Why the hell did Lars von Trier say he understood Hitler?
In 2011, Lars von Trier appeared on a panel alongside the likes of Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg at the Cannes Film Festival to promote his film Melancholia. What happened, however, no one could predict, and Dunst’s embarrassed, pained reaction remains truly unforgettable.
I mean, we’ve all been there, listening to someone say something that is in no way agreeable – a joke gone sour, an opinion taken too far – and all you can do is wince, not knowing if you should step in or simply let the offending party just… keep going. In this instance, von Trier just kept going, even when it became clear that people weren’t impressed with his so-called joke.
Asked to talk about his German roots and to expand on what he meant in a previous interview when he said he was interested in certain Nazi aesthetics, the provocative Danish filmmaker began an answer that resulted in him saying, “I understand Hitler.” How do you defend that one?
“I thought I was a Jew for a long time and was very happy being a Jew,” he began, joking about the fact that when he found out he actually wasn’t, “even if I’d been a Jew, I would be kind of a second-rate Jew.” It gets off to an uncomfortable start, with von Trier making digs at fellow Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier, who is of Jewish heritage.
Then he admits, “I really wanted to be a Jew, and then I found out that I was really a Nazi,” adding that this “gave him some pleasure”, and once he says this, Dunst looks more uncomfortable than ever, a silence lands over the scene, and then von Trier drops those infamous lines.
“I understand Hitler. But I think he did some wrong things, yes, absolutely, but I can see him sitting in his bunker in the end. He’s not what you would call a good guy, but I understand much about him, and I sympathise with him a little bit, yes. I’m not for the Second World War, and I’m not against Jews – Susanne Bier, not even Susanne Bier – that was also a joke.” It just kept getting worse and worse.
Continuing, he tried to make his defence. “I am very much for Jews; well, not too much because Israel is a pain in the ass. But still, how can I get out of this sentence… OK, I’m a Nazi.”
So, why did the filmmaker try to suggest he was a Nazi? Since he first began making films, von Trier has found himself surrounded by controversy. The Idiots alone was enough to have some people vow never to return to one of his movies, what with its scenes of people pretending to be disabled and running around naked, engaging in group sex, and disregarding every ounce of social normality.
Saying he understood Hitler, though, that’s something that you surely can’t come back from. Somehow, the filmmaker managed to play the whole thing off as an incredibly ill-received and misunderstood joke, a sarcasm-fuelled controversy-stirring statement meant to poke fun at the question of his roots. ‘Perhaps something got lost in translation?’ was the defence waged upon the incident by some, but really, was it anything more than von Trier simply trying to be controversial for the hell of it?
He later apologised for the whole ordeal, only to retract it in an interview with GQ, claiming, “I am not sorry for what I said, I’m sorry that it didn’t come out more clearly, I’m not sorry that I made a joke, but I’m sorry that I didn’t make it clear that it was a joke… I can’t be sorry for what I said – it’s against my nature… but that’s maybe where I’m really sick in my mind.”
Whatever von Trier’s intentions were behind the statement, it was undeniably in poor taste, and it’s hard to believe that he didn’t believe some of what he was saying. It all came out a little too easily for him. Still, that hasn’t stopped the filmmaker from attracting big names to work with him in the years since the incident, as demonstrated by the rather star-studded cast that formed Nymphomaniac and the Matt Dillon-starring The House That Jack Built.
