Biography

Probably the most ambitious and visually distinctive filmmaker to emerge from Denmark since Carl Theodor Dreyer over 60 years earlier, Lars von Trier studied film at the Danish Film School and attracted international attention with his very first feature, O Elemento do Crime (1984). A highly distinctive blend of film noir and German Expressionism with stylistic nods to Dreyer, Andrei Tarkovsky and Orson Welles, its combination of yellow-tinted monochrome cinematography (pierced by shafts of blue light) and doom-haunted atmosphere made it an unforgettable visual experience. His subsequent features Epidemic (1987) and Europa (1991) have been equally ambitious both thematically and visually, though his international fame is most likely to be based on O Reino (1994), a TV soap opera blending hospital drama, ghost story and Twin Peaks (1990)-style surrealism that was so successful in Denmark that it was released internationally as a 280-minute theatrical feature.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Michael Brooke < michael@everyman.demon.co.uk>

Hypnosis figures significantly in many of his films

Fequently casts Jean-Marc Barr

Often casts Charlotte Gainsbourg.

The majority of his feature films have a female lead who experiences some form of transcendence after battling through harsh adversity.

His films are often made as part of a trilogy (Golden Heart trilogy, USA trilogy, the Depression trilogy)

Philisophical and sometimes witty yet disturbing dialogue

In 1995, his dying mother told her son on her deathbed that the man he believed to be his father, in fact wasn't his biological father. Following her death, he tracked down his biological father, a 90-year-old German who after four combative meetings told him that, if he wanted to speak to him again, he could do it through his lawyer.

Added 'von' to his name because his peers at the Danish Film School called him so.

Nephew of filmmaker Børge Høst.

The year von Trier won the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, he almost did not attend the ceremony. He has so many phobias, he could only make the trip in a specially outfitted trailer.

He was awarded UNICEF's 'Cinema for Peace Award' at the 2004 Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival). He got the award because almost all of his films deal with subjects like mercy and ethics.

Has never visited the US.

Udo Kier is the godfather of his daughter Agnes.

Many famous directors and actors have shown their appreciation of von Trier's work. Quentin Tarantino mentions Von Trier's Dogville (2003) as his idea of the best manuscript ever written, Paul Thomas Anderson said he would "carry Lars von Trier's luggage anywhere", Martin Scorsese has Ondas de Paixão (1996) listed on his top 10 films of the 90s and Johnny Depp recently said this in a Danish film magazine: "Tell von Trier I'm waiting for an offer, when he is ready, so am I".

He has directed three actresses to the Best Actress Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Björk for Dancer in the Dark (2000), Charlotte Gainsbourg for Anticristo (2009) and Kirsten Dunst for Melancolia (2011).

After speaking on a public appearance from Lars Von Trier at the University of Copenhagen, film and media studies, 22/11-06, he expressed interest in making a horror film. It is apparently under development. [November 2006]

Shares birthday with Jane Campion and Jacques Audiard. The three directors/writers are all winners of the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Has the letters F, U, C, K tattooed on his right hand knuckles.

A film should be like a rock in the shoe.

I don't think I tortured Nicole on Dogville (2003), but I know she said I was tough.

If his creation is so great, why does God want us on our knees?

There are a lot of Americans I sympathise with very much, but not the Government right now, no. We just do not agree on politics, but that's not being Anti-American. I am critical about a country with a system that allows so many losers. I think that is wrong.

Since I have said I am 60% American I can say there is one thing that kills any debate - an American disease called political correctness, which is a fear of talking ... What makes me a little bit sad is that there's an American TV show in which the president of the US is black. People say, 'Oh look, that's OK, there's a black president on TV.' That's completely humiliating because that's not how it is. There's no black president. Political correctness kills discussion.

[on his mental state] I am at a place right now, where it's more messy than usual. ["Jeg er et sted ligenu hvor det roder mere end det plejer"]

Forget all the excuses, 'the childish fascination' and 'the all embracing humility', for this is my confession, black on white: I, Lars von Trier, am but a simple masturbator of the silver screen.

I would say that I am a poor Christian, I'm not a believer. It was this idea very early in my life that life on earth, nature or man could not be a creation of a merciful God.

I want to be surrounded by porn people who love me for what I am, who say, 'Where do you want the erection, where do you want the penetration?' Where it's not complicated.

Everything is going to Hell, but we should smile all the way.

[on the problems of being sober] Who the hell cares about The Rolling Stones when you don't have a sense that they've just emptied a bottle of Jack Daniels? That's nonsense. Or Jimi Hendrix without heroin or whatever he was on. That's rubbish; we can't be bothered with that. We don't want that, because we want their special approach through something mysterious, which is still somehow connected to various intoxicants, right? But when I work, I'll miss the intoxication, or rather, I may come to miss it. That's the point. I think it's really dreary to try to be sober. But I am. [2014]

[giving context to his controversial comments at the Cannes press conference of Melancolia (2011)] The real story, and that's where all the Nazi nonsense came from, was that Trier is a Jewish name, and a very big Jewish family. I added the von, maybe to get away from that, but that was first of all because it was forbidden for me to do it in the film school. You know if something is forbidden it's kind of attractive to me. But it was also Von Stroheim [Erich von Stroheim] and Von Sternberg [Josef von Sternberg], they added it also, because they came from Germany, and they said, 'how do we do it in Hollywood?' and of course we put a von in there, and they were suddenly noblemen, which was complete nonsense, they were not at all. And I like crooks somehow. I like the idea of that, so I put that in. But I took it very seriously that I was from a Jewish family. My family was, as I found out later, not considered to be a fine Jewish family because they didn't go to the synagogue, they were very much atheistic, and my father was very much against Israel, but he was very Jewish. But people can be anti-Zionist without being anti-Semitic, of course. This was very important to me. Then my mother died and on her deathbed she told me that my father was not my biological father, which is very common I believe, and probably has happened in royal houses anywhere where the name is important. And then I said this [at the press conference] in a stupid way because I was feeling good and relaxed. Then I have this stupid unprofessional thing that I need to entertain a little. This is the last one of these I'll do at Cannes. Because I get carried away. Then I say that I found out I was not a Jew but a Nazi, which meant I was on the other side of the fence. It was not nice to say, especially to the Germans. That's ridiculous and stupid. It was kind of the Danish way of being idiotic. And I regret that. I don't think I was really anti-Semitic, because that would be extremely stupid. All my four children have Jewish names, I take it very seriously. The real father, he was a German. That's why I said I was a Nazi. He was not a Nazi, he was a freedom fighter. Yes, I met him, he was an asshole. It was ridiculous, my mother said to me, 'You will like him so much, he is such a fantastic person.' Then I met a feminine man, he said, 'I was sure that your mother would protect herself.' He said to me, 'If you want to discuss more, it should be through my lawyer.' And he was 78. And I had imagined this kind of slow-motion thing. And he said, 'I have never accepted that child.' And he said that to me. It was completely awful, but that did not make him a Nazi, not at all, he was a freedom fighter, and very respectable in every way. I just didn't like him. But then I got some siblings, who I see. That's fine. The only thing that was funny in the story was that I was not Jewish, I was half-German. From there it went wrong. [Interview with Anne Thompson, 2011]