Alexander Skarsgard and Kirsten Dunst in Lars von Trier's new film, Melancholia
Lars von Trier, the film director, achieved a certain kind of notoriety in May 2011 when he was banned for life from the Cannes Film Festival for his comments regarding Hitler and Nazism at the press conference for his film Melancholia (which, incidentally, is about the end of the world.)
It caused an upset, to say the least. He told The Independent in an interview recently that he had meant the remarks as a joke, and that in fact he had a Jewish upbringing. “I am as good a Jew as any,” he said, and referring to the man that brought him up, “Maybe he didn’t give me the sperm but he gave me a family and background.”
Now he’s defending his remarks. He told The Hollywood Reporter: “There was a point to this whole thing. I think history shows that we are all Nazis somewhere, and there are a lot of things that can be suddenly set free, and the mechanics behind this setting-free is something we really should really investigate, and the way we do not investigate it is to make it a taboo to talk about it.” He hasn’t quite stopped his controversiality, though, said The New York Daily News, quoting him as saying “Some German journalists interviewed me, and I told them the French are the real Nazis, and they really liked that.”
“I understand Hitler, but I think he did some wrong things, yes, absolutely. But I can see him sitting in his bunker in the end.” Lars von Trier’s original comments at Cannes, as reported on The Guardian.
- Can such things be put into context? Well, said The Huffington Post, if he meant “the roaming scourge of bigotry and hatred that has settled throughout a multitude of countries throughout history”, then he may well be looking to start a dialogue. But The Atlantic Wire took the line that his attempts to put the remarks into context were questionable.
- Enough already! Kevin Jagernauth on Indiewire lamented: “Von Trier needs to hire some handlers or something because he’s just continually digging his own grave and mostly sounds like some pretentious college kid who thinks their post-modern, ironic cynicism allows them to get away with outlandish and/or infantile comments. We love you Lars, but enough.”
- Meanwhile, in the Twitterverse. GaGaforMcQ said “I love pretty movies, I don’t care if Lars Von Trier is a crazy person,” whilst Valkenhayn07 was of the opinion that “ You gotta love Lars Von Trier xD One of my personal heroes “I understand Hitler” Kristen Dunst reaction was f*cking hilarious xP.”