Film director Lars Von Trier and P.C. / humour

Morlar

This is an unusual story I thought some here may be interested in. Lars Trier, the film director of 'The idiots' 'Mandalay' and 'Dogville' is in hot water for some comments he recently made. When you carefully read the comments, this does seem to be an over-reaction in my view.

Any thoughts on this ?

Insensitivity/ over-reaction ? Both ?

http://breakingnews.ie/entertainment/director-von-trier-banned-by-cannes-after-nazi-comments-505644.html

Director Von Trier banned by Cannes after 'Nazi' comments

19/05/2011 - 13:14:56
Danish director Lars Von Trier has been banned from the Cannes Film Festival and declared “persona non grata” after telling a press conference he was a Nazi and could understand Hitler.

A statement from the festival’s organisers said they “profoundly” regretted the filmmaker’s remarks, which they described as “unacceptable, intolerable, and contrary to the ideals of humanity and generosity that preside over the very existence of the festival”.

It continued: “The board of directors firmly condemns these comments and declares Lars Von Trier a persona non grata at the Festival de Cannes, with effect immediately.”

Von Trier apologised after yesterday's press conference.

The film-maker discussed Adolf Hitler, porn films and the drinking habits of some of his stars during the strange 40-minute session.

He was there to promote his film 'Melancholia', the story of two sisters, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kirsten Dunst, and how they deal with the knowledge another planet is about to crash into Earth, destroying it.

Today’s statement does not make it clear whether the film will be withdrawn from competition for the festival’s Palme d’Or prize.

Von Trier, who was brought up believing he was Jewish until he discovered his biological father was a German Catholic, said yesterday: “I really wanted to be a Jew and then I found out I was really a Nazi, you know because my family was German.”

He went on to say he could “understand Hitler”, adding: “But come on, I’m not for the Second World War and I’m not against Jews.”

With Dunst looking increasingly uncomfortable at his answers, von Trier asked reporters: “How can I get out of this sentence?”

Referring to the holocaust, he also said his next project might be a “final solution” but only involving journalists.

He also said Israel was a “pain in the ass”.

The eccentric film-maker gave a series of rambling answers to questions including the admission there was a chance the film, which also stars Kiefer Sutherland and is in the running for the Palme d’Or, was “crap”.

He said: “Of course I hope not, but there’s quite a big possibility it’s really not worth seeing.”

Von Trier, who is well-known for including graphic sex scenes in his films, joked that Dunst had insisted his next film would be a “a porn film” and she would star in it alongside Gainsbourg.

He said: “It’s going to be three or four hours long and the only reason for that is the press conference will be a little later so I can sleep a little longer.”

He also said he had rejected the advice of a collaborator who warned him against putting too much nudity in his films and not to make “the mistake that many middle-aged directors, older directors, do that the women get younger and younger and more and more naked”.

He told reporters: “I said, ’Don’t say that to me’, so now I tell you they’re going to be naked and extremely young.”

The press conference ended with the usually unflappable host, French intellectual Henri Behar, saying it had been a “very, very strange” session.

Story also picked up here :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/may/18/lars-von-trier-cannes-2011-nazi-comments

Lars von Trier provokes Cannes with 'I'm a Nazi' comments

Director makes controversial jokes claiming to 'understand Hitler' at Cannes film festival press conference for his latest film, Melancholia

Lars Von Trier is known for being unpredictable, quixotic, puckish and deliberately provocative. But even he over-leaped his high standards of eccentricity as he spoke before the Cannes premiere of Melancholia,his latest film, announcing "I'm a Nazi" and that he "understands Hitler".

He also jokingly claimed he was writing a four-hour-long hardcore porn film featuring Melancholia stars Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kirsten Dunst. It would, he said, contain "a lot of very, very unpleasant sex".

The nazism remarks, which were jestingly made in response to a question about his German roots, would probably spell career suicide if uttered outside the rarefied atmosphere of the Cannes film festival – and indeed may yet.

As Melancholia's star Dunst looked on ashen-faced – at one point attempting to halt his flow with a restraining arm on his shoulder – he said: "I thought I was a Jew for a long time and was very happy being a Jew ... Then it turned out that I was not a Jew ... I found out that I was really a Nazi which also gave me some pleasure.

"What can I say? I understand Hitler. He did some wrong things, absolutely, but I can see him sitting there in his bunker at the end ... I sympathise with him, yes, a little bit."

Attempting to extricate himself from his self-dug grave, he added: "But come on, I am not for the second world war, and I am not against Jews. I am very much for Jews; well not too much because Israel is a pain in the ass. But still, how can I get out of this sentence ... OK I'm a Nazi."

The organisers of the festival issued a statement saying they had been "disturbed" by the remarks, that he had apologised, and that the festival would never allow the event to become the forum for such pronouncements.

Von Trier issued his own statement: "If I have hurt someone this morning by the words I said, I sincerely apologise. I am not antisemitic or racially prejudiced in any way, nor am I a Nazi."

The question that led to von Trier's remarks came from the Times film critic, Kate Muir, about his German origins and the influence of the Gothic on his work.

Von Trier said "he let himself be egged on by a provocation", the festival statement said.

In an another capricious riff, which Gainsbourg and Dunst watched in a state of what appeared to be nervous hilarity, Von Trier claimed Dunst had insisted she be filmed naked for a scene in Melancholia. "And now she wants more," claimed the Danish director. "That's how women are, and Charlotte is behind this. They want a really hardcore film this time, and I am doing my best.

"I said let's have a lot of talking in it, and they said, 'We don't give a **** about the dialogue, we just want to have a lot of very very unpleasant sex,' and that's what I am writing right now."

No one could accuse Melancholia of a lack of ambition. If Terrence Malick's Tree of Life, which screened earlier in the festival, sets a family drama against the origins of the cosmos, then Von Trier's Melancholia sets a family drama against the end of the world.

The film's first screening was greeted with applause, but has already split its early viewers – though it seems likely that the film itself will be overshadowed by the director's ill-advised public statements. In any case, Von Trier himself is apparently siding with Melancholia's sternest critics. He said, "Maybe it's crap. Of course I hope not, but there's quite a big possibility that this might be really not worth seeing."

He said that he felt he may have got carried away with the film's high Germanic romanticism, with the first 10 minutes devoted to a series of visually arresting, apocalyptic tableaux set against the complete Prelude to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

Of the mood of the film, he said: "Melancholia is a good title ... and melancholy is a quality that is in all art that I like, and I am sure it is part of all good art. It was the starting point of the film and the inspiration came from there. To be melancholic has to do with a longing, which is something a little special for this film."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lars-von-trier-admits-being-189747

Lars von Trier Admits to Being a Nazi, Understanding Hitler (Cannes 2011)

Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg look on in disbelief as the "Melancholia" director shocks at Cannes press conference, saying his next movie could be "The Final Solution."

CANNES – Danish director Lars von Trier pulled a Mel Gibson in Cannes Wednesday, giving a shocking and hilarious press conference for his new film Melancholia in which he admitted to being a Nazi, to understanding Hitler and speculated that his next movie could be The Final Solution.

Von Trier has never been very P.C. and his Cannes press conferences always play like a dark stand-up routine, but at the Melancholia press conference he took it to another level, tossing a grenade into any sense of public decorum. In response to a question about his Germanic roots, Von Trier set off on a long and twisted answer that, if this were America, not Cannes, would have meant career suicide.

FILM REVIEW: Melancholia

“For a long time I thought I was a Jew and I was happy to be a Jew,” he began, “then I met (Danish and Jewish director) Susanne Bier and I wasn’t so happy. 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.”

Von Trier qualified that “I don’t mean I’m in favor of World War II and I’m not against Jews, not even Susanne Bier” before digging himself deeper. “In fact I’m very much in favor of them. All Jews. Well, Israel is a pain in the ass but…”

As Melancholia stars Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg, sitting on either side of Von Trier, stared at him agog, the director paused.

“Now how can I get out of this sentence? Ok. I’m a Nazi.”

It was a grandiose performance by European cinema’s premiere enfant terrible as Von Trier managed to shock just about everyone in the room. And also made them laugh with the sort of chuckle that gets caught in the throat.

The Nazi comments came at the end of a sprawling routine in which Von Trier said his new movie “may be crap…there’s quite a big possibility that it might not be worth seeing” and mused that his next project with Dunst and Gainsbourg would be a 3 to 4 hour porn film “with lots of uncomfortable sex.”

Von Trier’s deadpan delivery and cheerful cherub-like smile hinted to the audience that everything was one big joke.

Certainly no one took the director seriously when, asked if he would like to do a film on a larger scale, answered: “Yes. We Nazis like to do things on a big scale. Maybe I could do The Final Solution.”

During Cannes, it was also announced that von Trier and Martin Scorsese are teaming up for a remake of The Five Obstructions, von Trier's 2003 documentary deconstructing the film making process.

The project, called The Five Obstructions, Trier vs. Scorsese, pre-sold to Poland (Kino Swiat), Romanian (Independenta) and the Czech and Slovak Republics (Aero Films) at the Cannes market.

marcsignal

Seems a bit ott alright, not exactly Mel Gibson.

It's getting harder to take Journalistic shit stirring seriously.
Remember all the foo-fa over Ronan Tynan? Check This

Lucky Spike Milligan is dead, considering..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBig5p0yBNE

jonniebgood1

He was joking. I would imagine the joke may have come across better originally than on print.

BlaasForRafa

Sounds like he was making a joke and no-one found it funny (might have been the way he was telling it) and instead of changing subject he just kept digging himself into a hole

Morlar

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

Sounds like he was making a joke and no-one found it funny (might have been the way he was telling it) and instead of changing subject he just kept digging himself into a hole

That reminds me of a bill hicks routine about a comedian digging a deep hole for himself by talking about politics instead of dick jokes, it went something like this

'Hey Where'd Bill go ? Looks like he dug his way through the planet, I think I can hear people heckling in chineese right now.

"Hey, why you no do dick joke, win crowd back ! No one wants to hear you talk about president Boosh they want to hear dick joke "