Pynchonesque Movies

[Nigel E. Richardson]

A while ago there was a discusion here about Pynchonesque movies. There 
was a film I wanted to mention but I couldn't remember the title or the 
director....

The film is called EUROPA and is by Lars Von Trier. It came out a couple 
of years ago and is about an American who goes to Berlin immediately after 
the war, for no apparent reason, and gets a menial job as a railway guard. 
Several film writers mentioned GRAVITY'S RAINBOW in their reviews and when 
I did get around to seeing it I had to agree. 

It's a very dark, dreamlike film - in some ways it's more like a Steve 
Erickson novel - starts like a conventional story, gets weird, then jolts 
back into reality - and is worth tracking down. Don't know if it's out on 
video either here or in the USA though.

Von Trier has a new film out called THE KINGDOM, which is five hours long
and concerns a hypochodriac spiritualist's search for a ghost in
Copenhagen's general hospital - I'm not making this up! It's been getting 
good reviews.

Nigel