Will Lars Von Trier Be Allowed To Show His New Trump Inspired Film At Cannes?
Image by Patrik Stollarz / Getty Images
With titles like “The Idiots,” and “Antichrist,” it’s no surprise that Danish director Lars von Trier is always getting himself into trouble. Most famously, back in 2011 during an interview at Cannes, the director 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 sympathize with him, yes, a little bit.”
He was joking of course, but von Trier’s humor has always been more cruelly ironic, or just plain cruel, than funny. Needless to say, the organizers of the Cannes festival were not pleased and, despite having had success at the festival in previous years with “Dancer in the Dark,” “Breaking the Waves,” and other films, von Trier was banned from the festival.
Since being banned from Cannes, von Trier has released only one film (albeit, in two parts) – 2013’s brilliant, ambitious, outrageous, controversial (of course) “Nymphomaniac.” Now, however, The Guardian reports that the dour Dane is negotiating a return to the festival for his upcoming film, “The House That Jack Built” – a film about a murder spree starring Matt Dillon and Uma Thurman (who previously turned in one of the great performances of her career in her brief appearance in “Nymphomaniac”).
Speaking to The Guardian about the upcoming film, von Trier said that “The House That Jack Built celebrates the idea that life is evil and soulless, which is sadly proven by the recent rise of the Homo trumpus – the rat king.”
The director, among our greatest filmmakers, living or dead, is renowned for his dark, cynical, ironic (in the spirit of that other dour Dane, Søren Kierkegaard), terribly depressing films. If his new film is indeed inspired by Donald Trump, then I shudder in anticipation, both nervous and excited, so see what von Trier has accomplished this time around.
Jake Romm is a Contributing Editor for The Forward. Contact him at [email protected]
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
