The Cannes Film Festival is here again, though many believe it is not the same without the presence of Lars Von Trier.
A Still From Lars Von Trier's Controversial New Movie 'Nymphomaniac'
In 2011, Lars Von Trier was the undisputed headline maker at the Cannes Film Festival, though for all the reasons. "What can I say, I understand Hitler. I think he did his wrong things ... but I understand the man," the Danish filmmaker said at a press conference for his movie Melancholia, as Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg looked for the nearest hole to swallow them up. On the occasion, Von Trier was regarded persona non grata and was essentially banished from the festival.
Now, two years later, he has another controversial movie to promote - Nymphomaniac with Gainsbourg, Jamie Bell, Shia LaBeouf and Willem Dafoe - though there is no room for the movie at Cannes. Instead it premieres four days after the festival ends, in Denmark. According to Fox, Von Trier is not banned from the Cannes and simply missed the cut-off submission date for his movie to screen there. The Guardian's critic Xan Brooks argued that Cannes without the filmmaker is simply not the same - and the blustery Riviera weather has done little to make stars, critics and filmmakers feel at home. "He transgressed and was punished and the scars, it seems, have yet to fully heal," Brooks wrote. "But Cannes and Von Trier need each other."
Relive Lars Von Trier's Nazi Comments:
So we shall have wait for reaction to Nymphomaniac, though Deadline.com called it a "four-hour-sex-o-rama" while there is plans to release both hard-core and soft-core versions of the movie. Von Trier won Cannes' most prestigious prize, the Palme d'Or, in 2000 for 'Dancer in the Dark' starring Icelandic singer Bjork, Catherine Deneuve and Peter Stormare.
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