa (1991)
    Europa (1991)
    Europa (1991)
    Europa (1991)
    Europa (1991)
    Europa (1991)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Barbara Sukowa
    Barbara Sukowa
    • Katharina Hartmann
    Jean-Marc Barr
    Jean-Marc Barr
    • Leopold Kessler
    Udo Kier
    Udo Kier
    • Lawrence Hartmann
    Ernst-Hugo Järegård
    Ernst-Hugo Järegård
    • Uncle Kessler
    Erik Mørk
    • Pater
    Jørgen Reenberg
    • Max Hartmann
    Henning Jensen
    Henning Jensen
    • Siggy
    Eddie Constantine
    Eddie Constantine
    • Colonel Harris
    Max von Sydow
    Max von Sydow
    • Narrator
    • (voice)
    Benny Poulsen
    • Steleman
    Erno Müller
    • Seifert
    Dietrich Kuhlbrodt
    • Inspector
    Michael Phillip Simpson
    • Robins
    Holger Perfort
    • Mr. Ravenstein
    Anne Werner Thomsen
    • Mrs. Ravenstein
    Hardy Rafn
    • Man in Housecoat
    Cæcilia Holbek Trier
    • Maid
    János Herskó
    János Herskó
    • Jewish Man
    • Director
      • Lars von Trier
    • Writers
      • Lars von Trier
      • Niels Vørsel
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Lars von Trier: the Jew who signs the affidavit clearing the name of the Zentropa owner.
    • Goofs
      In the transition before Leopold and Katharina get married, Leopold is initially on Katharina's left side before the altar, but at the end of the transition, he is on her right.
    • Quotes

      [opening lines]

      Narrator: You will now listen to my voice. My voice will help you and guide you still deeper into Europa. Every time you hear my voice, with every word and every number, you will enter into a still deeper layer - open, relaxed and receptive. I shall now count from one to ten. On the count of ten, you will be in Europa. I say: one. And as you focus your attention entirely on my voice, you will slowly begin to relax. Two - your hands and your fingers are getting warmer and heavier. Three - the warmth is spreading through your arms, to your shoulders and your neck. Four - your feet and your legs get heavier. Five - the warmth is spreading to the whole of your body. On six, I want you to go deeper. I say: six. And the whole of your relaxed body is slowly beginning to sink. Seven - you go deeper and deeper and deeper. Eight - on every breath you take, you go deeper. Nine - you are floating. On the mental count of ten, you will be in Europa. Be there at ten. I say: ten.

    • Connections
      Featured in The Making of 'Europa' (1991)
    • Soundtracks
      Europa Aria
      Written by Lars von Trier

      Performed by Nina Hagen and Philippe Huttenlocher

      Courtesy of Virgin Musique

    User reviews69

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    Abandon Personal Restraint for This Purely Visceral, Sardonic Work of Bizarre Nostalgia.
    Released as Zentropa in North America to avoid confusion with Agniezska Holland's own Holocaust film Europa Europa, this third theatrical feature by a filmmaker who never ceases to surprise, inspire or downright shock is a bizarre, nostalgic, elaborate film about a naive American in Germany shortly following the end of WWII. The American, named Leo, doesn't fully get what he's doing there. He has come to take part in fixing up the country since, in his mind, it's about time Germany was shown some charity. No matter how that sounds, he is not a Nazi sympathizer or so much as especially pro-German, merely mixed up. His uncle, who works on the railroad, gets Leo a job as a helmsman on a sleeping car, and he is increasingly enmeshed in a vortex of 1945 Germany's horrors and enigmas.

    This progression starts when Leo, played rather memorably by the calm yet restless actor Jean-Marc Barr, meets a sultry heiress on the train played by Barbara Sukowa, an actress with gentility on the surface but internal vigor. She seduces him and then takes him home to meet her family, which owns the company which manufactures the trains. These were the precise trains that took Jews to their deaths during the war, but now they run a drab day-to-day timetable, and the woman's Uncle Kessler postures as another one of those good Germans who were just doing their jobs. There is also Udo Kier, the tremendous actor who blew me away in Von Trier's shocking second film Epidemic, though here he is mere scenery.

    Another guest at the house is Eddie Constantine, an actor with a quiet strength, playing a somber American intelligence man. He can confirm that Uncle Kessler was a war criminal, though it is all completely baffling to Leo. Americans have been characterized as gullible rubes out of their element for decades, but little have they been more blithely unconcerned than Leo, who goes back to his job on what gradually looks like his own customized death train.

    The story is told in a purposely uncoordinated manner by the film's Danish director, Lars Von Trier, whose anchor is in the film's breathtaking editing and cinematography. He shoots in black and white and color, he uses double-exposures, optical effects and trick photography, having actors interact with rear-projected footage, he places his characters inside a richly shaded visceral world so that they sometimes feel like insects, caught between glass for our more precise survey.

    This Grand Jury Prize-winning surrealist work is allegorical, but maybe in a distinct tone for every viewer. I interpret it as a film about the last legs of Nazism, symbolized by the train, and the ethical accountability of Americans and others who appeared too late to salvage the martyrs of these trains and the camps where they distributed their condemned shiploads. During the time frame of the movie, and the Nazi state, and such significance to the train, are dead, but like decapitated chickens they persist in jolting through their reflexes.

    The characters, music, dialogue, and plot are deliberately hammy and almost satirically procured from film noir conventions. The most entrancing points in the movie are the entirely cinematographic ones. Two trains halting back and forth, Barr on one and Sukowa on another. An underwater shot of proliferating blood. An uncommonly expressive sequence on what it must be like to drown. And most metaphysically affecting of all, an anesthetic shot of train tracks, as Max von Sydow's voice allures us to hark back to Europe with him, and abandon our personal restraint.
    helpful•18
    5
    • jzappa
    • Sep 21, 2009

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 27, 1991 (Germany)
    • Countries of origin
      • Denmark
      • Sweden
      • France
      • Germany
      • Switzerland
    • Official site
      • Official site
    • Languages
      • Latin
      • English
      • German
    • Also known as
      • Zentropa
    • Filming locations
      • Nordisk Film Risby Studierne, Albertslund, Sjælland, Denmark
    • Production companies
      • Alicéléo
      • Coproduction Office
      • Det Danske Filminstitut
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • DKK 28,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $1,007,001
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $21,447
      • May 25, 1992
    • Gross worldwide
      • $1,022,282
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 52 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby SR
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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