FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
Directed by: Lars von Trier. Produced by: Sven Abrahamsen, Philippe Bober, Peter Aalbæk Jensen, Ole Reim & Ib Tardini. Written by: Tómas Gislason, Lars von Trier & Niels Vørsel. Director of Photography: Eric Kress. Edited by: Molly Marlene Stensgård & Jacob Thuesen. Music by: Joachim Holbek. Released by: Koch/Lorber. Language: Danish with English subtitles. Country of Origin: Denmark. 272 min. Not Rated. With: Ernst-Hugo Järegård, Kirsten Rolffes, Holger Juul Hansen, Søren Pilmark, Ghita Nørby, Jens Okking & Udo Kier. DVD Features: Behind-the-scenes footage. Selected commentary by Lars von Trier, editor Molly Marlene Stensgård & writer Niels Vørsel. Von Trier epilogues. Trailers.
While the back of the DVD refers to The Kingdom as "a thinking man's
ER," a more accurate comparison would probably be a David Lynch nightmare
after watching a General Hospital marathon on SoapNet. The first
four-episode season of Lars von Trier's 1994 Danish horror series finally
comes to DVD on a Region 1 format after a long wait for American and
Canadian fans, but the disappointing quality of the DVD leaves much to be
desired.
The series itself is often hailed as one of von Trier's most accessible
achievements. The first season follows several doctors in Copenhagen's
Kingdom Hospital (run by a secretive Masonic-like cult) who encounter
bizarre supernatural circumstances. Trite plot devices and camera tricks
that render the horror genre so formulaic highlight here the beliefs and
behaviors of the large cast. While one character chases after spirits,
others refuse to look into the many paranormal occurrences, such as a
driverless ambulance or a patient's seeing an apparition during an
operation. The series does sustain a certain level of creepiness, but it
never succeeds in causing any true scares, perhaps intentionally and perhaps
not.
Running the hospital with a firm grip, Helmer, the autocratic and
megalomaniac Swedish doctor (Ernst-Hugo Järegård), ostracizes the other
doctors for valuing compassion over scientific glory - a contention that the
staff wrestles with in their individual ways. His rival, the younger
Krogshøj (Søren Pilmark), keeps a record of the hospital's unreported
malpractice deaths, and by forcing doctors to do good deeds when
necessary, his use of blackmail offsets the hospital's imbalance of science
over nature (he's just noble like that). Like the cartoonish display of
supernatural forces, the office politics are a paint-by-numbers allegory of
Danish capitalism. Even the name of the hospital, Kingdom, alludes to the
show's central joke - there really is something rotten in the state of
Denmark, and it's not just the ghosts.
Utilizing the whole genre gamut from exorcisms to Satanic pregnancies helps
to implicate the audience's complicated desires in watching ghosts and gore
- or at least that's what von Trier says in his helpful and hilarious
explanatory commentaries at the end of each episode (with a smart suit and his hair
slicked back, he's like an eerily energetic Vincent Price).
The merits of thrilling horror aside, this is a dense offering that manages to treat its subject matter with humor (especially in the
last episode) and outright absurdity in an earnestness that the director
seems to have forgotten in recent years. Unfortunately, the DVD lacks the
excellence of its content. The major problem is a production glitch that
freezes the disc halfway through the third episode, making several scenes
impossible to watch. The extra footage is worthwhile, as with any von Trier
release, but minimal. It's the beautiful interactive menu on the DVD which
maintains the creepy atmosphere of the series that almost redeems the shoddy
production of the discs - almost. Zachary Jones
|