arson

His films obsessively explore violence and destruction as metaphors for societal collapse, with arson and fire serving as catalysts for moral reckoning in works like 'Funny Games' and 'The Seventh Continent'.

He uses fire and burning imagery as visceral expressions of trauma, desire, and human destructiveness, particularly in 'Irreversible' where conflagration mirrors psychological devastation.

His provocative films frequently employ arson and destruction as narrative and thematic centerpieces exploring human depravity, redemption, and apocalypse, notably in 'Antichrist' and 'Melancholia'.