Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Von Triers graduation film is the work of a young director with a vision and a firm grip of his medium. Even though every other scene (or individual shot for that matter) has been lifted from Tarkovsky's films or Bertolucci's "The Conformist" the film has a gripping mood and qualities that cannot be ignored - the lesson of this must be: if you steal, steal from the best. Von Trier would later develop this style into his fascinating and original "Europa", before he with "Breaking the Waves" abandoned all this for Cassavettes style hand held camera and more conventional, naturalistic performances. A pity.