Epidemic

Epidemic is the second part of the trilogy which also consists of Forbrydelsens element and Von Trier's latest film Europe. All three films are programmed in the festival. After making his trilogy, Von Trier have each section a key word. The first film is in his opinion 'non-organic in its substance', the second, Epidemic, is 'organic' and the last must be above all 'conceptual'. According to Von Trier, at the moment when you make it, a film should be like a stone in your shoe; you should have to think about it all the time. It symbolises his obsessive way of making films; nothing is self-evident in making a film. For instance in this film he uses for the first time techniques such as cross-cutting, pans and tilts, but he approaches these techniques with great distrust. He needed them to realise the less restrictive aesthetic form. After Forbrydelsens element he wanted to leave the form of the restriction and the sobriety behind him. Epidemic is, it would appear, partly made without technicians; the camera is said to have turned for at least a third of the time without a cameraman. Von Trier regards this approach as a way of achieving an intimate atmosphere and peace of mind during shooting.îFor the fictional parts of the film - which unlike the rest wee shot on 35 mm - Von Trier is he says very grateful to cameraman Henning Bendtsen (who has shot 52 films, including Ordet and Gertrud by Carl Dreyer). Epidemic was given several mottos including one by Olaf Ussing: 'To get old is wonderful - think of the alternative' and one by Udo Kier: 'Mir ist es egal wer das Ticket zahlt'.