Director: Lars von Trier
Starring: Kirsten Rolffes, Ghita Nørby, Ernst-Hugo Jaregard, Udo Kier
Related Links
Kingdom, The (1995) - IMDB
The Idiots - kamera.co.uk review
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Imagine a cross between ER and Twin Peaks directed
by a somnambulist and you may just about be prepared for The
Kingdom. Danish director Lars von Trier's film was originally
conceived as a TV series and, to be honest, it would probably
work better that way: few people will have the tenacity and patience
to watch all 280 minutes in a single sitting. Furthermore, the
lack of any sense of humour makes it a very hard work indeed.
However, those with a surrealist turn of mind will be rewarded
by this multi-layered and visually haunting fusion of the quotidian
and bizarre. 'The Kingdom' is a massive monolith of a hospital
where things are going slowly awry. The main thread of plot follows
the unravelling of an eerie murder mystery by a hypochondriac
medium, convinced she can hear a girl sobbing in the lift shaft.
Meanwhile, a cantankerous Swedish neurosurgeon sabotages notes
from a botched operation which left a girl brain-damaged, ghostly
ambulances arrive at casualty and a Downs Syndrome couple comment
cryptically on the plot.
A haunting example of millennium angst, The Kingdom subverts
and redefines contemporary cinematic narrative.
Reviewed by Monika Maurer
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