Lars von Trier: Cannes can can, too
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| Danish director Lars von Trier and Kirsten Dunst at the now infamous press conference. |
Lars von Trier, the Danish filmmaker, is a personal favorite of mine--I sense we have much in common beyond his film work. I recognize his films are not everyone's taste--I recognize that, but I don't understand it.There is something Hitchcockian in von Trier's intuitive camera placement and his montage that is not contrived but Zen master-like in its just-rightness. Dancer in the Dark may be the only film that has had the same overpowering emotional effect that a great silent film has on me. Antichrist was a visceral, I mean I screamed and writhed in my seat and frankly never wanna go there again, experience. But, while not a family film you wanna toss in for the kids, it is a powerful film worthy of your time. Breaking the Waves, another film constructed in ways that break almost all the classic Hollywood film rules, yet retains the awesome emotional power that great cinema, opera--all arts, are capable of unleashing when shaped by a real genius.
Trier began in more classical cinema forms---Europa (released as Zentropa originally stateside) works comfortably as post-Hitchcock thriller, by way of Volker Schlöndorff's The Tin Drum. Trier's latest is still in competition at Cannes while Lars has been asked to leave. This article from IndieWire will give you the background before the interview with Trier, but if you haven't read, during a press conference at the festival, Trier declared his empathy for Adolf Hitler, and then after widening the hole he began digging with the statement, cratered by rambling that he was Nazi. Offence was taken; Lars was booted; his film Melancholia received a 3 minute standing ovation later than night.
The trailer for Melancholia
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