#jens okking

[cinemacentral666]

The Kingdom (1994, 1997) & The Kingdom: Exodus (2022)

"Movie" #1,133 • Ranking Lars Von Trier #5

There are so many inexplicable twists and turns and forced cliffhangers in the last fifteen minutes of what remains the series finale, the eighth and final episode of The Kingdom, that you might forget how smooth and cohesive the otherwise bonkers story came together in totality. Clocking in at nearly ten hours, Lars von Trier's "Twin Peaks in a hospital," shot and released on Danish TV in the mid 90s in two 4-episode seasons (1994 & 1997), is a hard-to-find gem that deserves far more attention if not recognition for being just about the weirdest fucking thing I've ever seen released on a mainstream platform (if we can call Danish TV a "mainstream platform").

I was perhaps most impressed by LVT's ability to juggle upwards of a dozen different storylines which seamlessly crossed and merged when they needed to. I feel some unease with how it ended given this segment of an interview I recently watched on YouTube with a slightly demented-seeming if not sickly Trier. Is he really going on about how not having an ending is a problem? Did he ever even watch this? Does he have any recollection making it? But for the love of god, this man can't help but being an insane and inscrutable maniac for one minute; so, he can get away with it. Few can.

Saying one thing when you mean another is a trick, which is not unlike the whole of LVT's filmography. On one hand, this is among his most accessible works: a procedural genre drama. And on the other, it's a thing where Udo Kier plays the double role of Demon from Hell and a baby born with a normal adult-sized head whose body grows exponentially gigantic by the day until he's like seventeen-feet long screaming for his mother to kill him, which–SPOILERS!–she does.

I will hold off from saying more at this juncture as, apparently, there might be a third and final season on the way, à la another famously long-dormant television franchise from a luminary auteur. But this being Lars von Trier, who the hell knows.

THREE YEARS LATER…

"With this being Lars von Trier, who the hell knows" was an appropriate way to end my initial review of The Kingdom for the S.O.B. went ahead and did it: he finished his small screen masterpiece and gave it an ending for the ages. Having just completed the long-awaited Season 3 here in 2023, with future von Trier projects somewhat up in the air after his recent Parkinson's diagnosis (he says he will continue making movies for as long as he can, and I hope he does, but who knows), I can say that if that is indeed his final project, it's certainly a worthy one to go out on.

To get this out of the way (as anyone writing about The Kingdom: Exodus is legally required to mention within the first two paragraphs): the comparisons to Twin Peaks: The Return are as unavoidable as they are perfectly and eerily apt. LVT was getting compared to Lynch well before he decided to complete his own visionary TV show 25 years later as well. But, while the initial inspiration for The Kingdom had to have been spurred by the groundbreaking Twin Peaks, his conclusion and how he went about it is vastly different. Both are phenomenal, in my opinion, but where Lynch departed from the original framework and story to the nth degree, von Trier's return is firmly grounded in the tone and aesthetic of the original run. Outside of a very meta beginning and ending, Exodus feels like a natural continuation of the story, in the same location with the same sepia-drenched sheen. There's no excursions to the purple ocean world or Buckhorn, South Dakota here.

Not to say he doesn't get weird or try different things within this original landscape, because he does so IN SPADES. It's a thrilling, hilarious and endlessly wild ride in five one-hour installments. The biggest hurdle (and main reason the final season was shelved for so long) were the deaths of several notable actors in prominent roles. He handles this with nuance and boundless creativity. It never feels like an homage because it's so rich, fresh and new. Ernst-Hugo Järegård's Dane-hating Helmer is replaced by his son (as Helmer Jr., comically nicknamed "Halfmer" by the Swede-roasting staff); Jens Okking as Bulder is simply exchanged for a look-alike (Nicolas Bro); and Sigrid Drusse (Kirsten Rolffes), the truth-seeking heart of the show is swapped out for a new lead, a similarly aged Karen (Bodil Jørgensen), who begins the action in the non-sepia "real world" watching the original two-season run of The Kingdom on DVD; and Udo Kier… well, please just watch it to see what they do with Udo Kier.

The meta narrative is fascinating, as everyone in Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet is well aware of the madman Lars von Trier and his awful, fucked up TV series. LVT's own credit-roll commentary also returns (although he speaks behind a red curtain now out of vanity; only his jittering shoes are visible), as does a new Greek chorus of male and female dishwashers: gone are the actors with Down syndrome, replaced by a robot (who's constantly breaking dishes) and a man with a different, and a more severe genetic disorder. As is often the case, many of these choices range from squeamish to deliriously comedic, often simultaneously, but when — MAJOR SPOILER — von Trier himself arrives in a helicopter in the role of none other than Satan, how can you not smile?

If I had known going in that some of the threads in Exodus were going to touch on culture wars stuff, I would have said, "Oh no." But everything is handled with such ease — from #MeToo to Nazism! — and, more importantly, humor. This shouldn't work on paper, but it does.

I watched this on the heels of the Nymphomaniac Director's Cut and came away with a similar take: that LVT is really great at longer form storytelling. Some of his very best work is also the longest, and I don't think that's an accident. He's always tried to distill BIG IDEAS into thoughtful if not nihilistic and absurdist scenarios (Willem Dafoe plays one of the devil's minions who's also an owl), but even when the action makes you want to scream or walk into traffic, there's a cleverness at play which brings it full circle. The shift from the neurological to the cardiological departments (via Birgitte Raaberg's character) is such a lovely and simple notion. The head vs. the heart. You can make a big complicated thing with boundless metaphors, but what does it matter if you don't feel anything? The idea that this is all just a mad artist's foolish creation seems to be the ultimate point and that is a fitting send-off for von Trier in a way, I think. It's cheap on the one hand (it's supposed to be), but also a perfect example/explanation of art as entertainment and/or vice versa. Exodus — yes, like The Return — is as standalone fascinating as it is successful; honoring, but more importantly elevating the original series in the most magical ways.

SCORE: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[royalarmyofoz]

[borgialucrezia]

"Cesare Borgia 's code of honour was simple, and consisted in just one article: complete security in return for absolute loyalty. He never departed from this one rule. His bloodiest actions always came as a consequence of betrayals, rebellions and duplicities." — M. Pingiotti

[topsee-turvee]

10 Years - 10 Moments

The Americans (2013)

[elialys]

THE NEWSREADER | 1.02 | Helen x Dale - Helen's Outfits Part 1

[krakajici-kavka]

A dneska taky nikam, vole

[frenchfriedgiraffe]

my favourite part of dghda is when they stayed friends and lived happily ever after

[isabellaofparma]

The Newsreader | 2.01 – "Decision '87"

[angellayercake]

my phone hated the sparkles but LOOK AT HIS FACE fuck

[minijenn]

Anyway remember that time I drew the boys like this

Now ya fuckin do

[dormiloncito]

remember my poll the other day. i lied to everyone

[north-noire]

the emily siblings! felt like drawing them after writing Chapter 1 :] aunt jen = jennifer in my AU, but henry still calls her jen sometimes (she's also the older sibling)

[royalarmyofoz]

Agatha x Jen based off this mix by @harrietdyker

[borgialucrezia]

"There’s something really dangerous about [Cesare], but I don’t know, I felt him from the inside. I said, “That could be me.” Like, if I was in that position, I could do these things. Which is probably very scary." — FRANÇOIS ARNAUD

[lala-blahblah]

I will never make this because it would be for an audience of one (me) but ever since reading "If we Were Villains" (story about serious drama kids in college who perform shakespeare and deal with a murder) I have been entertaining the thought of a crack fic crossover with High School Musical The Musical The Series where the staff decides they will no longer put on shakespeare after the tragic accident that happened at Thanksgiving, because Shakespeare plays would only increase the tension and drama. So they hire Ms. Jen who decides their spring play will actually be High School Musical (which exists in the 90s in this universe) and it ruins the vibe so much that everyone gives up on being dark and mysterious because they're universally pissed at Ms Jen for making them learn choreoraphed basketball dancing.

[elialys]

"To sport now, and Australian cricket captain, Allan Broader…Border, has threatened to resign in the wake of Australia's worse…worst ever World Cricket score…Series score."

THE NEWSREADER | 1.01 | Helen x Dale - Dale's Update Part 1 [2]