“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,” Lars von Trier infamously said during the press conference for “Melancholia” at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011.
“But come on, I am not for the second world war, and I am not against Jews. I am very much for Jews; well, not too much because Israel is a pain in the ass. But still, how can I get out of this sentence … OK, I’m a Nazi,” he added, and with that, he was banned from the Croisette and declared Persona Non Grata at Cannes. But as they say, time heals all wounds.
Back in 2013, Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux said von Trier would be welcomed back to the festival, explaining that the filmmaker was never banned “forever.” And it looks like the director could be back next year.
At a press conference this week for von Trier’s new film, “The House That Jack Built,” producer Louise Veth teased that the film would be ready for Cannes in 2018 and it sounds like a return is already being eyed. “I have talked to the people I know in Cannes and … yeah, maybe,” von Trier, who was reportedly quite visibly nervous throughout the entire press conference, said.
As for his serial killer movie, von Trier said it’s “maybe the most traditional film I’ve made” and seems to welcome the challenge of making a movie about the kind of character that has been detailed to death in other mediums.
”I don’t find anything especially interesting about serial killers,” he explained. ”It’s more the women. For some strange reason all the women I have been with have been crazy about serial killers. That might have something to do with me. Also I thought I could fool people to go into the cinema. There are so many books and films and TV-shows about serial killers. But still I picked it up – of course I know I can’t do something drastically different but I had fun writing it.”
Filming is now underway on “The House That Jack Built.” [The Guardian/Screen Daily]