CANNES, France — Danish director Lars von Trier, an
auteur provocateur known for his controversial films, apologized
Wednesday after joking with reporters at the Cannes Film Festival that
he was a Nazi and that he was glad he was not of Jewish heritage, as he
once hoped he might be.
At a news conference for his new film “Melancholia,”
starring Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg as sisters, he said that
he at one point “really wanted to be a Jew, and then I found out that I
was really a Nazi, because, you know, my family was German. Which also
gave me some pleasure.”
He added: “What can I say? 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. … He’s not what you would call a
good guy, but I understand much about him, and I sympathize with him a
little bit. But come on, I’m not for the Second World War, and I’m not
against Jews…I am very much for Jews. No, not too much, because Israel
is a pain in the” butt.
He also took a shot at fellow Danish director Susanne
Bier, who is Jewish and whose movie “In a Better World” won the Oscar
for foreign language film this year.
The remarks were an attempt at humor, but they were met with silence in the roomful of reporters.
The comments grew out of a question Von Trier was
asked about his use of music by Wagner in a striking opening sequence of
“Melancholia.” The longer he spoke, the deeper the hole got, and he
seemed to realize it, as did Dunst and Gainsbourg, who were sitting next
to him. Reaching an impasse in his monologue, he ended with “OK, I’m a
Nazi.”
After festival organizers issued a statement saying
they were “disturbed” by the comments, Von Trier’s publicity team
replied with an apology attributed to the director. “If I have hurt
someone by the words I said at the press conference, I sincerely
apologize. I am not anti-Semitic or racially prejudiced in any way, nor
am I a Nazi,” it said.
Two years ago, Von Trier got into a tussle with a
reporter at a news conference in Cannes after the journalist questioned
the tastefulness of his “Antichrist,” which featured several scenes of
bloody castration.
A bit ironically, this latest flap comes as Von Trier
is promoting a film far less provocative than “Antichrist.”
“Melancholia” centers on a wedding and a dysfunctional family, and is
set against the looming prospect of Earth’s end. The movie was
generating buzz as a possible contender for Cannes’ top prize, the Palme
d’Or, immediately after it screened. But Von Trier’s remarks seemed to
cast that into serious doubt.
Von Trier did win the Palme for “Dancer in the Dark,” his divisive drama starring Bjork, in 2000.
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