Lars von Trier
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Trailer Watch: 25th Anniversary 4K Restoration of Lars von Trier’s The Idiots
MUBI has released a new trailer for the 25th anniversary 4K restoration of Lars von Trier‘s dark comedy The Idiots. The only film that von Trier made under the Dogme 95 “Vow of Chastity” (and the second official Dogme film, or Dogme #2), The Idiots centers on a commune in the Danish suburbs where members aim to disrupt wider “bourgeoisie” society by pretending to have mental and physical ailments in public. It is the second film in von Trier’s Golden Heart Trilogy, preceded by Breaking the Waves and followed by Dancer in the Dark. The Idiots will open theatrically at […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jun 5, 2023 -
Wagner Moments: DP Manuel Alberto Claro on Melancholia at Ten Years, Lars Von Trier and Depression
Melancholia premiered in Cannes ten years ago this month and was immediately overshadowed by the infamous press conference in which its provocative Danish director, Lars Von Trier, said “I am a Nazi.” Yet, as the film rolled out across the world, its visceral and moving portrayal of depression found its way into audiences’ hearts. It stands the test of time as a rare example of a beautiful film about mental illness. The equivocation of a realistic depiction of depression in Part One as it engulfs Justine (Kirsten Dunst) on her wedding day with the science-fiction concept of the world ending […]
by Sophie Monks Kaufman on May 20, 2021 -
Back to One, Episode 119: Stacy Martin
Part of Stacy Martin’s performance, in her wonderful new film Archive, involves essentially playing robots at various stages of development. She talks about the challenge that posed for her as an actor, and how director Gavin Rothery’s complete command of his vision helped her process. She takes me back to her days at the Actors’ Temple in London, and how an intensive workshop there changed her life and prepared her for the remarkable experience of her first film, Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac. She shares an important bit of direction that Lars gave her that blows my mind. We swap stories […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Jul 21, 2020 -
Cannes Dispatch #5: BlacKkKlansman, The House That Jack Built
Among the markers of a great film—of a great work of art in general—is its ability to conjure itself up unannounced, repeatedly, in the light of neighboring films and artworks; it becomes a lens through which other work is viewed, a standard by which everything else is held, a shadow enlightening the world we now walk through. This is one way of briefly reiterating something I attempted to articulate in my third dispatch: Jean-Luc Godard’s The Image Bookis great art, corroborated for me by its persistent presence in my consciousness during the last several days of movie watching—most notably (and […]
by Blake Williams on May 15, 2018 -
Missy Mazzoli, Royce Vavrek, and James Darrah On Their Opera Adaptation of Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves
Lars von Trier’s fantastically wrenching 1996 film Breaking the Waves has been adapted into a new opera by composer Missy Mazzoli, librettist Royce Vavrek and director James Darrah. Excerpts from the opera will be performed this coming Monday, September 12, at the Guggenheim Museum and then the opera itself will officially premiere in an Opera Philadelphia production in Philadelphia from Thursday, September 22 through Saturday, October 1. At I Care if You Listen, Mazzoli and Vavrek discussed their adaptation. From Vavrek: I have loved von Trier’s film since I first saw it at the age of fourteen. I can remember […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 6, 2016 -
Watch: “Lars Von Trier – The Deconstructionist”
The ever-divisive Lars Von Trier is re-examined by Lewis Bond in this thorough video essay, which examines the way the Danish provocateur breaks down rules about the forms of cinema and then recombines them. Comes with lots of context and an amusing press conference clip of Willem Dafoe explaining on-set improv in Antichrist, where he didn’t even know if he’d be naked or not before starting a scene.
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 26, 2016 -
Through a Glass Darkly: Men & Chicken
I really wanted to be a Jew, and then I found out that I was really a Nazi, because my family is German. And that also gave me some pleasure. So, I, what can I say? I understand Hitler….How do I get out of this sentence? Okay, I am a Nazi. As for the art, I’m for (Nazi architect Albert) Speer. This is a mild example of the comments reported from the 2011 Cannes Film Festival by Jada Yuan in a May 18 Vulture article entitled “The 10 Most Controversial Things Lars Von Trier said at the Melancholia Press Conference.” After an […]
by Howard Feinstein on Apr 19, 2016 -
Watch: Lars von Trier’s First Short, an Animated Movie Made When he was 11
A hat-tip to Amber Frost at Dangerous Minds, who’s drawn attention to Lars von Trier’s first effort The Trip to Squash Land: A Super-Sausage Adventure, which appears to have been online for a few years. There seems to be no English-language information on the internet about how or why an 11-year-old von Trier made a two-minute animation centering around rabbits and some kind of sausage creature, but the effect is suitably disorienting and bracingly unenlightening. Here we have two minutes of a strummy folk song backing a stop-start story of some kind of nature utopia or other without the faintest […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jun 16, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: Nymphomaniac Volume II
A few weeks out from its release, here’s the first trailer for Volume II of Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac. There not much going on here that hasn’t already been introduced, so I’ll take the opportunity to point you toward Charlotte Gainsbourg’s interview in New York Magazine. The article offers insight into her intriguing relationship with von Trier, but also gifts us this nugget: One thing she’s not entirely happy with: the casting, as Joe’s younger self, of English actress Stacy Martin. (Nymphomaniac is, for some reason, supposed to be set in the U.K., though like most of von Trier’s films it’s really set in a darkly […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Mar 19, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac: Volume II
Swapping Rammstein for The Talking Heads, the trailer for Volume II of Lars von Trier’s nymphomaniacal, five-hour affair is considerably more dialed down than its predecessor. Favoring mood and quiet exchanges to the sexed-up, melodramatic hysteria that’s categorized the majority of Nymphomaniac‘s elongated marketing scheme, this new trailer puts its best ensemble forward with glimpses of Christian Slater, Willem Dafoe, Shia Labeouf, Stellan Skarsgard, Mia Goth, Stacy Martin, and of course, the titular Charlotte Gainsbourg. The U.S. had its first glimpse of Nymphomaniac: Volume I at Sundance’s secret screening last week, and Magnolia Pictures will release Volumes I and II to the rest of […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 29, 2014
