Epidemic (1987)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Lars von Trier

Writers:

Lars von Trier (screenplay) &
Niels Vørsel (screenplay)

Release Date:

11 September 1987 (Denmark)

Genre:

Drama | Horror

Plot:

A film director and a script writer (performed by Lars von Trier and Niels Vørsel themselves) write a screenplay...

Plot Keywords:

Meta | Part Of Trilogy | Morgue | Plague | Film Within A Film

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Allan De Waal
Ole Ernst
Michael Gelting
Colin Gilder
Svend Ali Hamann	...	Himself
Claes Kastholm Hansen	...	Himself
Ib Hansen
Anja Hemmingsen
Kirsten Hemmingsen
Cæcilia Holbek Trier		(as Cæcilia Holbek)
Gert Holbek
Udo Kier	...	Himself
Joergen Christian Krueff		(as Jørgen Christian Krüff)
Jan Kornum Larsen
Gitte Lind	...	Herself

Runtime:

UK:106 min

Country:

Denmark

Language:

Danish | English

Color:

Color | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Hungary:18 | Australia:M | UK:15 | Germany:12

Company:

Elementfilm A/S

Trivia:

The second film in Lars on Trier's 'Europa' trilogy which illuminates the traumas of Europe in the future. The two other parts are Forbrydelsens element (1984) and Europa (1991).

Movie Connections:

Featured in I Lars von Triers rige (1999) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Epidemic We All Fall Down

Weird film. To watch only if in the right mood.

I obviously was in the right mood, since I don't give it a horrible mark. I do give it a 6 out of 10, because it is obviously such a low budget movie and it's definitely very original, but other than that, I am still amazed I watched it till the end.

Two screenwriters are trying to do in 5 days what they barely succeeded in one and a half years, that is write a script. They lost their original screenplay, which by now they can barely remember how it started, due to a bad disk. Each day is accompanied with scenes of their creative process, scenes from the movie they would do and dialogues with different people.

Now it happens that I've just written an IMDb comment that said "Funny little things: Udo Kier plays a short role in this movie, and he is really young". Deja vu! Udo Kier plays in this one, as well.

The movie is shot in black and white, probably by the same single camera, and the sound is almost not processed giving the whole movie a documentary like feeling. There are a lot of things written between the lines, the satire of the government and film industry being the most obvious.

Conclusion: you should watch this mostly if you're Danish. Else if you are a movie critic or deep into films. It is NOT a horror movie. A movie that has some gore at the very end is not horror. And also you have to have the right set of mind to watch it.