Leif Magnusson Movies
- 1998
Interlaced with black comedy, this Swedish drama tells the tale of a 43-year-old bachelor schoolteacher (Tomas von Bromssen), with a painful secret, who makes an ill-timed confession and ends up accused and pursued for a terrible crime he did not commit. Torsten's ordeal begins during a PTA meeting when he gets drunk and publicly proclaims his long-time secret love for single mother/supermarket clerk Berit (Ia Langhammer). Prior to this announcement, Torsten had been secretly sending her poetic love letters. No one in town realizes that Torsten has never been with a woman. Berit too has a secret, though perhaps one that is not as well kept -- she is having an affair with Glenn (Mikael Persbrandt) the husband of her co-worker Vivianne (Anna Wallander). After Torsten speaks, the frightened Berit runs from the meeting only to encounter Glen, who viciously rapes her. The next morning Torsten gets fired. Worse yet, when news of Berit's rape leaks out, he finds himself blamed for the deed, and soon his life and property are in grave danger. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tomas von Bromssen, Anna Wallander, (more)
Europa (retitled Zentropa for the American release) is an hallucinatory Danish film set in postwar Germany. Jean-Marc Barr plays a young German who aspires for a job as a street conductor. But this is no mere "Joe Job;" Barr's adventures on the line are designed as a metaphor for the emergence of the "New Europe" following the war. Barbara Sukowa costars as the daughter of a railroad magnate--and possible Nazi sympathizer. Many of the special-effects sequences are computer enhanced, but even the "live" scenes have an unsettling, surreal quality to them (colors changing abruptly, backgrounds shifting without warning, etc.) This experimental film left some viewers confused, which may be why English-language prints of Zentropa are narrated by Max Von Sydow. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Marc Barr, Barbara Sukowa, (more)
- 1989
In postwar Europe, Jens (Adam Koslowski) is having a difficult time. He is of Polish extraction, has a Danish name, and is attending a strict boarding school in Yugoslavia. He heads off to Denmark, which is where his Polish father (Boguslaw Linda) currently lives, and tries to help his father, who is nearly paralyzed with wistfulness and is unable to carry anything through to completion, especially surrounded as he is by unsympathetic Danes. Finding this environment almost as unpleasant as that in the boarding school, Jens returns to Yugoslavia and is met by a kindly old grandfather and brought to an idyllic country setting - or is he dreaming? ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Boguslaw Linda
Director Lars von Trier stars in a double role in this experimental horror fantasy. He pretentiously portrays a director who spends a year and a half preparing to make a horror film with help from a government grant. In the second part, he plays a young physician who unknowingly has a plague virus planted in his medical bag. Fantasy sequences depict the possible horror that could come if the virus is unleashed on the public. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lars von Trier, Niels Vørsel, (more)
- 1986
This low-budget, first feature-length film by Danish Film School graduate Kristian Levring is set in an unknown country where a new army recruit is assigned the task of escorting a prisoner to a stockade. The recruit is gun shy to the extreme, so when the two of them are attacked by bandits, the prisoner himself has to grab the recruit's gun and defend them against certain death. Even though a kind of camaraderie is present between the two men as they head across the desert to the stockade, both know that the prisoner will be brutally interrogated and then executed. That knowledge affects their journey and its unexpected ending. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lars Oluf Larsen, Niels Skousen, (more)
A detective plagued by headaches goes to a hypnotist and relives his investigation into a serial killer case in Lars von Trier's first feature, The Element of Crime. Fisher (Michael Elphick), a retired policeman, returns to Europe at the behest of his mentor, Osborne (Esmond Knight of The Red Shoes). Osborne, the author of an influential textbook called The Element of Crime, has given up his investigation into the Lotto Murders, in which a number of lottery ticket salesgirls have been killed and mutilated. The new chief of police, Kramer (former Benny Hill Show regular Jerold Wells), is a trigger-happy lunatic who objects to Fisher's methodical approach to crime solving. Osborne, meanwhile, seemingly losing his grip on reality, insists that the killer, Harry Grey, died in a car crash. Using Osborne's methods, Fisher tries to delve into the mind of Grey by following the path of a trip the killer took three years earlier, while Osborne was investigating him. Along the way, Fisher hooks up with a prostitute, Kim (Me Me Lai), who also has a link to Grey. As he gets closer to unraveling the mystery, Fisher finds himself taking on more and more aspects of the killer's persona. Von Trier uses a traditional film noir style voice-over, while visually, his film is a monochromatic sepia tone with occasional flashes of fluorescent blue. This film brought von Trier international attention, paving the way for his success with Zentropa and The Kingdom. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Elphick, Esmond Knight, (more)
