Zentropa Films
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Zentropa, or Zentropa Entertainments, is a Danish film company started in 1992 by director
Lars von Trier Lars von Trier (né Trier; born 30 April 1956) is a Danish film director and screenwriter. Beginning in the late-1960s as a child actor working on Danish television series ''Secret Summer'', von Trier's career has spanned more than five decad ...
and producer
Peter Aalbæk Jensen Peter Aalbæk Jensen (born 8 April 1956 in Osted) is a Denmark, Danish film producer who in 1992 with director Lars von Trier founded the Danish film company Zentropa and later its huge studio complex Filmbyen. His father was writer Erik Aalbæk J ...
. Zentropa is named after the train company Zentropa in the film '' Europa'' (1991), which started the collaboration between von Trier and Jensen.


History

It has produced over 70 feature films and has become the largest film production company in Scandinavia. It owns a number of subsidiary companies in Europe. Zentropa is also responsible for creating a large studio complex called '' Filmbyen'' (Film City), where both Zentropa and many other film-related companies are located. Zentropa may be best known for creating the Dogme 95 movement, leading to such acclaimed films as '' Idioterne'' (1998), '' Festen'' (1998) and '' Mifunes sidste sang'' (1999). In 1998, von Trier made history by having his company Zentropa to be the world's first mainstream film company to produce hardcore
pornographic film Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, adult films, blue films, sexually explicit films, or 18+ films, are films that represent Human sexual activity, sexually WIKT:explicit, explicit subject matter in order to sexual arousal, arouse, fasci ...
s, under the division Puzzy Power. Three of these films, '' Constance'' (1998), ''
Pink Prison ''Pink Prison'' is a 1999 erotic film for women, directed by Danish director Lisbeth Lynghøft, and produced by Puzzy Power, a division of Lars von Trier's film company Zentropa. As the follow-up to ''Constance (1998 film), Constance'' (1998), it ...
'' (1999), and the adult/mainstream crossover-feature '' All About Anna'' (2005), were made primarily for a female audience and were extremely successful in Europe, with the first two being directly responsible for the legalising of pornography in
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
in March 2006.Zentropa's initiative spearheaded a European wave of female-friendly porn films from directors such as Anna Span, Erika Lust and Petra Joy, while von Trier's company Zentropa was forced to abandon the experiment due to pressure from its English business partners. In July 2009, women's magazine ''
Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...
'' ranked ''Pink Prison'' as No. 1 in its Top Five of the best women's porn, calling it the "role model for the new porn-generation".


Sexual harassment allegations

In November 2017, in the wake of the
Me Too movement #MeToo is a social movement and Consciousness raising, awareness campaign against sexual abuse, sexual harassment and rape culture, in which women publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. The phrase "Me Too" was init ...
, nine women – all former employees at Zentropa – spoke of an "ingrained" culture of abuse at the studio. Several of those interviewed said that their treatment had prompted them to stop working in the film industry altogether. Jensen, the company's co-founder, was specifically accused of sexual misconduct and sidelined from operations. An internal memo stated that he would no longer exercise "influence on the daily leadership of the company ndwill not partake in any management meetings." According to von Trier, Jensen stepped down and passed to Anders Kjaerhauge as CEO of Zentropa when the former's further allegations of harassment came to light.


Selected productions


Subsidiaries

*
EF Rental EF or ef may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Ef (band), a post-rock band from Sweden * '' Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two.'', a Japanese adult visual novel series by Minori, or its anime adaptations Businesses and organizations * Eagle Forum, a ...
* Electric Parc * Puzzy Power * Trust Film Sales * Zentropa Real * Zentropa Interaction * Zentropa Rekorder * Zentropa Klippegangen * Zentropa International Köln GmbH * Zentropa International Poland * Zentropa International Sweden


Awards

Zentropa won many awards and nominations from local ceremonies including
Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...
and Bodil, as well as two Academy Award for Best International Feature Film for '' In a Better World'' and ''Another Round'', both were directed by critically acclaimed Dogme 95-competitors Susanne Bier and Thomas Vinterberg.


References


External links

* * {{DNFc, 107463
Filmbyen official site

Zentropa at IMDb


Film production companies of Denmark Mass media companies based in Copenhagen Companies based in Hvidovre Municipality Danish companies established in 1992 Danish film studios Danish brands Film distributors Lars von Trier