Product Details

• Released on: 2005-11-08
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Content/Copy-Protected CD, Dolby, Subtitled, NTSC, Import
• Original language: Danish, Swedish
• Subtitled in: English
• Running time: 272 minutes

From Amazon.com
The Kingdom defies categorization. This cult Danish miniseries plays like a nightmarish cross between Twin Peaks and Chicago Hope as directed by David Cronenberg, and even that hardly captures the giddy absurdity of Lars von Trier's soap-opera-cum-horror-tale. The setting is a modern hospital built on a medieval graveyard, but the most terrifying ghosts belong not to ancient history but rather to the hospital's own dark past. An egotistical, self-righteous visiting Swedish doctor, who abhors the Danes and screams his outrage in nightly rants from the hospital roof, presides over this ensemble of eccentrics; but he's hardly the strangest this hospital has to offer. ER has nothing on this delirious madhouse, where haunted ambulances, a Masonic cult, a devil cabal, demons, ghosts, and a most mysterious pregnancy lurk in the fringes of more earthly (though equally bizarre) melodramas. Shooting in video with a bobbing handheld camera, von Trier creates an otherworldly atmosphere with the dimly lit corridors and bland, drained color schemes, set to an eerily sparse soundtrack of echoing hospital sounds and electronic wailings. The mix of deadpan hysteria and spooky ghost story concludes with the most outrageous cliffhanger put on film (to be continued in The Kingdom II). (The home video also includes closing comments by a smiling von Trier himself, unseen in the theatrical version.) Simply put, you've never seen anything quite like this. --Sean Axmaker

Review
Often summed up as a fusion of ER, Twin Peaks, and The Hospital (1971), Lars von Trier's The Kingdom (1994) is as engrossing as its antecedents and an inspired horror-comic satire of medical hubris. Shot on location in a Copenhagen hospital called the Kingdom, von Trier's ghost story takes its time setting up the central ensemble of doctors, nurses, medical students, orderlies, and patients, rendering the later events and discoveries all the more chilling and darkly humorous. With the sepia-toned color evoking decay from the ominous prologue onward, The Kingdom reaches a sublime horror climax sure to delight Udo Kier fans (not to mention David Cronenberg), leaving open copious questions for Riget II. Moving away from Zentropa's (1992) polished avant-gardism toward Breaking the Waves' (1996) roughness, The Kingdom's shaky hand-held 16 mm camerawork and jump cuts create a skittish intimacy; the mobile long takes and eerie aerial shots suggest the presence of unseen, supernatural observers to the hospital's follies -- except in the scenes featuring the wise, clairvoyant dishwashers. A hit on Danish TV, The Kingdom's theatrical release in the U.S. solidified von Trier's reputation as a prodigiously talented provocateur. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

On the DVD
Behind the scenes footage
Selected commentary by Lars Von Trier
Misc. tv spots directed by Lars Von Trier
Trailer

Customer Reviews

Mad Genius!
A fascinating ghost story set in a Danish hospital and created by the mad genius, Lars von Trier. This director is famous for Breaking the Waves and his new film, Dogville. However, The Kingdom is by far my favourite film he has directed so far. [...].

A masterpiece encompassing many kingdoms
The Kingdom is the name of a gargantuan decaying hosital in Copenhagen where this amazing Lars von Trier Gothic television miniseries is set. of course, the title also refers to the kingdom of Denmark (in the staff meeting room where many scenes take place, the portraits of Queen Margrethe and her consort are prominently displayed), for which the hospital is a metaphor, and for the kingdom of society in general. And, as von Trier explains in his charming afterwords to the episodes, it also refers to the kingdom of the imagination itself.

The miniseries works on all these levels. It's a quirky, incredibly atmospheric study of the hospital centering upon the discovery of the ghost of a girl murdered 75 years previously on the same site haunting the hospital, and it revolves around a giant cast of dozens of memorable characters, all of whom are intensely sympathetic even though they're pretty miserable human beings. The three at the core of the story are a malingerer, the septuagenarian medium Mrs. Drusse, obsessed with discovering the story behind a ghost; a blackmailer, the young and sexy Dr. Hook; and his nemesis in the neurology department, the jaw-droppingly arrogant brain surgeon Dr. Helmer, who had to take this job in Denmark (which he loathes) after being cast out of a job in his native Sweden under suspicion of plagiarism. Although the Gothic aspects to the story are beautifully brought out by the labyrinthine deserted basement hallways of the hospital and Von Trier's gorgeous sepia-tinted cinemtography, like all the best ghost stories the ghosts here serve as metaphors for what's wrong with the state of society in general. The miniseries is an amazingly funny satire on the dilapidated Danish health care system, and the film's funniest moments involve the attempts of the neurology department's manager, the marvelously manipulative and passive-aggressive Professor Moesgaard, to implement a hilariously inane PR campaign called "Operation Morning Air" that involves (among other things) having the neurosurgeons cheerfully sing introductions to one another at staff meetings.

The series has often been compared to "Twin Peaks," but it's probably even better. Like the Lynch series it does a marvelous job of conveying atmosphere, but it is deeper and more carefully engineered and imagined. Though there are moments that sag (including the disastrous idea of having Dr. Helmer visit Haiti near the end, which jarringly breaks the miniseries' adherence otherwise to the Aristotelean unities by and large), as a whole it is a genuine masterpiece. It is one of the richest works for television ever made.

Why is Kingdom II not available?
Some will argue, but this has got to be von Trier's masterpiece. I've never laughed during a "thriller" so much as while watching Kingdom part I. The scandinavian humour is evident in spades, particularly during the Minister's visit to the hospital. Come and get it, Danish Scum!

Why is Kingdom II not available anywhere?