Surreal Boredom on the Europa Express

Europa is the story of an American deserter who, a month or two after the defeat of Germany, lands a job as a conductor on the "Europa" line of the Reichsbahn. The job allows him to see the devastation of Germany. It also allows him to meet, fall in love with and marry the daughter of the line's owner as well as to come into contact with partisan nazi resistance to the occupation.

The mostly black and white film is annoyingly narrated by a "hypnotist" who can't decide whether he his hypnotizing us the audience or the hero of the film. The real role of the hypnotic voice over is to bridge the gaps in a movie that can't decide if it follows a thriller story line or a surreal Kafka-esque dream sequence. What is certain is that, minutes into the interminable two and half hour film from which there is no escape, the viewer is left staring desperately at a clock with no hands.

The only good feature of the film was some of the scenes of life amid the devastated ruins of the Third Reich. One scene in particular showing Christmas midnight mass in the snowy open air husk of a church starkley conveyed the harsh and primitive conditions to which people had been pathetically reduced.

Otherwise, the film falls into the "European films are obtuse and dull" category.

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