The Idiots (Original Danish Version With English Subtitles)

One of the best films by Danish director Lars Von Trier (also director of Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, and Breaking the Waves) has ever done. It is an excellent example of Dogme 95, a pact by several filmmakers (of which Von Trier is arguably the most famous) to create more realism in cinema by restraining what the director can do.

A group of perfectly intelligent young people decide to react to society's cult of an aimless, non-creative and non-responsible form of intelligence by living together in a community of "idiots". Their main activity becomes going out into the world of "normal" people and pretending to be mentally retarded. They take advantage of this situation to create anarchy everywhere they go and try by every possible means to make people annoyed, disturbed, miserable, ridiculous, angered, and shocked. The films start as they recruit a new lost soul and introduced her to their megalomaniac leader.

The Idiots is long overdue for a full American release. Due to its very graphic sexuality, it should only be viewed by adult audiences.

• Actors: Bodil Jørgensen, Jens Albinus, Anne Louise Hassing, Troels Lyby, Nikolaj Lie Kaas
• Directors: Lars Von Trier
• Format: Color, Full Screen, Import, Subtitled
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1.0
• Run Time: 110 minutes

Antichrist [DVD] [2009]

Antichrist is a very controversial movie, by many considered Lars von Trier's best ever. Some are of the opinion that this was the best movie of 2009. Others strongly dislike it, and state that this is a movie to stay away from. The opions about this movie are extremely polarized.

Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg play a grieving couple retreating to Eden, their isolated cabin in the woods, where they hope to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse... What follows is all very serious and bleak. But is an outstanding raw portrayal of the trauma of bereavement.

Both the leading actors play magnificently.

Following its award winning success at the Cannes Film Festival and explosive box office performance, one of the most controversial films ever to receive a cinema release in the UK finally makes it way on to the DVD and Blu-Ray

SPECIAL FEATURES: Feature Commentary with Director Lars von Trier, Interview with Charlotte Gainsbourg, Interview with Willem Dafoe

FEATURETTES: The Evil of Woman, The Visual Style of Antichrist, The Make-Up Effects and Props of Antichrist, The Three Beggars, Eden, Confessions about Anxiety, The Sound and Music of Antichrist, The Antichrist Test, Behind the test, Antichrist Chaos Reigns at the Cannes Film Festival

• Actors: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg
• Directors: Lars Von Trier
• Format: PAL
• Subtitles: Danish, Italian
• Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Classification: 18
• Studio: Artificial Eye
• DVD Release Date (UK): 11 Jan 2010
• Run Time: 104 minutes

The Element of Crime - Criterion Collection (1984)

The Element of Crime is Lars von Trier's stunning debut film. It tells the story of Fisher, an exiled ex-cop who returns to his old beat to catch a serial killer with a taste for young girls. Approaching a hard-boiled detective plot from a hypnotically subconscious perspective (thus establishing the tone he would echo in his later films Epidemic and Europa), von Trier presents a murder case solved from the inside out.

By following principles of crime solving conceived by his mentor (played by British film veteran Esmond Knight), Fisher closes in on an awful revelation that spins The Element of Crime into another psychological dimension. Multilayered, deliberately paced, and atmospheric in the extreme, The Element of Crime elicits a dream state that is simultaneously oppressive and visually unforgettable, crammed with symbolic subtleties and cinematic references that can only be fully absorbed over multiple viewings. This is a film that grows on you.

This movie also marked the arrival of an audaciously original talent onto the film scene. The film is deeply personal in its inspirations yet richly informed by a pure love of cinema.

Influenced equally by Hitchcock and science fiction, von Trier (Zentropa, Breaking the Waves) boldly reinvents expressionist style for his own cinematic vision of a post-apocalyptic world. The movie is shot in shades of sepia, with occasional, startling flashes of bright blue. The Element of Crime (Forbrydelsens Element) combines dark mystery and operatic sweep to yield a pure celluloid nightmare.

Special Features: Includes Stig Björkman's 54-minute documentary "Tranceformer: A Portrait of Lars von Trier"

• Actors: Michael Elphick, Esmond Knight, Me Me Lai, Jerold Wells, Ahmed El Shenawi
• Directors: Lars von Trier
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Danish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Criterion
• DVD Release Date: September 19, 2000
• Run Time: 104 minutes

Links to Lars von Trier's movies at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Amazon CAN.