The Kingdom/The Kingdom Exodus (1994-2022)
(Riget)
Country: DK/FR/GER/SV
Technical: col TV Series (3 seasons: 13 episodes) 561m
Director: Lars von Trier, Morten Arnfred
Cast: Ernst-Hugo Järegård, Kirsten Rolffes, Holger Juul Hansen, Udo Kier
Synopsis:
Events in a flagship hospital take a supernatural turn as the new attending physician from Sweden frantically strives to cover up his own clinical negligence and prevent his Volvo's hubcaps from being stolen. A clairvoyant and mother of one of the orderlies detects a tormented soul in the lift shaft, and a junior doctor gives birth to a monstrous offspring of the Devil, known as Little Brother.
Review:
The director's notorious - and influential - TV series is a murky affair, skirting his customary bounds of taste and comfort, then roguishly reversing expectations (the changeling is hideous but benign, and the two most sensitive souls in the hospital to what is going on have Down's syndrome). There are plenty of jokes at the expense of the Swedes, and von Trier closes each episode with gnostic pronouncements which promise much but deliver little. Meanwhile he experiments with techniques that would soon emerge as the Dogme 95 directors' pact, so expect grainy video stock and jump cuts galore. After the original eight episodes ended in confusion and gaping holes, he returned with Exodus 24 years later (like Lynch with Twin Peaks) touting a new Helmer and a new intrepid old bird. He need not have bothered.
(Riget)
Country: DK/FR/GER/SV
Technical: col TV Series (3 seasons: 13 episodes) 561m
Director: Lars von Trier, Morten Arnfred
Cast: Ernst-Hugo Järegård, Kirsten Rolffes, Holger Juul Hansen, Udo Kier
Synopsis:
Events in a flagship hospital take a supernatural turn as the new attending physician from Sweden frantically strives to cover up his own clinical negligence and prevent his Volvo's hubcaps from being stolen. A clairvoyant and mother of one of the orderlies detects a tormented soul in the lift shaft, and a junior doctor gives birth to a monstrous offspring of the Devil, known as Little Brother.
Review:
The director's notorious - and influential - TV series is a murky affair, skirting his customary bounds of taste and comfort, then roguishly reversing expectations (the changeling is hideous but benign, and the two most sensitive souls in the hospital to what is going on have Down's syndrome). There are plenty of jokes at the expense of the Swedes, and von Trier closes each episode with gnostic pronouncements which promise much but deliver little. Meanwhile he experiments with techniques that would soon emerge as the Dogme 95 directors' pact, so expect grainy video stock and jump cuts galore. After the original eight episodes ended in confusion and gaping holes, he returned with Exodus 24 years later (like Lynch with Twin Peaks) touting a new Helmer and a new intrepid old bird. He need not have bothered.
(Riget)
Country: DK/FR/GER/SV
Technical: col TV Series (3 seasons: 13 episodes) 561m
Director: Lars von Trier, Morten Arnfred
Cast: Ernst-Hugo Järegård, Kirsten Rolffes, Holger Juul Hansen, Udo Kier
Synopsis:
Events in a flagship hospital take a supernatural turn as the new attending physician from Sweden frantically strives to cover up his own clinical negligence and prevent his Volvo's hubcaps from being stolen. A clairvoyant and mother of one of the orderlies detects a tormented soul in the lift shaft, and a junior doctor gives birth to a monstrous offspring of the Devil, known as Little Brother.
Review:
The director's notorious - and influential - TV series is a murky affair, skirting his customary bounds of taste and comfort, then roguishly reversing expectations (the changeling is hideous but benign, and the two most sensitive souls in the hospital to what is going on have Down's syndrome). There are plenty of jokes at the expense of the Swedes, and von Trier closes each episode with gnostic pronouncements which promise much but deliver little. Meanwhile he experiments with techniques that would soon emerge as the Dogme 95 directors' pact, so expect grainy video stock and jump cuts galore. After the original eight episodes ended in confusion and gaping holes, he returned with Exodus 24 years later (like Lynch with Twin Peaks) touting a new Helmer and a new intrepid old bird. He need not have bothered.