Henrick Vartanian
He might have been “Breaking The Waves” with his thinking-man films, but Filmmaker Lars von Trier made some sort of waves at Cannes, and not the good kind.
The Danish director has apologized for comments he made earlier today about understanding Adolf Hitler. It all went down after the screening of his film “Melancholia” in Cannes.
Reported by AP, during a news conference following the first screening of his latest film, starring Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg, the von Trier brought the house down, saying he sympathizes with Adolf Hitler, thinks Israel is a pain and plans to make a porn flick with Kirsten Dunst.
Wait! What? Rewind please!
It seems that when he was asked about his German heritage, von Trier went into a seemingly tailspin about how he used to think he was a Jew, and then disappointed to find out he was not.
“I really wanted to be a Jew, and then I found out that I was really a Nazi, because, you know, my family was German,” von Trier said. “Which also gave me some pleasure…
“What can I say? 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 said.
“He’s not what you would call a good guy, but I understand much about him, and I sympathize with him a little bit. But come on, I’m not for the Second World War, and I’m not against Jews.” He said as if changing gears, but he then added: “I am very much for Jews. No, not too much, because Israel is a pain in the ass.”
The filmmaker then asked, “How can I get out of this sentence?”
That’s when he continued by saying that he liked Hitler aide, Albert Speer, and he finalized his speech by attempting some comic relief: “OK, I’m a Nazi,” the humor of which was lost on most members of the audience.
Festival organizers issued a statement expressing how “disturbed” they were about the comments and had called the filmmaker to follow up about the insensitive rant.
Von Trier’s publicists later released a separate statement stating that director “sincerely apologized” for his comments.
“I am not anti-Semitic or racially prejudiced in any way, nor am I a Nazi,” he is quoted as saying. 
Huh? Truly a “WTF” moment at Cannes.
Melancholia movie website: http://www.melancholiathemovie.com/