NationMaster - Encyclopedia: The Element of Crime

The Element of Crime (Danish: Forbrydelsens element) is the first feature film directed by noted Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier. The film, released in 1984, is also the first in the director's Europa trilogy. Image File history File links E_o_crime_dvd. ... Lars von Trier (born Lars Trier, April 30, 1956) is a Danish film director closely associated with the Dogme95 collective, calling for a return to plausible stories in filmmaking and a move away from artifice and towards technical minimalism. ... Lars von Trier (born Lars Trier, April 30, 1956) is a Danish film director closely associated with the Dogme95 collective, calling for a return to plausible stories in filmmaking and a move away from artifice and towards technical minimalism. ... Michael as Harry Slater in EastEnders Michael Elphick (born September 19, 1946 in Chichester, West Sussex; died September 7, 2002 in London) was a British actor. ... Esmond Knight was an accomplished British character actor (4 May 1906 - 22 February 1987), with a career spanning over half a century. ... Me Me Lai was born in Burma 1952, to a Burmese mother and an English father. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Denmark. ... May 14 is the 134th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (135th in leap years). ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_States. ... May 1 is the 121st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (122nd in leap years). ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A reel of film, which predates digital cinematography. ... Lars von Trier (born Lars Trier, April 30, 1956) is a Danish film director closely associated with the Dogme95 collective, calling for a return to plausible stories in filmmaking and a move away from artifice and towards technical minimalism. ... // Events The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name. ... The Europa trilogy is film trilogy written and directed by Lars von Trier and comprising of his first three feature films, The Element of Crime (1984), Epidemic (1988) and Europa (Zentropa, 1991). ...

Synopsis

The Element of Crime is set in a dystopian, crumbling Europe undergoing social decay. A British detective named Fisher (Michael Elphick) has become an expatriate living in Cairo. Fisher undergoes hypnosis in order to recall his last case, in which he pursued an elusive killer called the "Lotto Murderer", who brutally savaged young girls selling lottery tickets. Fisher had attempted to track down the killer using the controversial methods outlined in a book entitled The Element of Crime, written by his disgraced mentor, Osborne (Esmond Knight). Fisher is joined in his search by a prostitute named Kim (Meme Lai). Fisher's search is based on tailing reports written by Osborne when he was trying to track down a murderer who killed in the same way as the "Lotto Murderer". However, the Osborne method requires the detective to try to identify with the mind of the killer. This Fisher does, but in so doing begins to behave like a serial killer himself. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. ... Michael as Harry Slater in EastEnders Michael Elphick (born September 19, 1946 in Chichester, West Sussex; died September 7, 2002 in London) was a British actor. ... An expatriate (in abbreviated form expat) is someone temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of their upbringing and/or legal residence. ... Cairos location in Egypt Coordinates: Governor Dr. Abdul Azim Wazir Area - City 210 kmÂ² - Metro 1,492 kmÂ² Population - City (2005) 7,438,376 - Density 35,420/kmÂ² - Urban 10,834,495 - Metro 15,200,000 Time zone EET (UTC+2) EEST (UTC+3) Cairo (Arabic: â€Ž translit: ), It comes... Esmond Knight was an accomplished British character actor (4 May 1906 - 22 February 1987), with a career spanning over half a century. ...

Style

The film is shot almost entirely in yellow lighting, making the images reminiscent of sepia tone, but with a more intense yellow. This effect was created by shooting the scenes in very powerful sodium light which erased all colours except yellow.^{[citation needed]} The sepia is occasionally contrasted with piercing blues or greens. It always seems to be night in the film's world, and water is ubiquitous. All of these elements, along with its crime film subject matter, connect the film to the genre of film noir. Sepia tone is a type of monochrome photographic image in which the picture appears in shades of brown as opposed to greyscale as in a black-and-white image. ... A sodium vapor lamp is a gas discharge lamp which uses sodium in an excited state to produce light. ... A crime film, in its most general sense, is a film that deals with crime, criminal justice and the darker side of human nature. ... This still from The Big Combo (1955) demonstrates the visual style of film noir at its most extreme. ...

The world depicted in the film is semi-derelict. Disordered collections of similar or identical object are found in many of the scenes, reinforce the sense of a crumbling society. Examples include heaps of keys, surgical scissors, bottles, rubber stamps and Coca-Cola cans.

The film's slow pace, dark visuals occasional surreal imagery give it a dreamlike quality. In addition, much of the dialogue and is contradictory. An example is one conversation between Fisher and his mentor's housekeeper: A cow standing on a pole. ...

In the opening of the film, a shot of a horse lying on its back and then slowly struggling to stand may be an homage to a similar shot in Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev (1968). Von Trier has stated that he is an admirer of Tarkovsky's work.^{[citation needed]} For a description of the medieval homage ceremony see commendation ceremony Homage is generally used in modern English to mean any public show of respect to someone to whom you feel indebted. ... Andrei Tarkovsky Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (ÐÐ½Ð´Ñ€ÐµÌÐ¹ ÐÑ€ÑÐµÌÐ½ÑŒÐµÐ²Ð¸Ñ‡ Ð¢Ð°Ñ€ÐºÐ¾ÌÐ²ÑÐºÐ¸Ð¹) (April 4, 1932 - December 28, 1986) was a Russian movie director, writer, and actor. ... Andrei Rublev is a movie made by Andrei Tarkovsky in the former Soviet Union in 1966. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ...

Awards

The Element of Crime received several wards, including a nomination for the Palme d'Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. The Palme dOr (Golden Palm) is the name of the highest prize given to a film at the Cannes Film Festival. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

DVD releases

The Element of Crime has been released on DVD in North America by the Criterion Collection. In Europe, a digitally remastered DVD is available as part of the box set Lars von Trier's Europe Trilogy - Hypnotic Edition. DVD (sometimes called Digital Versatile Disc, or Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... The Criterion Collection is a joint venture between Janus Films and The Voyager Company that was begun in the mid 1980s for the purpose of releasing authoritative consumer versions of classic and important contemporary films on the laserdisc and DVD formats. ...

External link

Categories: Articles with unsourced statements | 1984 films | Danish films | Films directed by Lars von Trier | Mystery films | Neo-noir The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about actors, films, television shows, video games and production crew personnel. ... Lars von Trier (born Lars Trier, April 30, 1956) is a Danish film director closely associated with the Dogme95 collective, calling for a return to plausible stories in filmmaking and a move away from artifice and towards technical minimalism. ... Epidemic is a 1987 film directed by Lars von Trier. ... Zentropa (Danish:Europa), is the title of Lars von Triers third theatrical feature film, released in 1991. ... The Kingdom (Danish title: Riget) is an eight-episode Danish television mini-series, created by Lars von Trier in 1994. ... Breaking the Waves is a 1996 film, set in the Scottish Highlands in the 1970s, which tells the story of Bess McNeill, who marries oil-man Jan, despite the apprehensions of her community and Calvinist church. ... The Idiots (Danish: Idioterne) is a 1998 Danish film directed by Lars von Trier. ... Dogme 95 (in English: Dogma 95) is an avant-garde filmmaking movement started in 1995 by the Danish directors Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, Kristian Levring, and SÃ¸ren Kragh-Jacobsen. ... BjÃ¶rk in Lars von Triers Dancer in the Dark Dancer in the Dark is a Golden Palm winning musical film released in the year 2000. ... Dogville is a 2003 movie written and directed by Lars von Trier, starring Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany, Lauren Bacall, Stellan SkarsgÃ¥rd and James Caan, among others. ... You might be looking for Manderley, a fictional estate; or Mandalay, a Burmese city. ... Wasington is the final film in Lars von Triers third trilogy series entitled USA - Land of Opportunities. The two other parts are Dogville (2003) and Manderlay (2005). ... W. C. Fields (January 29, 1880 - December 25, 1946) was an American comedian and actor. ... The Criterion Collection has released or announced the future release of the following films on DVD. List number corresponds to the spine number of the title, which is roughly correlative to the release order, although this sometimes varies due to outside factors involving a titles production. ... Variety Lights is a 1950 film directed by Federico Fellini and Alberto Lattuada. ...