The Element of Crime (1984)
Directed by Lars von Trier
Fisher, an ex-detective, decides to take one final case when a mysterious serial killer claims the lives of several young girls. Fisher, unable to find the culprit, turns to Osbourne, a writer who was once respected for his contributions to the field of criminology. Fisher begins to use Osbourne's technique, which involves empathizing with serial killers; however, as the detective becomes increasingly engrossed in this method, things take a disturbing turn.
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Adam and Anthony's status as reflections of one another, for example, seems to cry out for some visual differentiation between their opposing worlds, but both are drenched in the same sickly yellow glare, at times reminiscent of Lars von Trier's The Element of Crime.
The harsh yellow lighting seems ripped from The Element of Crime, while the elliptical structure and the paranoid, desolate design of Simon's world evokes both Eraserhead and The Tenant .
Like most of von Trier's films since he burst on the international scene at the 1984 Cannes festival with The Element of Crime, Melancholia is in English rather than his native Danish, though it doesn't seem remotely like a British or American picture, despite the appearance of familiar English-speaking actors among the assorted Scandinavians.
While the apparent thematic incoherence is frustrating, the movie does suggest an aesthetic return to a few of the best aspects of his early work, when he made his mark on the festival circuit with "The Element of Crime" (1984) and "Zentropa" (a.k.a.