Von Trier kicks up a storm in Cannes

Although famous for causing controversy with his movies, it had not been imaginable that von Trier could kick up as much of a fuss at the festival this year as he did in 2009 with Antichrist, in which Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Defoe featured in explicit and violent sex scenes. Yet von Trier has perhaps managed to surpass himself with his unexpected comments this morning, which resulted from a question regarding his interest in Nazi imagery.

In the rambling answer that followed, the director told a story about how he had once thought, perfectly happily, that he was Jewish but then he had discovered that his German family had in fact been Nazis and that with this he was also perfectly happy. From there he went on, "What can I say? I understand Hitler. I think he did some wrong things, yes absolutely but I can see him sitting in his bunker in the end.” “I think I understand the man,” he continued before adding, “he's not what you would call a good guy, but I understand much about him and I sympathise with him a little bit.” His leading actress, Kirsten Dunst, visibly crumpled beside him and at one point as he was speaking she leant over and said something to him. An uncomfortable few moments passed as the flailing von Trier dug himself further and further into a black hole. He reiterated that he knew Hitler had not been a good guy, that he was not for World War II and that he was not himself against all Jews… then he criticised Israel and joked that he was a Nazi.

The remarks will no doubt now heavily feature in the press for Melancholia, a bleak movie about two sisters facing the end of the world as a planet hurtles towards earth. They certainly overshadowed the press conference, throughout much of which von Trier had baffled journalists with incoherent sentences but also made some good jokes and several interesting points about his work. “All art that I think is good, has a little melancholia in it,” he said at one point, explaining his own preoccupation with desperate and dark themes in his films, which include Breaking of the Waves and Dancer in the Dark. "If I made comedy it would end up being melancholic... in fact Melancholia is actually a comedy, you don't want to imagine what would happen if I made a tragedy," he joked.

In the film Dunst plays Justine, a bride struck down with severe depression on her wedding day. Von Trier's personal struggle with depression partly inspired the theme and he mentioned that Dunst’s own well publicised battle against the condition helped her play the role. Dunst, looking pretty in a mustard yellow dress and red lipstick, also waxed lyrical about how wonderful it was to be directed by the filmmaker, describing the experience as very liberating. In the face of criticism often levied at the Dane regarding his female characters, the American pointed out that she found his depiction of women empowering and was thankful as a Hollywood actress for such a meaty role.

Still, she appeared slightly hot under the collar when von Trier told the press that he planned a porn film for her and her co-star, Charlotte Gainsbourg. Heavily pregnant and ravishing in a black mini dress, the French actress-singer was somewhat cooler than the American, shrugging off what was being said by the man next to her with nonchalant laughs. Clearly she is more accustomed to controversy surrounding her dealings with von Trier.

“I like movies where you know how it will end from the start,” the director said at one point, referencing that you know what is going to happen in Melancholia from the opening scenes, “but that you watch still hoping for something else to happen.” In hindsight then, it was perhaps obvious that there was going to be some element of shock-factor at Cannes this morning, although Dunst quite clearly had hoped for a different outcome at the press call. “Oh Lars, that was intense,” she said under her breath to him as they got up to leave the auditorium. But in reality what else could she have been expecting? This is Lars von Trier after all, and when it comes to Cannes there is nothing this man likes better than controversy. HM