Danish director Lars von Trier, whose film Melancholia wowed critics at the Cannes Film Festival but whose recent comments about Adolf Hitler drew headlines, was declared “persona non grata” in an unprecedented move by the Festival. In a statement, the Festival’s Board of Directors, said it “profoundly regrets that this forum has been used by Lars von Trier to express comments that are unacceptable, intolerable, and contrary to the ideals of humanity and generosity that preside over the very existence of the Festival.”
A Cannes spokesperson told the Associated Press that Melancholia will remain in competition, but its director would not be present to accept any prizes should it win.
On Wednesday, von Trier told reporters that he understood and sympathized a bit with Hitler before issuing an apology.
Now he knows how John Galliano feels!
Banning Lars von Trier makes no sense. Cannes organizers welcomed Mel Gibson to the festival. There is nothing in von Trier’s meandering comments as hateful as what Gibson has said.
Yes.
It makes no sense but the Hollywood Jews are leaning on the fest topper
So are you sympathizing with a Nazi sympathizer?
True.
Nobody would have cared if he had said the same stuff about Stalin or Communism.
“The Hollywood Jews” have nothing to do with French law- anti-semetism is illegal in France.
The one area where freedom of speech does not exist is in questioning the holocaust or ever ever saying Hitler was anything but totally evil.
this has nothing to do with freedom of speech. If a company or organisation wants to distance themselves from somebody who has made controversial or offensive statements they have every right.
Its not freedom of speech its a matter of a sick thought that has no merit or truth to it. Anyone who would say anything kind about the Nazis or Hitler might as well join the Klan or Skinhead movement! There is still a nazi movement out there, regardless if it is small or not, its still around thats why many people don’t take kindly to his words. Though even I can admit that his words were taken out of context and he was talking about his own personality, he still should have used better words to express those thoughts.
Words can rub you raw. When you consider that World War II resulted in the deaths of 54 million people, folks are understandably quite tender and touchy about its chief cause.
Those are two areas, and why would someone, other than a conspiracy theorist, question the Holocaust?
It would be the same as going to China and both Koreas, telling peoples how you sympathize so well with the WWII Imperial Japanese Army.
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Even if someone cynical enough should come up and go, Duh! He was just kidding [ . . . ]; it still all the same sounded pretty bad a joke, don’t ya think?
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PS: At least Galliano was reportedly drunken when it did happen.
That EW reviewer Lisa Schwarzbaum was writing a defense of this guy on these here pages (saying, “Come on…It’s ONLY a joke…”….Yeah, like the murder and torture of innocents in funny, good one Lisa) is equally reprehensible. They should ban her from Cannes.lol
Plus, even if it was honestly meant to be a joke, it was still a really bad one; IMO, Lisa, especially given her Jewish (?) surname, made a truly disappointing conduct.
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I mean, LISA, how could the man made a lame transition from his talk over the subject of the so-called “masterpiece” to a lame-aXX person like HITLER (or anyone similar to his nature for that matter)?
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But seriously, had the good people of le Festival de Cannes ever happened to read Lisa’s article in his defense, some of them might even have given it a serious thought to banning her. : ) I’d like to think that they just never knew she’d written that for him.
This story deserves more than a few paragraphs just thrown together. He not only made references to Hitler but said that he didn’t like the Isrealis because they are troublesome. To understand this “persona non grata” we need all the facts, not just something condensed from other news stories. Doesn’t EW have at least one reporter over there? Entertainment does not only happen in the US and the Cannes Film Festival is one of the largest and important film festivals in the world. Let’s get the whole story please!
I personally think that the ideological defense that we have put up against fascism — dehumanizing Hitler and nazis — is not going to work.
If you don’t want these things to happen again, you need to understand them. Right now the official point of view is that Hitler and 10 million of nazis were sent to Earth straight from hell and then were all sent back where they came from by us, the good guys.
People defend this myth with such enthusiasm that you can think that they believe it can protect us from the ancient evil. It can’t. And let Trier alone, he didn’t say anything extraordinary and he deserves to be at the festival more than most others.
And these are the same film fools who’ll fawn over Roman Polanski, who drugged, reaped and sodomized a 13-year old girl, fled justice and lived like a king in Europe for decades.
Von Trier is an idiot for saying these things, but hypocrisy and double standards are still hypocrisy and double standards. Think about it. He just SAID something. Polanksi did a hell of a lot more.
“[Citing Polanski case] but hypocrisy and double standards are still hypocrisy and double standards.”
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Point taken.
Von Trier’s comments reveal his limitations as an artist because it demonstrates that he just likes to push buttons and create controversy for controversy’s sake. Just as he does with his films, I suspect that there isn’t any actual thought behind his ‘ideas’.
I just watched the video with the full answer in question and it was obvious that he was having a hard time explaining what he meant and he tried to joke to get out of the awkwardness of the conversation he started. I didn’t get the impression at ALL that he meant he truly sympathized with Hitler’s actions or is a Nazi himself. I think this is ridiculous.
I watched it too and you are clearly an idiot.
Von Trier should have the right to make the remarks, but Cannes et al also have the right to censure him for his remarks. Hitler was a madman who tried to destroy the world. Anyone who says they sympathize with him should be ostracized, especially in Europe which bore the brunt of his madness.
Its clearly dark humor.