Alternately fascinating and infuriating, "Zentropa" is a film that has moments of power and others that seem banal or obscure. Still, foreign-film fans should take a look for the fascination much of it holds.
The story has a young American (Jean-Marc Barr), a somewhat bumbling, overly idealistic American Army deserter with German roots, traveling to Frankfurt after World War II, in October of 1945.
There, he secures a job (with help from his gruff, reluctant uncle) on the Zentropa railroad line as a sleeping car conductor, where he will serve high-paying passengers — avoiding the underprivileged travelers who hang on to the outside of the last car, despite freezing temperatures.
Barr is soon seduced by the daughter (Barbara Sukowa) of the railway's director and finds himself wrapped up in intrigue and mystery, surrounded by the decadence of post-war Germany.
But the story is secondary to Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier's bag of cinematic tricks, which include old-fashioned film techniques mixed with modern high tech. Some of the dialogue and interaction are arch and distant, resembling an old '40s B movie, while some is devastatingly personal. Occasionally, the film shifts from grainy, newsreel black-and-white to spurts of color — most frequent during the scenes of violence. There is even extended use of the old rear-projection format, complete with spinning, disorienting camera work.
The result is a film that is visually dazzling but emotionally empty, letting storytelling go by the wayside for the sake of visceral effect.
The performances are quite good, especially since the style required by the actors here is very different from the average movie (Barr is perfect as the central everyman). And the voice of Max von Sydow as the mysterious narrator, who hypnotically propels our hero — and the audience — through the action, lends an appropriately eerie quality.
Ultimately, however, the music, cinematography and other technical aspects lend a vision of Germany that is more like other movies — especially "The Third Man" — than any kind of reality. That's obviously the intent, but it results in a film that is more than simply ambiguous. It's often confusing and loaded with mixed signals.
The film is not rated but would certainly get an R for some horrifying violence, as well as sex, nudity and profanity.