The Element of Crime (Lars von Trier, 1984) – Tackling the Ouevre

The Element of Crime is the debut film of director Lars von Trier. It is also the first entry in Trier’s Europa trilogy; however, the trilogy was not declared as such until Trier was working on the last film, Europa. The film starts with an image of a donkey rolling around in the sand along with subsequent images of Egypt. We learn that the main character, Fisher, left Europe 13 years earlier and has stayed in Egypt until a few months prior to take up a police job. Fisher, now back in Egypt, is haunted by headaches and is undergoing hypnosis for treatment.

We are taken back those two months into Europe–a Post-war Europe that is decaying, devastated, despondent, and devoid of day. The entire movie is shot in heavy yellowed sepia tone. It fits the movie well, but whether it is used to depict a bleak Europe, to remind us we are in hypnosis, or just for the sake of style is up for debate. Von Trier will occasionally throw in a blue or green light to alarm the viewer; one might assume the rare presence of a different color would denote an important point in Fisher’s memory. Water is a heavily used theme throughout the movie, whether it has shots by water, moving through water, or in the rain. “Water, water everywhere…and not a drop to drink.” recalls Fisher.

Fisher arrives on boat to the home of Osborne, his former mentor who seems to not quite be in his right mind. Fisher’s case is to catch a criminal who killed a little girl selling lotto tickets. In many ways Fisher walks in footsteps of Osborne. Fisher takes Osborne’s old office at the police station where he finds a trailing report of Osborne’s that describes a criminal extremely similar to the one he is after. Osborne purports that he saw Harry Grey (“The Lotto Murderer”) die, but Fisher is skeptical and believes both murderers are one in the same.

In reference to his book, The Element of Crime, Osborne remarks, “We always looked for the element of crime in society, but why not look in the very nature of man?” Upon this premise Fisher attempts to catch “Grey” by thinking as Grey did, journeying where Grey did, and travelling with a woman as Grey did– so Fisher picks up prostitute to join the search with him.

The movie is very slow moving–almost to a fault. It seems as if von Trier cared more about pacing the movie to his style than to the story; however, one can thank him for doing that because the style is what drives the film around the weak story (written by von Trier and Niels Vørsel). The acting is decent sometimes, but at others times it feels just like that–acting. The dialog has a few good one liners, but ultimately comes off dry. At the end of the film I felt empty and emotionless towards it–not because of the setting and themes of the movie but because the film itself had no heart. The final moral of the story ends up lost and muddled due to this lack of emotion. Some have called the film “shallow and pretentious”, and others a “visual masterpiece”. I’d say it’s somewhere in between. The Element of Crime certainly displayed promise in Lars von Trier cinematic style and technique, but it was just that–an exercise in style attached to a non-enjoyable story.

- Ryan Smith

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