



Our Rating: 9.5

IMDb Ratings : 6 .8

Genre: Crime | Drama | Thriller

Cast: Michael Elphick, Esmond Knight, Me Me Lai

Country: Denmark

Language: English | Arabic

Runtime: 104 minutes

Color: Black and White (tinted) | Color



T he Element of Crime, also known as Forbrydelsens element, is a 1984 crime film directed by Danish filmmaker Europa (1991) . The Element of Crime was also nominated for the coveted Palme d’Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival—an honor that many of von Trier’s subsequent movies have been bestowed with. Renowned for his exceedingly unconventional and visually stimulating style that often reminds one of Denmark since Dreyer. And just like Tarkovsky, von Trier’s singular works of cinematic art generally come across as mysterious, bizarre, and often inscrutable to the less keen audience. And, The Element of Crime is no exception! he Element of Crime, also known as Forbrydelsens element, is a 1984 crime film directed by Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier that also marked his international debut. The Element of Crime is the first installment in von Trier’s highly acclaimed Europe Trilogy—the other two being Epidemic (1987) and. The Element of Crime was also nominated for the coveted Palme d’Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival—an honor that many of von Trier’s subsequent movies have been bestowed with. Renowned for his exceedingly unconventional and visually stimulating style that often reminds one of Andrei Tarkovsky , Lars von Trier is unarguably the most influential filmmaker to have emerged out ofsince Dreyer. And just like Tarkovsky, von Trier’s singular works of cinematic art generally come across as mysterious, bizarre, and often inscrutable to the less keen audience. And, The Element of Crime is no exception!

The Element of Crime: Fisher and Kim The Element of Crime presents the story of a European police detective whose morbid obsession for the criminal investigatory methods of his mentor makes him question the veracity of his own existence as he slowly gets engulfed in a miasma of delirium and paranoia. After being a part of the diaspora for 13 years in the Egyptian city of Cairo, Fisher returns to his homeland—depicted as a European dystopia—to uncover the mystery involving the ghastly ‘Lotto Murders’ perpetrated by a psychopathic serial killer who is known to strangulate and then mutilate his girl victims, a case that was initially assigned to Fisher’s former mentor and the controversial author of a treatise termed ‘The Element of Crime’ (a dangerous Freudian technique used to dig deep into the mind of the killer). On meeting Osborne, Fisher realizes that his once brilliant mentor has now been reduced to the state of a mentally retarded dotard.





A Still from The Element of Crime Fisher discovers that Osborne, during his investigation of the Lotto Murders, had suspected a man named Harry Grey. Fisher uses Osborne’s tailing report—an itinerary of the journey undertaken by Harry Grey three years earlier, a period during which Harry probably formulated the master plan for the Lotto Murders—and The Element of Crime to start his investigation. Fisher travels across the dystopian land retracing the route highlighted in the tailing report. During his investigation, Fisher gets amorously involved with an Asian prostitute named Kim who seems to be the missing link between Osborne’s incomplete investigation and Harry Grey. As Fisher closes in on the truth, his obsession for Osborne’s method takes a morbid form as he, much like his mentor, starts to grow more and more paranoid and delirious. Lars von Trier—in what would form the basis of The Europe Trilogy—describes the events in the movie in form of a hypnosis-induced-flashback with Fisher trying to recall the events of his last case with the help of a hypnotherapist in Cairo .





A Still from The Element of Crime Citizen Kane (1941) . Von Trier films the movie in an orange monochrome, occasionally punctuated by shafts of green and blue—a facet that inexplicably reminds of Tarkovsky’s use of the sepia tone in Stalker (1979) . But, the similarity between von Trier’s The Element of Crime and Tarkovsky’s Stalker is not merely limited to the color tone. The water-drenched dystopian landscape in The Element of Crime bears an uncanny similarity to ‘the Zone’ in Stalker. The tunnel called ‘Meat Grinder’ in Stalker that’s known to thwart the advances of the Zone’s visitors happens to share a similar analogy with the mental tunnel that seems to block Fisher’s thoughts during his investigation. The Element of Crime is cryptic, bizarre, hypnotic, ambiguous, contradicting and at times absurd, and perhaps that’s what makes it so brilliant, unique and engaging at all levels. The movie’s experimental camerawork is highly reminiscent of Welles’Von Trier films the movie in an orange monochrome, occasionally punctuated by shafts of green and blue—a facet that inexplicably reminds of Tarkovsky’s use of the sepia tone in. But, the similarity between von Trier’s The Element of Crime and Tarkovsky’s Stalker is not merely limited to the color tone. The water-drenched dystopian landscape in The Element of Crime bears an uncanny similarity to ‘the Zone’ in Stalker. The tunnel called ‘Meat Grinder’ in Stalker that’s known to thwart the advances of the Zone’s visitors happens to share a similar analogy with the mental tunnel that seems to block Fisher’s thoughts during his investigation.



Lars von Trier's cameo in The Element of Crime In fact, it would be safe to concede that von Trier’s mise en scene seems to be a well thought-out variation of the Russian master’s mise en scene in Stalker. But, von Trier’s The Element of Crime doesn’t degrade itself by merely trying to imitate Tarkovsky’s genre-redefining, existential masterpiece, but, on the contrary, it makes a solemn attempt to use Stalker’s framework to manifest something more eerie, vivid and nebulous. Lars von Trier has been a great admirer of Tarkovsky's work. He once said of the Russian maestro, “I was very inspired by Tarkovsky. I won't make any bones about that. I saw an excerpt from The Mirror (Zerkalo) on Swedish television once, just a travelling shot around that house, and that was one of those ‘I’ll be damned’ experiences.” It's only befitting that Lars von Trier dedicated his 2009 horror drama, Antichrist to Andrei Tarkovsky.



