A Special Kind of Evil

"We always looked for the element of crime in society. But
why not look in the very nature of man?"
The Element of Crime

Points for Reflection

Lars Von Trier's The Element of Crime (1984)

1. recall our earlier enquiries into representations of traditionally othered groups distinguished by physical, mental, and cultural characteristics. The Element of Crime presents issues surrounding age, gender, race, and disability in very striking, often troubling ways. Considering the film holistically, what rhetorical work do you think the film accomplishes?
2. a number of disconcerting images and actions fill von Trier's first feature film, a dystopic tale that asks whether the deteriorating, flooded environment is more responsible for the characters' offensive and criminal actions than is their own free will. Does the film, taken as a whole, provide an answer to this central question?
3. is Fisher mentally ill?
4. how clear is the timeline connecting this film’s present events with those previous ones referenced in preliminary therapy and exhumed during hypnosis?
5. in the thirteen years which have passed prior to Fisher’s return to Europe, the continent has changed significantly in what ways?
6. why do you imagine von Trier used filters to alter the color palette of this particular film?
7. does the frequent recitation of bits of poems, songs, and nursery rhymes treble the apparent absurdity of this film, or counter it somehow?
8. when and where does a big-eyed loris monkey appear, and what might this symbolize?
9. the film opens with rather odd footage of animals (a donkey rolling on its back, a goat climbing a roof) as the Egyptian psychotherapist explains that while “fantasy is okay,” his professional responsibility requires him to keep his patient, Fisher, focused on facts--“on the right track.”  How would you class this film, as dream-like surrealism, highly subjective expressionism, hard realism, absurdist drama, or something else?
10. is Mr. Fisher’s hypnotist correct in observing that Fisher has become obsessed with Europe? What of his claim that hypnosis is a surefire method which “cannot fail,” and his promise that he can extricate Fisher from any feelings of unease, fatigue, and anxiety.  In the final analysis, does hypnosis help Fisher?
11. how does Osborne feel about his removal from the academy, and what is his current opinion about his infamous book, The Element of Crime?
12. how competent is Kramer as chief of police?
13. when Fisher calls the police job he witnessed in the film’s opening the worst he’s ever seen, Kramer responds that “clumsiness is a principle which we use” to respond to the “special kind of evil” manifest in “changes everywhere." These changes, he says, have affected not only the environment but the people (15:12-15:40).  Is this an absurd observation, or a meaningful one?
14. is Kramer right to label the Dive a crime?
15. for what possible reason might the men with shaven heads participate in the very dangerous “Dive”?  Also, why is Kramer (the police chief) so set against this practice?
16. also, why might von Trier spend so much time on this particular ritual of the dive in the film’s close?
17. Osborne claims that family is the most important thing.  Do either he or Fisher living according to this principle? What of Kim?
18. Osborne suggests that attacks/falls like the one that put him unconscious on the floor (after loudly arguing with . . . someone . . . on the other side of a closed door) may be related to expiation—to a feeling that he needs “to pay somehow.”  Pay for what?
19. Kramer observes that Fisher’s “people have never known joy.”  What does he mean, and where else does this concept crop up in the film?
20. is Osborne’s “system,” elaborated in his book The Element of Crime, as dangerous as Harry Gray’s murderous “system”?
21. at what point does Fisher tell the therapist that his visit to Europe ended (despite its continuing for the viewer)?
22. does Fisher rely enough on disciplined reason to be classed as an ideal criminologist, one Osborne describes as “untouched, detached, clinical, objective,” or would it be better to class him as one of those madman who, in the words of Kim, “don’t have motives”?
23. does this film either interrogate or celebrate the scientific method?
24. why might Von Trier douse his entire production with water?  Why make it so omnipresent?
25. horses seem ubiquitous in this film. Does Von Trier assign this motif a particular symbolic function?
26. at what moments in this film do the laws of time and space appear to be bent, even broken?
27. why is there blood on Fisher’s chest at one point, and why blood in Kim’s bed?
28. Lars Von Trier employs a rich visual language to convey some of the ideas embedded in this work, often in the absence of any dialogue.  Identify some of the more enigmatic, striking images he creates, and consider their possible significance.
29. is the doctor who performs the autopsy a compassionate medical professional?
30. does Osborne adopt the same attitude towards the Lotto Murders as that evinced by the medical practitioner who performed the autopsy?
31. does the film definitively answer the question of whether Harry Gray died the way Osborne said he did?
32. why does Osborne reject, or “abdicate” [not “advocate”—the sub-titles take a misstep] the theories of his youth?
33. following the altercation in which Fisher accuses Osborne of lying about Harry Fisher’s fate, the housekeeper tells Fisher that Osborne does care for him (Fisher)--that he’s just scared of the smallest things: the house, the dark—and that he never rests, pacing endlessly.  Does the film ultimately provide an explanation for Osborne’s odd behavior?
34. does Osborne consistently tell the truth?
35. is Fisher right to be concerned about Osborne’s possibly hurting himself?
36. try to make sense of Osborne’s old, published theories about the nature of crime—those published in his book, The Element of Crime.
37. would you characterize Fisher’s and Kim’s relationship as healthy? Does one care more about the other, or is their affection mutual?  What of their physical intimacy?
38. how does Fisher respond to Kim’s questions, “Do you believe in good and bad? Can you make the bad good again?”
39. why does Fisher press on even after figuring out the new murder pattern?
40. what indications does the film offer to tease the possibility that Fisher is being followed by an unidentified character?
41. why might Fisher want string wrapped tightly around his face?
42. does Kim betray Fisher?
43. why does Fisher decide to leave Germany following Kim’s revelation about her child?
44. when Fisher is alone with the girl, in his attempt to set up and capture Harry Grey, we see a shadow pass by the window outside the room where the two are hiding.  Whose shadow is this?
45. can you identify any visual echoes tying together ostensibly unrelated scenes?
46. who speaks the film’s final lines, and at whom are these words directed?
47. what do you make of the concluding ten minutes?  How many different ways can the audience resolve the various clues given them?
48. why might children be so ubiquitous, scattered throughout so many scenes of the film?
49. of the many indicators that Europe has become a wasteland, which seem most plausible? Could what von Trier has envisioned actually come to pass?
50. recall that the entire plot unspools from Fisher's recollections of recalled and partially repressed memories exhumed by a hypnotherapist. Are you inclined to place more weight on certain events as veridical/true? Do some strike you as so fantastic that they likely never took place?
    
    

In Foreign Land (1995)
Poul Anker Bech

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu