Lars Von What!?

By now you’ve probably heard the news that controversial Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier has managed to stir the Mel Gibson pot amid comments from a press conference yesterday in Cannes for his latest film, Melancholia. Cannes board of director’s officially declared Von Trier “Persona Non Grata” and he is banned from the festival henceforth.

The furor erupted over a question from a British journalist about Von Trier’s recently discovered German ancestry (Von Trier battled severe depression when he learned from his mother, on her death bed, that her husband was not Von Trier’s biological father – until that time Von Trier believed he was Jewish).
Von Trier responded: “I really wanted to be a Jew, and then I found out that I was really a Nazi.”

Von Trier, rather bizarrely continued into murkier waters; “I think I understand the man (Adolf Hitler). He’s not what you would call a good guy. But I understand much about him, I sympathise with him a little bit.”

As we all know this was not the first time Von Trier has publicly displayed ‘foot-in-mouth’ syndrome. Here is one of our personal favourites from Von Trier’s appearance (via Skype) at Popcorn Taxi’s screening of Anti-Christ from November 2009.

Audience Question: “I was very intrigued by the epilogue and wanted to ask you what you were trying to convey?”

Von Trier: “It’s a very good question, I’m a little reluctant to answer because I think it could mean lots of different things. I can see you see it as being anti-feminist. Maybe it is? I don’t know….. You know….. I like my wife.”