Lars von Trier filmography. Jump to navigation Jump to look. This article wishes additional citations for verification. Please help fortify this article The Idiots and Dancer in the Dark are, respectively, the first, 2d and 3rd a part of the movie series Golden Heart.I like Lars Von Trier and I in reality imagine that he is likely one of the perfect film directors and screenwriters and that his work will have to be more appreciated! I'm disgus...Directed by means of Lars von Trier. With Bodil Jørgensen, Jens Albinus, Anne Louise Hassing, Troels Lyby. The crew of other people accumulate on the space in Copenhagen suburb to wreck all the boundaries and to carry out the "inner idiot" in themselves.Share your movies with buddies, family, and the sectorWith his first Dogma-Ninety five movie director Lars von Trier opens up a fully new film platform. With a mixture of home-video and documentary types the movie tells the story of a group of young people who have made up our minds to get to know their "inner-idiots" and thus now not simplest dealing with and breaking their outer look but in addition their inner.
The Idiots (Danish: Idioterne) is a 1998 Danish comedy-drama film written and directed by Lars von Trier.It is his first movie made in compliance with the Dogme 95 Manifesto, and is sometimes called Dogme #2.It is the second one film in von Trier's Golden Heart Trilogy, preceded by way of Breaking the Waves (1996) and succeeded by way of Dancer within the Dark (2000).Lars von Trier, Writer: Dancer within the Dark. Probably the most ambitious and visually unique filmmaker to emerge from Denmark since Carl Theodor Dreyer over 60 years previous, Lars von Trier studied film on the Danish Film School and attracted international attention with his very first characteristic, The Element of Crime (1984). A highly unique mix of movie noir and German Expressionism...Lars von Trier (born Lars Trier; 30 April 1956) is a Danish film director and screenwriter with a prolific and debatable occupation spanning almost four many years. His work is known for its style and technical innovation, confrontational exam of existential, social, and political problems, and his treatment of subjects equivalent to mercy, sacrifice, and mental health.Lars Von Trier & The Idiot All Stars: Lars Von Trier & The Idiot All Stars - (From The Motion Picture "The Idiots") (CD, Single, Promo) Zentropa Entertainments, Universal: PROMO UMD 0298: Denmark: 1998: Sell This Version
Amazon.com: film: "The Idiots" via "Lars von Trier" Skip to primary content material. Try Prime All Go Search EN Hello, Sign in Account & Lists Sign in Account & Lists Orders Try Prime Cart. Today's Deals Your Amazon.com Gift Cards HelpFilm song I composed as an exercise for Lars von Trier's "Idioterne" (The Idiots). Yes, I'm conscious that the entire level of Dogme movies is that they have got noThe number four spot in our Top five of cinema's maximum life like intercourse scenes is held through Lars von Trier's 1998 Dogme ninety five experimental film, The Idiots.Dogme 95 manifesto used to be a filmmaking motionIdioterne aka The Idiots (1998) DVDRip x264 aac Ukr subLars von Trier (født Lars Trier, 30. april 1956 i København) er en dansk filmregissør, som ble utdannet ved Den Danske Filmskole.Han har lagd en rekke mer eller mindre eksperimentelle og kontroversielle spillefilmer. Han har også stått bak fjernsynsseriene Riget og Riget II (), to miniserier om Rigshospitalet i København.Han er ellers kjent for å ha utviklet dogmebevegelsen Dogme ninety five i
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Lars von TrierTrier on the sixty fourth Berlin International Film FestivalBornLars Trier30 April 1956Kongens Lyngby, DenmarkNationalityDanishAlma materNational Film School of DenmarkUniversity of CopenhagenOccupationFilmmakerYears active1967–presentNotin a position paintings Breaking the Waves (1996) Dancer in the Dark (2000) Dogville (2003) Antichrist (2009) Melancholia (2011) The House That Jack Built (2018)MovementHyperrealism, Dogme 95, German ExpressionismSpouse(s) Cæcilia Holbek (m. 1987; div. 1995)[1]Bente Frøge (m. 1997; div. 2015)[2]Children4AwardsPalme d'Or, EFA, Cesar, Bodil, Goya, FIPRESCIHonoursKnight of the Order of the Dannebrog
Lars von Trier (born Lars Trier; 30 April 1956)[3] is a Danish movie director and screenwriter[4] with a prolific and controversial[5][6] career spanning virtually 4 many years. His paintings is known for its style and technical innovation,[7][8] confrontational examination of existential, social,[9][10] and political[5][11] problems, and his remedy of subjects[11] equivalent to mercy,[12] sacrifice, and mental health.[13]
Among his greater than 100 awards and 200 nominations[14] at movie festivals worldwide, von Trier has received: the Palme d'Or (for Dancer in the Dark), the Grand Prix (for Breaking the Waves), the Prix du Jury (for Europa), and the Technical Grand Prize (for The Element of Crime and Europa) on the Cannes Film Festival.
Von Trier is the founder and shareholder of the Danish film production company Zentropa Films,[15][16] which has bought greater than 350 million tickets and garnered seven Academy Award nominations.[17]
Von Trier was born in Kongens Lyngby, Denmark, north of Copenhagen, to Inger Høst and Fritz Michael Hartmann (the pinnacle of Denmark's Ministry of Social Affairs and a World War II resistance fighter).[18] He received his surname from Høst's husband, Ulf Trier, whom he believed to be his biological father until 1989.[18]
He studied movie principle on the University of Copenhagen and film course on the National Film School of Denmark.[19] At 25, he gained two Best School Film awards on the Munich International Festival of Film Schools[20] for Nocturne and Last Detail.[21] The identical 12 months, he added the German nobiliary particle "von" to his title, perhaps as a satirical homage to the equally self-invented titles of administrators Erich von Stroheim and Josef von Sternberg,[22] and saw his graduation film Images of Liberation launched as a theatrical function.[23]
In 1984, The Element of Crime, von Trier's step forward movie, received twelve awards at seven world fairs[24] including the Technical Grand Prize at Cannes, and a nomination for the Palme d'Or.[25] The movie's sluggish, non-linear pace,[26] innovative and multi-leveled plot design, and darkish dreamlike visual results[24] mix to create an allegory for nerve-racking European ancient occasions.[27]
His next movie, Epidemic (1987), was once additionally shown at Cannes within the Un Certain Regard segment. The film options two tale traces that in the long run collide: the chronicle of 2 filmmakers (performed through von Trier and screenwriter Niels Vørse) in the course of creating a brand new project, and a dismal science fiction tale of a futuristic plague – the very movie von Trier and Vørsel are depicted making.
Von Trier has occasionally referred to his films as falling into thematic and stylistic trilogies. This pattern started with The Element of Crime (1984), the primary of the Europa trilogy, which illuminated tense periods in Europe each in the past and the longer term. It comprises The Element of Crime (1984), Epidemic (1987), and Europa (1991).
He directed Medea (1988) for tv, which received him the Jean d'Arcy prize in France. It is in accordance with a screenplay via Carl Th. Dreyer and stars Udo Kier. Trier finished the Europa trilogy in 1991 with Europa (released as Zentropa in america), which won the Prix du Jury at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival,[28] and collected awards at other major festivals. In 1990 he also directed the track video for the song "Bakerman" by way of Laid Back.[29] This video used to be re-used in 2006 by means of the English DJ and artist Shaun Baker in his remake of the tune.
Seeking financial independence and artistic keep an eye on over their projects, in 1992 von Trier and manufacturer Peter Aalbæk Jensen based the film manufacturing corporate Zentropa Entertainment. Named after a fictional railway company in Europa,[19] their most up-to-date film at the time, Zentropa has produced many motion pictures instead of Trier's personal, as well as several television sequence. It has additionally produced hardcore sex movies: Constance (1998), Pink Prison (1999), HotMen CoolBoyz (2000), and All About Anna (2005). To earn a living for his newly based company, von Trier made The Kingdom (Danish name Riget, 1994) and The Kingdom II (Riget II, 1997), a pair of miniseries recorded within the Danish nationwide clinic, the name "Riget" being a colloquial title for the health facility known as Rigshospitalet (lit. The Kingdom's Hospital) in Danish. A projected third season of the sequence used to be derailed via the loss of life in 1998 of Ernst-Hugo Järegård, who performed Dr. Helmer, and that of Kirsten Rolffes, who played Mrs. Drusse, in 2000, two of the foremost characters.
1995-2000: the Dogme Ninety five manifesto, and the Golden Heart trilogy Dogme 95 Certificate for Susanne Bier's movie Open HeartsIn 1995, von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg offered their manifesto for a new cinematic motion, which they called Dogme 95. The Dogme 95 thought, which led to global interest in Danish film, inspired filmmakers in every single place the world.[30] In 2008, along side their fellow Dogme administrators Kristian Levring and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg received the European movie award for European Achievement in World Cinema.
In 1996 von Trier carried out an ordinary theatrical experiment in Copenhagen involving Fifty three actors, which he titled Psychomobile 1: The World Clock. A documentary chronicling the venture used to be directed by Jesper Jargil, and was once released in 2000 with the title De Udstillede (The Exhibited).
Von Trier accomplished his greatest global success together with his Golden Heart trilogy. Each movie within the trilogy is ready naive heroines who deal with their "golden hearts" in spite of the tragedies they enjoy. This trilogy is composed of: Breaking the Waves (1996), The Idiots (1998), and Dancer in the Dark (2000).[31] While all three films are once in a while associated with the Dogme 95 movement, best The Idiots is an authorized Dogme Ninety five film.
Breaking the Waves (1996), the primary movie in his Golden Heart trilogy, won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and featured Emily Watson, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Its grainy photographs, and hand-held pictures, pointed towards Dogme 95 but violated a number of of the manifesto's laws, and subsequently does no longer qualify as a Dogme Ninety five film. The 2nd movie in the trilogy, The Idiots (1998), was nominated for a Palme d'Or, with which he was introduced in particular person at the Cannes Film Festival in spite of his dislike of touring. In 2000, von Trier premiered a musical that includes Icelandic musician Björk, Dancer in the Dark. The movie gained the Palme d'Or at Cannes.[32] The music "I've Seen It All" (co-written by von Trier) gained an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.
2003-2008: The Land of Opportunities and other worksThe Five Obstructions (2003), made by way of von Trier and Jørgen Leth, is a documentary that contains long sections of experimental motion pictures. The premise is that von Trier demanding situations director Jørgen Leth, his buddy and mentor, to remake his outdated experimental film The Perfect Human (1967) five instances, each time with a unique "obstruction" (or impediment) specified by von Trier.[33]
A proposed trilogy, von Trier's Land of Opportunities is composed of Dogville (2003), Manderlay (2005), and Wasington, which is but to be made. Dogville and Manderlay have been both shot with the similar unique, extraordinarily stylized manner, striking the actors on a naked sound level and not using a set ornament and the buildings' partitions marked by way of chalk strains on the floor, a method impressed by 1970s televised theatre. Dogville (2003) starred Nicole Kidman and Manderlay (2005) starred Bryce Dallas Howard in the same primary role as Grace Margaret Mulligan. Both films have casts of primary international actors, together with Harriet Andersson, Lauren Bacall, James Caan, Danny Glover, and Willem Dafoe, and question quite a lot of issues with regards to American society, such as intolerance (in Dogville) and slavery (in Manderlay).
In 2006, von Trier launched a Danish-language comedy film, The Boss of It All. It was once shot the usage of an experimental procedure that he has referred to as Automavision, which comes to the director opting for the most efficient possible fastened digicam position and then allowing a pc to randomly choose when to tilt, pan, or zoom. Following The Boss of It All, von Trier scripted an autobiographical film, The Early Years: Erik Nietzsche Part 1 in 2007, which went on to be directed by means of Jacob Thuesen. The film tells the story of von Trier's years as a pupil on the National Film School of Denmark. It stars Jonatan Spang as von Trier's alter ego, called "Erik Nietzsche", and is narrated by way of von Trier himself. All the principle characters within the movie are in keeping with real folks from the Danish film business, with thinly veiled portrayals together with Jens Albinus as director Nils Malmros, Dejan Čukić as screenwriter Mogens Rukov, and Søren Pilmark.
2009-2014: The Depression trilogyThe Depression trilogy consists of Antichrist, Melancholia, and Nymphomaniac. The 3 movies superstar Charlotte Gainsbourg, and deal with characters who are suffering despair or grief in different ways. This trilogy is claimed to constitute the melancholy that Trier himself reports.[34]
Von Trier's subsequent characteristic film was once Antichrist, a movie about "a grieving couple who retreat to their cabin in the woods, hoping a return to Eden will repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage; but nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse".[35] The film stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. It premiered in pageant at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, where the competition's jury honoured the movie by means of giving the Best Actress award to Gainsbourg.[36]
In 2011, von Trier launched Melancholia, a mental drama.[37] The film was in pageant on the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.[38] Known to be provocative in interviews,[39] von Trier's remarks all over the click convention prior to the premiere of Melancholia in Cannes[40] brought about significant controversy within the media, main the competition to declare him personality non grata and to prohibit him from the festival[41] for twelve months[42] (without, however, with the exception of Melancholia from that yr's festival).[43] Minutes earlier than the top of the interview, Trier was once asked via a journalist about his German roots and the Nazi aesthetic in response to the director's description of the movie's style as "German romance".[44][45] The director, who was once brought up with his Jewish father and only found out later in existence that his organic father used to be a non-Jewish German,[46] appeared angry by way of the connotation[47] and spoke back through discussing his German identity. He joked that since he was now not Jewish he now "understands" and "sympathizes" with Hitler, that he's no longer in opposition to the Jews except for Israel which is "a pain in the ass" and that he's a Nazi.[48] These remarks caused a stir within the media which, for probably the most part, offered the incident as an antisemitic scandal.[49] The director launched a formal apology in an instant after the controversial press convention[50] and saved apologizing for his comic story during all of the interviews he gave in the weeks following the incident,[51][52][53] admitting that he was no longer sober,[54] and announcing that he didn't need to give an explanation for that he is not a Nazi.[55][56] The actors of Melancholia who had been present all the way through the incident – Dunst, Gainsbourg, Skarsgård – defended the director, pointing to his provocative sense of humor[57][58] and his melancholy.[59] The director of the Cannes competition later characterised the debate as "unfair" and as "stupid" as von Trier's unhealthy comic story, concluding that his films are welcome on the pageant and that von Trier is thought of as a "friend".[42] In 2019, von Trier stated that he made this remark on the "only press conference I ever had when I was sober."[60]
Following Melancholia, von Trier began the production of Nymphomaniac, a movie concerning the sexual awakening of a lady performed by means of Charlotte Gainsbourg.[61] In early December 2013, a four-hour version of the five-and-a-half-hour movie was once proven to the clicking in a personal preview session. The cast also incorporated Stellan Skarsgård (in his sixth movie for von Trier), Shia LaBeouf, Willem Dafoe, Jamie Bell, Christian Slater, and Uma Thurman. In reaction to claims that he had merely created a "porn film", Skarsgård stated "... if you look at this film, it's actually a really bad porn movie, even if you fast forward. And after a while you find you don't even react to the explicit scenes. They become as natural as seeing someone eating a bowl of cereal." Von Trier refused to attend the personal screening because of the negative reaction to Nazi-related remarks he had made on the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, which had ended in his expulsion from it. In the director's protection, Skarsgård said at the screening, "Everyone knows he's not a Nazi, and it was disgraceful the way the press had these headlines saying he was."[62] For its public unencumber in the United Kingdom, the four-hour version of Nymphomaniac used to be divided into two "volumes" – Volume I and Volume II – and the film's British premiere was on 22 February 2014. In interviews prior to the release date, Gainsbourg and co-star Stacy Martin printed that prosthetic vaginas, body doubles, and special effects had been used for the production of the movie. Martin also stated that the movie's characters had been a mirrored image of the director himself and referred to the enjoy as an "honour" that she loved.[63] The film was also released in two "volumes" for the Australian unencumber on 20 March 2014, with an interval keeping apart the back-to-back sections. In his evaluation of the movie for 3RRR's film grievance program, Plato's Cave, presenter Josh Nelson stated that, since the manufacturing of Breaking the Waves, the filmmaker von Trier is most similar to is Alfred Hitchcock, because of his portrayal of female issues. Nelson additionally mentioned filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky as any other influence whom Trier himself has additionally cited.[64] In February 2014, an uncensored model of Volume I was proven on the Berlin Film Festival, and not using a announcement of when or if the entire five-and-a-half-hour Nymphomaniac could be made available to the public.[65] The complete model premiered at the 2014 Venice Film Festival and was once shortly afterward released in a limited theatrical run worldwide that fall.
2015-present: The House That Jack Built and the go back to CannesIn 2015, von Trier began to work on a brand new feature film, The House That Jack Built (2018), which was once at the beginning deliberate as an eight-part television sequence. The tale is set a serial killer, seen from the murderer's standpoint.[66][67] Shooting began in March 2017 in Sweden, with capturing shifting to Copenhagen in May.[68]
In February 2017, von Trier explained in his personal phrases that The House That Jack Built "celebrates the idea that life is evil and soulless, which is sadly proven by the recent rise of the Homo trumpus – the rat king".[68] The film premiered on the Cannes Film Festival in May 2018.[69] Despite more than 100 walkouts by means of target audience members when to begin with screened at the Cannes Film Festival, the film still received a 10-minute standing ovation.[70][71]
In December 2020, it was announced that von Trier would produce a final season for his acclaimed series The Kingdom, titled The Kingdom Exodus. It is anticipated to be shot in 2021 and can consist of 5 episodes that will probably be released in 2022.[72][73]
Von Trier is heavily influenced by the work of Carl Theodor Dreyer[74] and the film The Night Porter.[75] He was once so impressed via the quick movie The Perfect Human, directed through Jørgen Leth, that he challenged Leth to redo the short five times in the characteristic movie The Five Obstructions.[76]
WritingVon Trier's writing style has been closely influenced by his paintings with actors on set, in addition to the Dogme Ninety five manifesto that he co-authored.[77] In an interview with Creative Screenwriting, von Trier described his process as "writing a sketch and keep[ing] the story simple...then part of the script work is with the actors."[77]
While reflecting at the storytelling across his body of labor, von Trier said, "All the stories are about a realist who comes into conflict with life. I’m not crazy about real life, and real life is not crazy about me."[77] He further described his process as dividing diverse portions of his persona into assorted characters.
Von Trier has cited Danish filmmaker Carl Dreyer as a writing influence, pointing to Dreyer's manner of overwriting his scripts then considerably slicing the duration down.[77]
Filming tacticsVon Trier has stated that "a film should be like a stone in your shoe".[78] To create original artwork he feels that filmmakers will have to distinguish themselves stylistically from other motion pictures, frequently by means of hanging restrictions at the movie making procedure. The most renowned such restriction is the cinematic "vow of chastity" of the Dogme Ninety five motion with which he's associated. In Dancer in the Dark, he used bounce shots[79] and dramatically-different color palettes and camera ways for the "real world" and musical portions of the movie, and in Dogville the whole thing was filmed on a valid stage with out a set, the place the partitions of the structures in the fictional the city have been marked as strains at the ground.
Von Trier often shoots digitally and operates the digicam himself, preferring to regularly shoot the actors in-character with out preventing between takes. In Dogville he let actors stay in personality for hours, within the style of manner acting. These ways incessantly put super pressure on the actors, most famously with Björk throughout the filming of Dancer in the Dark.[80]
Von Trier would later return to explicit photographs in Antichrist (2009), exploring darker subject matters, but he ran into problems when he attempted once more with Nymphomaniac, which had 90 mins lower out (decreasing it from five-and-one-half to four hours) for its international liberate in 2013 with a purpose to be commercially viable,[81] taking nearly a 12 months to be proven whole anywhere in an uncensored director's lower.[82]
Trier also attributes most of his profound concepts to that of his previous mentor, Thomas Boguszewski. "Thomas' genius is one I could never match," says von Trier, "but it would be a shame not to try."[83]
Approach to actorsIn a Skype interview for IndieWire, von Trier in comparison his solution to actors with "how a chef would work with a potato or a piece of meat", clarifying that running with actors has differed on each film in accordance with the manufacturing stipulations.[84]
Von Trier has infrequently courted controversy via his remedy of his leading women.[85] He and Björk famously fell out all the way through the shooting of Dancer in the Dark, to the point the place Björk would abscond from filming for days at a time.[86] She mentioned about Trier, who amongst different things shattered a track whilst it was once subsequent to her, "...you can take quite sexist film directors like Woody Allen or Stanley Kubrick and still they are the one that provide the soul to their movies. In Lars von Trier’s case it is not so and he knows it. He needs a female to provide his work soul. And he envies them and hates them for it. So he has to destroy them during the filming. And hide the evidence."[87] Despite this, other actresses reminiscent of Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg have spoken out in defence of von Trier's manner.[87][88][89]Nymphomaniac star Stacy Martin has said that he never forced her to do the rest that was out of doors her comfort zone. She said "I don't think he's a misogynist. The fact that he sometimes depicts women as troubled or dangerous or dark or even evil; that doesn't automatically make him anti-feminist. It's a very dated argument. I think that Lars loves women."[90]
Nicole Kidman, who starred in von Trier's Dogville, said in an interview with ABC Radio National: "I think I tried to quit the film three times because he said, 'I want to tie you up and whip you, and that's not to be kind.' I was, like, what do you mean? I've come all this way to rehearse with you, to work with you, and now you're telling me you want to tie me up and whip me? But that's Lars, and Lars takes his clothes off and stands there naked and you're like, 'Oh, put your clothes back on, Lars, please, let's just shoot the film.' But he's very, very raw and he's almost like a child in that he'll say and do anything. And we would have to eat dinner every night and most of the time that would end with me in tears because Lars would sit next to me and drink peach schnapps and get drunk and get abusive and I'd leave and...anyway, then we'd go to work the next morning."[91]
Frequent collaboratorsVon Trier has a penchant for operating with actors and manufacturing participants more than once. His primary crew members and manufacturer staff has remained intact for the reason that film Europa.[92] The record of actors reappearing in his movies, even for small parts or cameos, is also intensive. Many of them have many times expressed their devotion[93] to von Trier and willingness to return on set with him,[94][95][96] even with out payment.[97][98] He uses the similar common crew of actors in lots of his motion pictures together with Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier and Stellan Skarsgård who was cast in numerous von Trier movies: Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, and Nymphomaniac.
Note: This record shows simplest the actors who've collaborated with von Trier in three or extra productions.
Actor The Element of Crime Epidemic Medea Europa The Kingdom Breaking the Waves The Idiots Dancer within the Dark Dogville Manderlay The Boss of It All Antichrist Melancholia Nymphomaniac The House That Jack Built[99] Total Udo Kier Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 10 Jean-Marc Barr Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 7 Stellan Skarsgård Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 6 Jens Albinus Yes Yes Yes Yes 4 Charlotte Gainsbourg Yes Yes Yes 3 Willem Dafoe Yes Yes Yes 3 Jeremy Davies Yes Yes Yes 3 Siobhan Fallon Hogan Yes Yes Yes 3 Vera Gebuhr Yes Yes Yes 3 John Hurt Yes Yes Yes 3 Željko Ivanek Yes Yes Yes 3 Baard Owe Yes Yes Yes 3In October 2017, Björk posted on her Facebook web page that she were sexually pressured by means of a "Danish film director she worked with".[100][101] The Los Angeles Times discovered evidence identifying him as Lars von Trier.[102] Von Trier has rejected Björk's allegation that he sexually burdened her during the making of the film Dancer in the Dark, and stated "That was not the case. But that we were definitely not friends, that’s a fact," to Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in its online version. Peter Aalbaek Jensen, the manufacturer of Dancer in the Dark, advised Jyllands-Posten that "As far as I remember we [Lars von Trier and I] were the victims. That woman was stronger than both Lars von Trier and me and our company put together. She dictated everything and was about to close a movie of 100m kroner [m]."[103] After von Trier's statement, Björk explained the details about this incident,[104] whilst her manager, Derek Birkett, also accused von Trier's actions in the past.[105]
In 1989, von Trier's mom told him on her deathbed that the person von Trier concept was his organic father was once now not, and that he was once the results of a liaison she had with her former employer, Fritz Michael Hartmann (1909–2000),[106] who was descended from a long line of Danish classical musicians. Hartmann's grandfather was once Emil Hartmann, his great-grandfather J. P. E. Hartmann, his uncles integrated Niels Gade and Johan Ernst Hartmann, and Niels Viggo Bentzon was his cousin. She mentioned that she did this to present her son "artistic genes".[107]
"Until that point I thought I had a Jewish background. But I'm really more of a Nazi. I believe that my biological father's German family went back two further generations. Before she died, my mother told me to be happy that I was the son of this other man. She said my foster father had had no goals and no strength. But he was a loving man. And I was very sad about this revelation. And you then feel manipulated when you really do turn out to be creative. If I'd known that my mother had this plan, I would have become something else. I would have shown her. The slut!"[108]
During the German career of Denmark, von Trier's biological father Fritz Michael Hartmann worked as a civil servant and joined a resistance staff, Frit Danmark, actively counteracting any pro-German and pro-Nazi colleagues in his division.[109] Another member of this infiltrative resistance team was once Hartmann's colleague Viggo Kampmann, who would later grow to be high minister of Denmark.[110] After von Trier had had 4 awkward conferences together with his organic father, Hartmann refused further contact.[111]
Family background and political and spiritual perspectivesVon Trier's mother thought to be herself a Communist, while his father was once a Social Democrat. Both were committed nudists, and von Trier went on several childhood vacations to nudist camps. His folks seemed the disciplining of children as reactionary. He has noted that he was introduced up in an atheist family, and that even if Ulf Trier was once Jewish, he was now not religious. His parents did not permit much room of their household for "feelings, religion, or enjoyment", and also refused to make any regulations for their kids, with advanced effects upon von Trier's persona and building.[112][113]
In a 2005 interview with Die Zeit, von Trier said, "I don't know if I'm all that Catholic really. I'm probably not. Denmark is a very Protestant country. Perhaps I only turned Catholic to piss off a few of my countrymen."[108]
In 2009, he said, "I'm a very bad Catholic. In fact I'm becoming more and more of an atheist."[114]
Mental healthVon Trier suffers from various fears and phobias, together with an intense worry of flying. This fear steadily puts serious constraints on him and his team, necessitating that virtually all of his motion pictures be shot in either Denmark or Sweden. As he quipped in an interview, "Basically, I'm afraid of everything in life, except film making."[115]
On numerous occasions, von Trier has additionally said that he suffers from occasional melancholy which renders him incapable of performing his work and unable to satisfy social duties.[116]