A (brief) Lars Von Trier interview

This interview took place via Skype a few weeks before the Cannes film festival. At the time, Lars Von Trier was really rather jolly. Who knew that the coming weeks would see him branded a Nazi, thrown out of the festival and labelled Persona Non Grata? (This by a committee that had already welcomed the rather more concretely controversial Mel Gibson – who did not have the excuses of either a) failed irony or b) speaking in a second language.) Looking back, the ensuing furore was perhaps inevitable. After the hardcore sex, clitoral circumcision and talking foxes of his scandalous last Cannes entry Antichrist, the Danish provocateur was returning to the Croisette with a much softer film, a lush, Wagner-scored romantic story about two sisters – Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Claire (Antichrist's game star Charlotte Gainsbourg) – one of who is getting married. Sure, the film was about the end of the world – on Justine's big day, an enormous planet, the titular Melancholia, emerges from behind the sun and threatens to smash the Earth to smithereens – but even so, Von Trier seemed ill at ease. I have the skinny on Lars's trial-by-conference and will run it later, but for now here are some (I hope) non-spoilery reflections on Melancholia...

What was the starting point for Melancholia?
I started to write it just after Antichrist. It was because Penelope Cruz was interested in doing a film with me. You'll see that I thank Penelope in the closing credits. She had some ideas, so I said, “OK, I'll write you a film.” I sent some emails to her, and she had an idea about a theatre play that she wanted me to film. I said, no, I would like to write something myself. She wanted to do The Maids [by Jean Genet], which had two girls in it. And from all that came the idea of two sisters, and those two sisters, of course, can be seen – if you're very clever – as maybe one character that's split into two.

What happened?
It was not possible for her to do it. She told me that she would be very happy to do another one. I said I would happy to have her – but I would not write her a film a second time! Maybe it's fine that she didn't do it. I'm very, very pleased with what Kirsten [Dunst] did. But sometimes it's good to have something to build your story on, and I was building it very much on her, or what I knew about her.

Did Penelope come up with the idea of the end of the world!?
No, no, no. I didn't use her ideas so much, I just discussed things with her. The end of the world... I'm a little in doubt where that came from. But when I had the idea of the end of the world, and that the name of the planet responsible was Melancholia, I went to some scientists and I asked them, “When could this happen, that a planet ten times the size of Earth could collide with us?” They said, “Tomorrow!” Which was very good news for me, because then I didn't have to invent a lot of sci-fi stuff! But then they also said, “But it's not very likely.” (Laughs) Which was good to know.

You have a lot of phobias and neuroses. Is this one of them?
No. When I was a kid I was extremely afraid of atomic warfare. That was in the 60s, when it was not so unrealistic as it seems to be today. I was quite terrified by this idea that, in a split second, suddenly you're not there any more. But I've matured, in the sense that it's not my greatest fear. If you can talk about a happy death, then a happy death would be when you had your family around you and you know the farm is in good hands, so to speak. Of course, that's not possible if a planet were suddenly to hit, so it's not something I would like! (Laughs) But it's not my greatest fear.

The film is much gentler than many of your followers were expecting...
A few days ago I saw some posters for the film and I said, “What is this?” My producer said, “This is the film you made!” And I said, “I hope not...” (Laughs) I have a little bit of the same feeling when I see the trailer – I hope not that I did this! Because it looks like a film I wouldn't see! I like the film very much. But this is what I would call German romanticism. And when you work with romantic images, you do come very close to mainstream films. But from my perspective, it has to have what in Danish we would call an edge. Something that twists it a little bit and makes it interesting. (Laughs) I'm just afraid that I've made a film that's far too nice!

People will go to see it expecting violence and provocation...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and there will be none. I am completely hopeless. I am a disaster. Me, I am the disaster.

You are the disaster in this disaster movie?
Absolutely. (Sighs) I miss a clitoris being cut off in this movie. I miss it terribly. But maybe there might be some people that do not miss it.

Do you think it bears any resemblance at all to Antichrist?
Yeah, in the sense that they are both describing a specific mood that I have experienced very much. Antichrist has a lot to do with anxiety, and Melancholia has a lot to with depression. These are things that I know about, and I try to describe and use them as a theme for the film. Like Antichrist, Melancholia is a film about a state of mind.