The Element of Crime (1984)

If you only know Lars Von Trier from his involvement with the Dogme 95 movement, The Element of Crime might come as a shock, but in many ways it provides the crucial context for the Dogme "Vow of Cinematic Chastity". The Element Of Crime is the very opposite of chaste, a film that indulges in practically every artifice that cinema has to offer.

As the feature debut of a noted auteur it is no surprise that the film is an exercise in style and technique, a muscle flex where you can feel Lars exploring what he is capable of. Others have noted the similarities with Andrei Tarkovsky, but it's by no means an imitation. If nothing else, it is definitely more sordid than the Russian auteur was inclined to be.

The plot is hard to pin down... told as a recollection under hypnosis of some past events, it's never very clear what is truth or hallucinations of a subconscious mind - or whether it is meaningful to even ask. Despite the detective story trappings, the film is not particularly concerned with solving the case.

The result is a compelling if sometimes frustrating experience, visually astonishing and hauntingly atmospheric (the Curzon restoration really shows it off in that respect), provocative and at times bewildering... in other words, everything that the Dogme movement stood opposed to.

I think Lars Von Trier's most successful films are those where he forced himself to focus on the basics of cast, characters and story, deliberately discarding all the tricks and pretentions that he is perhaps inclined to by nature. The fact that he can convincingly operate at the extremes of that spectrum is perhaps what makes him most interesting, though.