Last night, after a well received screening of his new film Melancholia at Cannes, director Lars Von Trier, along with the cast of his film, held a press conference to discuss the movie with the assembled journalists. This sort of thing happens every day at film festivals and is usually quite dull. Not so the melancholia conference, where Lars Von Trier declared himself to be a Nazi.
Twice.
In a moment that will go down in press conference history, the director declared:
For a long time I thought I was a Jew and I was happy to be a Jew, then I met [Danish director] Susanne Bier and I wasn’t so happy. No, that was a joke, sorry… But it turned out I was not a Jew…
I really wanted to be a Jew but then I found out I was really a Nazi. Because my family was German, which also gave me some pleasure. 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 at the end… I’m just saying I think I understand the man. He’s not what you would call a “good guy” but I understand much about him. I sympathize with him a little bit. I don’t mean I’m in favor of World War II and I’m not against Jews, not even Susanne Bier. That was also a joke. In fact I’m very much in favor of them. All Jews. Well, Israel is a pain in the ass
After rambling on a little longer, including praising Nazi architect Albert Speer as “one of God’s best children”, Von Trier punctuated his outburst with the statement, “OK. I’m a Nazi”.
You can watch a video of the outburst, courtesy of the Torygraph, below.
Kirsten Dunst was visibly upset as Von Trier made his comments, alternating between staring daggers at Von Trier, and cringing. Many outlets have assumed this was because she was offended by Von Trier’s comments, but HeyUGuys can exclusively reveal she was actually fuming because Von Trier had upstaged her. She had apparently intended to use the Melancholia press conference to declare her own affinity with former Cambodian dictator Pol Pot *
Although Von Trier later apologised for his comments, the directors of the Cannes Film Festival have decided to ban him from the festival, stating:
The Festival de Cannes provides artists from around the world with an exceptional forum to present their works and defend freedom of expression and creation. The Festival’s Board of Directors, which held an extraordinary meeting this Thursday 19 May 2011, profoundly regrets that this forum has been used by Lars Von Trier to express comments that are unacceptable, intolerable, and contrary to the ideals of humanity and generosity that preside over the very existence of the Festival.
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.
As pointed out by HeyUGuys writer, Craig Skinner on Twitter, this ban on Von Trier seems like a double standard given the presence of Mel Gibson at the film festival. We can only assume that Von Trier will be allowed back as soon as he makes a film featuring a glove puppet. To this end we look forward to Von Trier’s take on Sooty, due for release in 2013.
For those of you uninterested in this story, we’ve also embedded the official video of the press conference. Sadly there are no Nazi-based meltdowns in this one, only some platitudes from Dunst on how Von Trier had become her friend during the making of the film (can’t see that lasting past today), and Von Trier talking about the end of the world. Still, it’s got some footage from the film cut in, so it’s worth watching for that alone.
*Please note that, to the best of our knowledge this is entirely untrue, and made up for the sake of a joke. HeyUGuys are unaware of Miss Dunst’s stance on Pol Pot.
