With six entries at the Cannes Film Festival thus far, Lars von Trier
has been a Cannes award winner four times. Without question, he is the
most intriguing film director to emerge in Denmark since the days of his
great mentor in spirit Carl Theodor Dreyer. A relentless visionary, von
Trier (b. 1956) has succeeded not only in realizing his projects but
also in managing to gather substantial audiences to his films. Breaking
the Waves (1996) made him a well-known figure to American audiences, as
did Dancer in the Dark (2000), winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
His work on the groundbreaking TV series The Kingdom (1994-97) made
him a household name in Denmark. He has continued to stir controversy
for his polarizing views on the characters and subject matter of his
films, as well as for his film technique. Media attention reached its
peak when von Trier created Dogme 95, a movement dedicated to the Vow of
Chastity, which strips cinema of its artifice, flash, and polish.
Rather than being strident or shrill, however, these collected
interviews reveal the Danish filmmaker to be impish, forthright, witty,
sometimes infuriating, and deeply committed to the possibilities of
cinema. The conversations in this collection trace his development from
the structured, image-obsessed formalist of The Element of Crime
(1984) and Europa (U.S. title Zentropa, 1991) to the
control-shunning game master of the 1990s.
Most of these interviews, two previously unpublished, are translated
into English for the first time. They begin in 1968, when von Trier was
the lead actor in a children's TV series, and end in 2001. Von Trier
speaks of his visions, ideals, dislikes, and technical experimentations,
of his conception of actors, his childhood, his phobias, and of his
views on religion and his ill-fated female protagonists. His style in
conversation is relaxed and honest, his mood affirmative and passionate.
