Europa on DVD!

The dazzling, hypnotic, 1991 Lars Von Trier film Europa is now out on DVD via Criterion. Opening with the velvety sound of Max Von Sydow’s voice telling the audience to count to ten as he puts them under his trancelike spell, Von Trier creates a wonderfully weird film noir out of an American (Jean-Marc Barr) returning to post World War II Germany taking a job as a sleeping-car conductor. He meets and falls in love with a beautiful mysterious woman (Barbara Sukowa) and slowly finds himself roped into a terrorist plot to blow up trains. The cinematography -- in black and white with flashes of color and inventive sequences using back projection -- makes this thrilling to the eye and ear. As the last part of Von Trier’s “Europa Trilogy” it really stands alone as an enthralling, thrilling ride.