14 Movies Directed by Lars von Trier

The Element of Crime

The Element of Crime

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1984-05-14

Languages:

English, Arabic

Countries:

Denmark

Runtime:

104 min

Rated:

NOT RATED

IMDB Ratings:

6.9 (6754 Reviews)

Director:

Lars von Trier

Cast:

Writer:

Niels Vèrsel

William Quarshie (dialogue translation)

Stephen Wakelam (dialogue translation)

Lars von Trier

Fullplot:

Fisher, an ex-cop, returns to his old beat somewhere in northern Europe after a thirteen-year hiatus in Cairo. His former mentor and role model, author of a treatise called "The Element of Crime", asks him to solve a series of murders involving lottery ticket sellers. Guided by the theories put forth in the book, Fischer retraces the steps of a suspect, Harry Grey, as recorded in a three-year-old police surveillance report.

Epidemic

Epidemic

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1987-09-11

Languages:

Danish, English

Countries:

Denmark

Runtime:

106 min

Rated:

NOT RATED

IMDB Ratings:

6.2 (3583 Reviews)

Director:

Lars von Trier

Genres:

DramaHorror

Cast:

Writer:

Lars von Trier (screenplay)

Niels Vèrsel (screenplay)

Fullplot:

A film director and a script writer (performed by Lars von Trier and Niels Vèrsel themselves) write a screenplay, in which an epidemic spreads about the whole world. Like the protagonist they do not notice, that a real epidemic is developing around them.

Europa

Europa

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1991-06-27

Languages:

English, German

Countries:

Spain, Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, Switzerland

Runtime:

112 min

Rated:

R

IMDB Ratings:

7.7 (14974 Reviews)

Director:

Lars von Trier

Genres:

Drama

Fullplot:

An American of German descent arrives in post-war Germany 1945. His uncle gets him a job on the Zentropa train line as a sleeping car conductor. The American's wish is to be neutral to the ongoing purges of loyalists by the Allied forces and do what he can to help a hurting country, but he finds himself being used by both the Americans and the influential family that owns the railroad. After falling in love with the railroad magnate's daughter, he finds that he can't remain neutral and must make some difficult choices.

Breaking the Waves

Breaking the Waves

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1996-11-13

Languages:

English

Countries:

Denmark, Sweden, France, Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, Spain

Runtime:

159 min

Rated:

R

IMDB Ratings:

7.9 (45277 Reviews)

Director:

Lars von Trier

Genres:

DramaRomance

Fullplot:

Drama set in a repressed, deeply religious community in the north of Scotland, where a naive young woman named Bess McNeil meets and falls in love with Danish oil-rig worker Jan. Bess and Jan are deeply in love but, when Jan returns to his rig, Bess prays to God that he returns for good. Jan does return, his neck broken in an accident aboard the rig. Because of his condition, Jan and Bess are now unable to enjoy a sexual relationship and Jan urges Bess to take another lover and tell him the details. As Bess becomes more and more deviant in her sexual behavior, the more she comes to believe that her actions are guided by God and are helping Jan recover.

The Idiots

The Idiots

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1998-07-17

Languages:

Danish

Countries:

Denmark, Spain, Sweden, France, Netherlands, Italy

Runtime:

117 min

Rated:

R

IMDB Ratings:

6.9 (22368 Reviews)

Director:

Lars von Trier

Genres:

ComedyDrama

Fullplot:

A group of perfectly intelligent young people decide to react to society's cult of an aimless, non-creative and non-responsible form of intelligence by living together in a community of "idiots". Their main activity becomes going out into the world of "normal" people and pretending to be mentally retarded. They take advantage of this situation to create anarchy everywhere they go and try by every possible means to make people annoyed, disturbed, miserable, ridiculous, angered, and shocked. The films start as they recruit a new lost soul and introduced her to their megalomaniac leader.

Dancer in the Dark

Dancer in the Dark

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2000-10-06

Languages:

English

Countries:

Denmark, Argentina, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, USA, UK, France, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Norway

Runtime:

140 min

Rated:

R

IMDB Ratings:

(73989 Reviews)

Director:

Lars von Trier

Fullplot:

Dogville

Dogville

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2004-04-23

Languages:

English

Countries:

Denmark, Sweden, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Italy

Runtime:

178 min

Rated:

R

IMDB Ratings:

8.1 (99963 Reviews)

Director:

Lars von Trier

Fullplot:

Late one night, a beautiful and well-dressed young woman, Grace, arrives in the mountainous old mining town of Dogville as a fugitive; following the sound of gunshots in the distance which have been heard by Tom, the self-appointed moral spokesman for the town. Persuaded by Tom, the town agree to hide Grace, and in return she freely helps the locals. However, when the Sheriff from a neighbouring town posts a Missing notice, advertising a reward for revealing her whereabouts, the townsfolk require a better deal from Grace, in return for their silence; and when the Sheriff returns some weeks later with a Wanted poster, even though the citizens know her to be innocent of the false charges against her, the town's sense of goodness takes a sinister turn and the price of Grace's freedom becomes a workload and treatment akin to that of a slave. But Grace has a deadly secret that the townsfolk will eventually encounter.

Manderlay

Manderlay

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2005-06-03

Languages:

English

Countries:

Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, France, Germany, UK, Italy

Runtime:

139 min

Rated:

NOT RATED

IMDB Ratings:

7.4 (17649 Reviews)

Director:

Lars von Trier

Genres:

Drama

Fullplot:

After gangster Mulligan's cars colony, fleeing northern justice, finds a hiding place in Alabama, spoiled, naive daughter Grace refuses to travel on after seeing the Manderlay cotton plantation being run under slavery rules, called Mam's law, inclusive flogging. She keeps half of dad's goons as guard to force the dying matriarch-owner's heirs, which she shamelessly dispossesses and reduces to 'staff', to taste destitution under absurd, gun-imposed contracts. The 'slaves' are made free partners, supposed to vote for progress after lessons from Grace. But almost all her democracy-pupils prove fickle, dumb and selfish, except old Willem. Her and their ignorance in Southern planting and crafty Dixie ways means more problems are created then solved. By the time dad returns to pick her up or abandon her for good, she's the one who has learned and changed the most.

The Five Obstructions

The Five Obstructions

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2003-11-21

Languages:

Danish, English, French, Spanish

Countries:

Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, France

Runtime:

90 min

Rated:

UNRATED

IMDB Ratings:

7.5 (6134 Reviews)

Genres:

Documentary

Cast:

Writer:

Sophie Destin (poem)

Asger Leth (script)

Jèrgen Leth (script)

Lars von Trier (script)

Fullplot:

"The Five Obstructions", a 100 min. theatre documentary directed by Lars von Trier and Jèrgen Leth. An investigative journey into the phenomenon of "documentary", based on manifestos written by each director. About a filmmaker not only revisiting, but also recreating (not in a conventional sense) one of his first films, The Perfect Human / Det perfekte menneske (1967), a document on life in Denmark, containing the familiar Leth idiosyncrasies

The Boss of It All

The Boss of It All

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2006-12-08

Languages:

Danish, Icelandic, English, Russian

Countries:

Denmark, Sweden, France, Italy, Germany, Iceland

Runtime:

99 min

Rated:

NOT RATED

IMDB Ratings:

6.7 (8499 Reviews)

Director:

Lars von Trier

Genres:

Comedy

Fullplot:

The owner of an IT firm wants to sell up. The trouble is that when he started his firm he invented a nonexistent company president to hide behind when unpopular steps needed taking. When potential purchasers insist on negotiating with the "Boss" face to face the owner has to take on a failed actor to play the part. The actor suddenly discovers he is a pawn in a game that goes on to sorely test his (lack of) moral fibre.

Antichrist

Antichrist

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2009-05-20

Languages:

English

Countries:

Denmark, Germany, France, Sweden, Italy, Poland

Runtime:

108 min

Rated:

NOT RATED

IMDB Ratings:

6.6 (80010 Reviews)

Director:

Lars von Trier

Genres:

DramaHorror

Fullplot:

A couple lose their young son when he falls out of a window while they are having sex in another room. The mother's grief consigns her to hospital, but her therapist husband brings her home intent on treating her depression himself. To confront her fears they go to stay at their remote cabin in the woods, "Eden", where something untold happened the previous summer. Told in four chapters with a prologue and epilogue, the film details acts of lustful cruelty as the man and woman unfold the darker side of nature outside and within.

Melancholia

Melancholia

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2011-05-26

Languages:

English

Countries:

Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany

Runtime:

130 min

Rated:

R

IMDB Ratings:

7.1 (116835 Reviews)

Director:

Lars von Trier

Genres:

DramaSci-Fi

Fullplot:

On the night of her wedding, Justine is struggling to be happy even though it should be the happiest day of her life. It was an extravagant wedding paid for by her sister and brother-in-law who are trying to keep the bride and all the guests in-line. Meanwhile, Melancholia, a blue planet, is hurtling towards the Earth. Claire, Justine's sister, is struggling to maintain composure with fear of the impending disaster.

Nymphomaniac: Vol. I

Nymphomaniac: Vol. I

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2014-03-06

Languages:

English

Countries:

Denmark, Germany, Belgium, UK, France

Runtime:

117 min

Rated:

NOT RATED

IMDB Ratings:

(67896 Reviews)

Director:

Lars von Trier

Genres:

Drama

Fullplot:

A man named Seligman finds a fainted wounded woman in an alley and he brings her home. She tells him that her name is Joe and that she is nymphomaniac. Joe tells her life and sexual experiences with hundreds of men since she was a young teenager while Seligman tells about his hobbies, such as fly fishing, reading about Fibonacci numbers or listening to organ music.

Nymphomaniac: Vol. II

Nymphomaniac: Vol. II

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2014-03-20

Languages:

English

Countries:

Denmark, Germany, Belgium, UK, France, Sweden

Runtime:

123 min

Rated:

NOT RATED

IMDB Ratings:

6.7 (47108 Reviews)

Director:

Lars von Trier

Genres:

Drama

Fullplot:

Joe continues to tell to Seligman the story of her life. Joe lives with Jerème and their son Marcel and out of the blue, she loses sexual sensation in intercourse. Joe seeks kinky sex, perversions and sadomasochism expecting to retrieve her sex drive. Jerème leaves home with Marcel and gives his son to a foster house for adoption. Then Joe is sent to therapy by her gynecologist but she does not admit that she is addicted to sex. Meanwhile Seligman tells Joe that he is virgin and helps her to understand her actions. Joe believes that Seligman is her friend, but is he?

Become a Movie Insider

Join our mailing list and get access to expert analysis, trivia, and recommendations that will elevate your movie-watching experience.

View our privacy policy.