The Lars von Trier film that Andrei Tarkovsky “hated”
With each of his most iconic works, Danish auteur Lars von Trier has repeatedly reinforced his status as one of the most controversial filmmakers in the current landscape. Known for his infamously unsettling works like Dogville and Antichrist, von Trier’s approach to the cinematic medium has routinely piqued the interest of fans all over the world. Specifically, the aesthetic frameworks within which he depicts violence and psychosexual elements have inspired countless artists and directors.
Last year, von Trier released the newest addition to his critically acclaimed show The Kingdom, which was actually screened as a five-hour film at the Venice Film Festival. Drawing comparisons to other iconic television works like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, The Kingdom: Exodus is von Trier’s latest major project after the notoriously disturbing 2018 film, The House That Jack Built, which polarised critics at the time of its release.
Throughout his career, von Trier has been open about the pioneers who have had a definitive impact on his filmmaking journey. While he has regularly cited Ingmar Bergman as an influence, the Danish director once insisted that the man who inspired each and every one of his films was none other than Andrei Tarkovsky. In a conversation with The Guardian, von Trier opened up about how Tarkovsky’s Mirror changed his life.
“I could have dedicated any of my films to [Tarkovsky], but this seemed so obvious,” he admitted. “I saw one little clip on Swedish television when I was young, and it stays with me forever – the people sitting on a fence, the wind in the grass and nature. In this scene, there is nothing and everything at the same time. I have almost a religious feeling when I see it. And nobody knows what it is about. Now, this, to me, is what a great film should be.”
Von Trier is also a dedicated Stanley Kubrick fan, and while talking about Kubrick’s works in an interview with The Independent, the filmmaker once revealed that Tarkovsky hated his first film. The Antichrist director said: “The good thing is that Kubrick always sets his standards. Barry Lyndon, to me, is a masterpiece. He casts in a very strange way, Kubrick. It is a very strange cast. But that is how the film should be, of course. This thing that he liked short films was very surprising. And he liked Krzysztof Kieslowski very much. He was crazy about Kieslowski.”
He added: “I don’t know if Kubrick saw any of my films, but I know Tarkovsky watched the first film I did and hated it! That is how it is supposed to be.” Von Trier’s first feature was titled The Element of Crime, a bizarre neo-noir from 1984, which became the first instalment to his Europa trilogy. It tells the strange story of a detective who has to be subjected to hypnosis for him to remember the details of the last case he was involved in.
Ironically, one of the shots in the opening sequence of The Element of Crime was reportedly a homage to Andrei Rublev. Unfortunately, it didn’t impress Tarkovsky at all.
