Europa

A comic-fantasy nightmare of the wickedest kind. [22 Jul 1992, p.4D

Labyrintine and hypnotic, there's undoubtedly more style than substance to the film, but Von Trier manages to blind and bewilder his audience in a truly masterful manner.

Zentropa is a film in sunglasses and a black beret, melodramatic and formidable. It took me two viewings of the movie to realize that a compelling story emerges when its surreal settings, harsh lighting, macabre characterizations, dreamlike images and cartoonishly stilted performances are set aside. [26 Jun 1992, p.G5]

Europa has been described as a Kafka-esque fever dream, and while that isn't inaccurate, it's also a cover for the film's confounding narrative, which wends through murky noir plotting, a polyglot of accents and performance styles, and surreal interludes. The best approach is not to puzzle too much over the details, and to marvel at von Trier's technical wizardry, which re-imagines the period through a patchwork of vivid impressions.

The film is too confusing to be successful, but too striking and visually beautiful to be ignored.

Zentropa is as muddled as it is stylized.

Von Trier and his three cinematographers fashioned a handmade, retro pastiche with a small, dried-out heart.