Ranking Every Lars Von Trier Film Worst To Best

The final installment in von Trier's early Europa Trilogy, Europa was filmed using three cinematographers and features some of the director's most striking and affecting imagery. The plot follows an American called Leopold (Jean-Marc Barr) as he becomes embroiled in a dangerous Nazi conspiracy. The whole thing is narrated by the late, great Max von Sydow, and comes complete with a mostly black-and-white aesthetic and a surreal love story.

Von Trier is of course no stranger to strange films, but Europa was the first time in his career that he fully took control of his craft. The experimental art film is bursting with great ideas and a seamlessly shifting tone, with no aspect of the plot or character becoming distracting or unnecessary. It's also an effective imagining of a post-war Germany, allowing for clever political commentary alongside the main plot.

Von Trier's first truly great film, Europa is not a film to miss if you want to understand the director's approach to cinema.