Widely acknowledged as provocative and fairly enigmatic, Lars Von Trier was the first director to have officially been declared ‘persona non grata’ at the Festival de Cannes over its 64 years. The misplaced “playful” remark on being a Nazi was made by the Danish director, who has previously won the Palms for Dancer in the Dark in 2000, during the press conference about his apocalyptic movie Melancholia. According to the Board of the Directors, the banishment was related to “comments that are unacceptable, intolerable, and contrary to the ideals of humanity and generosity,” but what are we exactly talking about? In case you didn’t catch the comment in full, here is the uncut version of the offending speech the director made after being questioned about the influence of Nazi aesthetic, such as of the architect Albert Speer, on his film by one journalist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHKojTI-pNM

As it can be readily understood, regardless of his complete lack of humour and sensitivity,  what Von Trier may have been trying to say – without knowing ‘how to get out of this sentence’ – was that a man such as Hitler is not beyond our imagination. After all, concentration camps themselves speak volumes and volumes about our ‘rational’ and over-productive Occidental logos. Yes, man is evil, and, as written by Primo Levi in The Drowned and the Saved carrying it to the extreme, none of us, not even a concentration camp survivor, can be easily claimed innocent. Hence, although his attempt to escape from an impasse created by himself can be considered as failed without any doubt, Von Trier is very unlikely to be that anti-Semitic monster.

It also seems misconceived to call the director of the brilliant film about the Second World War Europa (1991) a ‘Nazi’. To think, in addition, that for all his life Trier has believed himself to be a Jewish as the son of Ulf Trier – only to discover, in a confession by his mother shortly before her death, that his real father was a German by the name of Fritz Michael Hartmann. “The Holocaust is the worst crime that ever happened. I have nothing against Jews. I have a Jewish name, and all my children have Jewish names,” the director also pointed out in a new press-conference with Danish journalists apologizing repeatedly.

Despite his Nazi jokes being quite rude, it remains a fact that during his now notorious commentary, Trier touched a problem of paramount importance: the complex relationship between arts and politics. Should we stop appreciating work made by incredible artists and thinkers such as Speer, Pound, Heiddeger, Nietzsche, Wagner, and so on, simply because of their wicked and abominable political convictions? Certainly their geniality triggers a big shame in all of us, as we remain wondering how it could be possible to produce beauty when having such devilish beliefs. Maybe Trier was provokingly trying to touch this sorely disquieting issue to make us think about it – even when we would prefer not to. Could it be that the viewer, ravished by the impressive and sentimental shoots of Melancholia – “whipped cream on top of whipped cream”, the director pointed out – forgets that behind the grandeur lies the dark planet of Nazism on collision course: is it the end of the world? Unfortunately, the Third Reich has fed, destroying and staining forever the great German Romanticism but something has left us with a contradicting tangle of emotions: can we peacefully love a cultural background which, notwithstanding its high value, is so compromised by history?

Luckily, the extreme clumsiness Von Trier tried to set an over-burning question up with, creating an outrage without precedent at Cannes, eventually did not cast a big shadow over the movie: in fact, on Sunday, Kirsten Dunst won the Cannes festival’s award for best actress for her terrific portrayal of a depressed bride in Melancholia. And maybe Kirsten herself had the final word about the banality of Trier’s evil: “He’s a great film-maker who, sometimes I feel should let his films speak for themselves”, the 29-year-old star has recently witty claimed to the Mail Online. How can we disagree with her?

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About the author

Elena Pinnen
Curious Literature graduate, with a strong passion for poetry, media and contemporary art. 'All truth passes through 3 stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.' (Schopenhauer)

6 Comments for Lars Von Trier at Cannes 2011 –The End of the World?

Ozlem Onder

Neither Nietzsche nor Heidegger were philosophers against Jews. What i personally think, Nietzsche's philosophy associated with Nazism because he wasn't a systematic philosopher. He always wrote in fragments, so people could easily manipulate his words. Heidegger's situation might be different since he was a party member and he actually backed up Hitler (still i don't think he had something against Jews), but after a while he resigned and had many issues with Nazis. But he never truly admitted that he has done wrong (you may check his interview with Der Spiegel- Only God Can Save Us), but he made us sense that people are open to anything, even to make mistakes, and when we think of his philosophy it really makes sense. When it comes to von Trier, do we really have to defend him or be against him? His art actually discloses itself, like Nietzsche's and Heidegger's thinking. I have to admit though, he couldn't make his point at the press conference, like he said, and it turned out to be a disaster. So i agree with Dunst actually, and probably she was the only one in the press conference that showed her reaction instead of laughing to von Trier's "jokes".

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Elena Pinnen

Hi Ozlem, thank you very much for your comment.

However, since it is a very thorny question, I feel the need to make some clarifications.

This article was not about whether the philosophers you mentioned “were against Jews” or not, but about how to conciliate art and disquieting political beliefs. I mean, should I close my eyes in front of a work by Speer? Can't I love Pound? Nonetheless I hate them as human beings.

As far as Nietzche is concerned, you are absolutely right, but regarding Heiddeger, I'd not use his philosophy to justify his choices: we are not dealing with just a “mistake” men can come to be open to. And he is one of my favorite philosophers being a real genius, but it remains a fact he could not reply anything to Celan asking him a simple question: “Why?”.

Anyway, in my article I didn't want to judge Trier (that I truly love) saying if we should support or condemn him, but I tried to speak about art and how some understandable historical taboos sometimes confuse us. And I agree about Dunst: yes, she was not laughing because she was understanding deeply, I think.

Hope you enjoyed my article.

Elena

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Elena Pinnen

oops, Nietzsche…

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Ozlem Onder

I mentioned those names, because their philosophies are being associated with Nazism which I don't agree, even in the case of Heidegger (well at least I don't think he was an anti-semitist). It's obvious that von Trier is facing the same accusations as well.

But well it's always been a matter for me that, how can we make a proper distinction between their philosophies/art works and their personalities/choices? So as you mentioned, I can't use Heidegger's philosophy to justify his choices (since I can't trace the differences), but maybe I can try to understand the situation of a man who lived in times of crisis, between two world wars, by seizing his pure ontology apart from any kind of ethics and morality. Maybe that was von Trier's approach as well, but he was not successful to make his point at all, unfortunately.

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Ozlem Onder

and yes by the way, i did not have the impression that you're judging von Trier at all, i think i got your point, but the expression of "wicked and abominal convictions" made me think. and I enjoyed your article very much, since it made me think on the issue even more:)

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nickp

Funny, because I found that when I instinctively reached for a framework within which to grasp what I felt after seeing Melancholia, I came up with heidegger.

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