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Riget (The Kingdom) (1994)

July 23, 2008
Riget (The Kingdom)
Here is Denmark, excreted from limestone. There is Sweden, chiselled from granite. Danish scum!
—Stig Helmer
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I’ve come to know the title sequence of Lars von Trier’s Riget well. I’ve read the subtitles enough times to know the narration to its core. I will on occasion watch it without subtitles to bask in the black. There is death in every visual – even the water seems dead. Then, those hands. Anyone raised on Romero would smile knowingly at that moment.

What happens next is perhaps the most jarring occurrence in title sequence design: this lushly cinematic sense of sheer dread is halted by spastically edited Dogme 95 footage that was shot on sub-standard video and scored to music fit for a late-in-the-episode SNL skit. All this as an introduction to one of the best television series in history.

Related

  • Tension in Title Sequences

Title sequence

  • Category

    TV
  • Styles

    live action, main title
Riget (The Kingdom)
  • Creator

    Lars von Trier
  • Year

    1994
  • Aspect

    1.33:1
  • Network

    DR
  • Country

    Denmark
  • Language

    Danish
  • IMDb has full details

Article

  • Writer

    Alexander Ulloa

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