Nocturne (1980/I)

Director:

Lars von Trier

Writer:

Lars von Trier (writer)

Release Date:

1980 (Denmark)

Genre:

Short | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Dream Like | Surrealism | Found Footage | Student Film | Independent Film

Cast

Yvette	...	The Woman
Solbjørg Højfeldt	...	The Telephone Voice (voice)
Anne-Lise Gabold	...	The Woman (voice) (as Annelise Gabold)

Runtime:

8 min

Country:

Denmark

Language:

Danish

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Company:

Den Danske Filmskole

Trivia:

Is an "Easter Egg" on the _Epidemic (1988)_ DVD released by Home Vision Entertainment in 2004. To find it: on the main menu, move the selection icon over to 'extras' and select left with your remote. This will move the icon over to the EPIDEMIC logo. Select that and the egg will come up.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Im Laboratorium des Doktor von Trier: Zurück zur Magie des Kinos (1998) (TV)

Plot-wise I was totally lost but as an experimental piece of film-making it is interesting for its style

A woman with a light sensitive condition sits in her dark room talking on the phone with an unseen man. They talk about the weather and her upcoming flight as we look around her darkened flat. And that's about it as far as I'm able to work out although, knowing Lars Von Trier, it's probably a very deep and meaningful piece about the human condition! But, if it was, then I'm afraid it was lost on me.

The film opens with a shot so still for over a minute that I actually checked to see I hadn't hit pause by mistake! It then moves around a lot and, to be honest, not a great deal happens. The characters speak but I couldn't hear anything other than murmuring and again I checked that my sound was working on my TV! So basically I assumed that me not getting this film was my fault – either for technical reasons or because I'm a bit thick! However I decided that it was more the fact that the film is not about substance – it is about Trier experimenting with filters, film and style in a way that he would return to again having learnt a lot from this film. To complain about its lack of plot is to really look at test spots of paint to check the colour and complain that they make the room look messy.

Of course this is no help if you have come in looking for a story and, if you have, then I suggest you just leave it because there is nothing even close to a narrative for you here! What there is is a film that is interesting to look at and Trier's direction is interesting if rough. He zooms in on images, he uses filters and he makes a weird use of the semi-dark that he seems to be shooting it. It may not back up a narrative but it is weirdly effective and would have been great with a short chiller story behind it (as the opening suggested it would be).

Overall not a great film in terms of narrative but in terms of visuals, the use of a camera and student experimentation it is interesting and worth a look if that aspect of it appeals to you – otherwise it is probably not good enough to appeal to a mass audience.