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Von Trier sticks foot in mouth
CANNES, France - Every experienced journalist at the Cannes Film Festival knows that you can’t take Danish director Lars von Trier seriously at a press conference. But his comments on Wednesday, after the screening of “Melancholia,” startled most of the press.
When asked about his family’s German roots and his interest in German Romanticism, von Trier replied:
“For a long time, I thought I was a Jew, and I was happy to be a Jew. … But then I found out I was actually a Nazi. My family were German. And that also gave me some pleasure. What can I say? I understand Hitler … I sympathize with him a bit.”
He later tried to clarify his remarks, amid frowns from “Melancholia” star Kirsten Dunst. “I’m not against Jews … In fact, I’m very much in favor of them. All Jews. Well, Israel is a pain in the ass.”
Before falling into the politically inappropriate routine about Nazis, von Trier was basically playing the comic throughout the press conference.
He said “there’s quite a big possibility” that his new movie “might not be worth seeing. ” And he joked that Dunst enjoyed her nude scene in “Melancholia.” “Now she wants more,” he said, speculating that he and she would make another movie, a three- to four-hour porn film with “lots of uncomfortable sex.” Dunst just shook her head.
Von Trier also riffed about his long-standing battle with depression, and said that he got along with Dunst because “she has some knowledge of depression.”
Then he turned to Dunst and said: “I am very happy that you’re mentally disturbed.”
He also ribbed actor Udo Kier, who has a supporting role in the movie as a put-upon wedding planner. “I typecast him as a homosexual,” von Trier said. Then he turned to Keir and said: “Your performance is fantastic. I don’t know where you get it from.”
Director Lars Von Trier poses for portraits after an interview with the Associated Press promoting the film Melancholia at the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
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