MELANCHOLIA WINS TOP HONORS AT EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS

Lars von Trier’s Melancholia beat out a host of impressive contenders, including Oscar winner The King’s Speech, as it was named Best European Film at the 24th European Film Awards. The award caps a roller-coaster year for the Danish director, who was declared persona non grata by the Cannes Film Festival last May when, at […]

VON TRIER, WHO JOKED ABOUT HITLER, IS HAILED IN BERLIN

Lars Von Trier, who was declared persona non grata by the Cannes Film Festival last May after joking about Hitler and the Nazis at a press conference, became the leading contender at the 24th European Film Awards over the weekend, when his end-of-the-world film Melancholia was nominated in eight of the competition’s nine categories. Five […]

DIRECTOR VON TRIER SAYS HE’S SHUTTING UP

Lars Von Trier was clearly joking during a news conference at the Cannes Film Festival last May when he remarked that he had always believed that he had been born a Jew (“I was very happy being a Jew”) but that his mother had told him on her deathbed that his father may have been […]

VON TRIER APOLOGIZES AGAIN FOR HITLER REMARKS

Danish director Lars von Trier, who joked during a news conference at the Cannes Film Festival, about being a Nazi and understanding Hitler — and wound up being declared persona non grata by the festival as a result — issued another contrite apology for his his remarks on Tuesday, saying that his comments were “unintelligent, […]

THE TREE OF LIFE IS A GOLDEN PALM

Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt, was the controversial winner of the 64th Cannes Film Festival’ top prize, the Palme d’Or, on Sunday. Major critics attending the festival either hailed it or scorned it; few gave it merely so-so reviews. Malick, who shuns the spotlight himself and declined to participate in a […]

CANNES CANS VON TRIER

The Cannes Film Festival today (Thursday) declared Danish director Lars Von Trier “persona non grata” effective immediately following his joking remarks at a news conference on Wednesday that he was a Nazi with an understanding of Hitler. The festival’s board said that while it offers artists “an exceptional forum to present their works and defend […]

FESTIVAL TO VON TRIER: NO YOU CANNES’T

Danish director Lars Von Trier who won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or in 2000 for Dancer in the Dark, caused as much befuddlement at a Cannes news conference today (Wednesday) as his latest movie, Melancholia, did when it was screened for the press a few hours earlier. The movie, in which Kirsten Dunst plays […]

MALICK’S TREE OF LIFE TO BE PLANTED AT CANNES

Terrence Malick’s much awaited The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, is among the films selected to compete for the Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, which opens on May 11. (The film had been expected to compete at the festival last year but was not completed in […]