TUESDAY 18 NOV – H 18:30 – ROOM 1

EPIDEMIC
DENMARK – 1988 – b/n e color – 106’

Direction: Lars von Trier
Screenplay: Niels Vorsel, Lars von Trier
Cinematography: Henning Bendtsen
Editing: Thomas Krag, Lars von Trier
Production design: Soren G. Henriksen
Music: Peter Bach
Costumes: Manon Rasmussen
Cast: Lars von Trier (himself / Dr. Mesmer), Niels Vorsel (himself), Svend Ali Hamann (himself), Ole Ernst, Michael Gelting, Ib Hansen, Allan De Waal, Colin Gilder
Producer: Jacob Eriksen
Production: Elementfilm A/S
Italian distribution: Movies Inspired

Synopsis
After losing the screenplay for their film titled,The Policeman and the Whore, Lars (Lars von Trier) and Niels (Niels Vørsel) are forced to come up with a new script to deliver to the producer within five days. The new story revolves around the outbreak of a deadly pandemic. Conceived in the minds of the director and the screenwriter, this imaginary epidemic soon begins to spread into the real world, bringing serious and unexpected consequences.

critical note
“(…) that Epidemic is, in fact, everything we are watching is revealed by the superimposed text that appears on the screen as soon as Lars and Niels decide to name their project in that way; from that moment on, the red text will mark all the images that follow, whether they are from the film they want to shoot or from the scene of the two screenwriters actually at work. The two depictions interpenetrate, integrate, and “contaminate” each other. It is no coincidence that in the end, the plague is discovered to be spreading in reality, and not merely within the script delivered to the production company by the two screenwriters. In short, cinema is the great epidemic that contaminates all levels of narrative (…)”
(Luca Pacilio, spietati.it, 12 January 2010)

festivals
1987 Festival di Cannes – Un Certain Regard
1988 Fantasporto