Lars von Trier (born April 30, 1956 in Copenhagen, Denmark) is a Danish film director closely associated with the Dogme95 collective calling for a return to plausible stories in filmmaking and a move away from artifice and towards technical minimalism.
Since his breakthrough in 1984 with The Element of Crime (Forbrydelsens Element), von Trier has been recognised as Denmark’s most gifted director, the man with the talent to take the reputation of Denmark as an international movie-making nation into the next century. Von Trier’s previous work, which has harvested a series of major awards, is spiced with black humour and sprinkled lavishly with quotes from other masterpieces of cinema history.
Biography
Von Trier graduated from the Danish Film School in 1983 and the films he made as a student, Nocture (Nocture, 1981) and Image of Liberation (Befrielsesbilleder, 1982) both won Best Film awards at the Munich Film Festival 1984, an award which he again won in 1991 for Europa (US title, Zentropa), which also won the Prix du Jury at Cannes Film Festival and picked up awards at other major festivals. His 1987 film Epidemic was also shown as part of the official programme at Cannes.
For television von Trier directed Medea (1988) which won the Jean d'Arcy prize in France, and The Kingdom (Riget, 1994) and The Kingdom II (Riget II, 1997), a pair of miniseries about a haunted hospital. A projected third installment in the series has been derailed due to the death of Ernst-Hugo Järegård, who played Helmer, one of the major characters. A thirteen-episode American television series, based on The Kingdom, was written by Stephen King, under the title Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, which was broadcast in 2004.
Breaking the Waves (1996) won the Grand Prix at Cannes. The film featured Emily Watson, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Lars von Trier overcame his dislike of traveling to present the second Dogme film, The Idiots (Idioterne, 1998), in person at the Cannes film festival. As instructor and originator of the Dogme95 concept, which led to international interest in Danish film as a whole, he has inspired filmmakers all over the world.
In 2000, von Trier premiered a musical featuring the renowned Icelandic musician Björk, Dancer in the Dark. The film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
He has completed (2005) Manderlay, the second film in his USA trilogy. The first film in that trilogy, Dogville, starred Nicole Kidman, and met with extremely mixed critical reaction.
Trivia
Von Trier added the "von" to his name when his peers at film school nicknamed him "von Trier". He also reportedly added the "von" in homage to Erich von Stroheim.
He has described himself in Interview magazine (June 1989) as "a melancholy Dane masturbating in the dark to images on the silver screen."
Phobias
Von Trier suffers from multiple phobias, which includes his fear of flying. As von Trier said himself "basically, I'm afraid of everything in life, except filmmaking". This puts a lot of strain of his ability to produce movies. Even though most of his work takes place in another country, it’s mostly being filmed in either Denmark or Sweden. So even though he has produced movies about USA, he has never been to the country. Whenever his movie is in the competition at the Cannes Film Festival, he will drive from Denmark to France and back.
Filming Techniques
Casting
Von Trier has a different approach to cast his movies. Usually actors are being cast by the type of person they are, so that the look of the person would fit the character. In von Trier’s eyes a great actor should be able to play any part. Therefore he just looks for great actors in the casting process and gives that actor an appropriate part in the film. This is the reason why he reuses the same actors over and over again. Frequently used actors are e.g. Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier and Stellan Skarsgård.
Restrictions
His philosophy about movies is that “a film should be like a rock in the shoe”. In order to create true art he feels that we must restrict our selves from already used filming techniques and thereby creating something new. These restrictions are seen everywhere in von Trier's movies and the most known are the Dogme rules, where a few a these were that the camera must be handheld and everything must be filmed on location. In Dogville (2003) everything was filmed on a sound stage with no set where the walls of the buildings in the fictional town were marked as a line on the floor. There usually are two uses of these restrictions in von Trier’s world:
- The first use is the most common in his film. He wishes to give the actors the artistic freedom that they can’t have on a typical Hollywood film. Normally film actors are only allowed saying a few lines before the director cuts the filming. Von Trier shoots his scenes for longer periods of time where the actor truly can stay in character. In Dogville (2003) he let people stay in character for hours. The rules and restrictions are a break from the traditional Hollywood production.
- The second use is to underline a certain mood to the story. This can be seen in this film Dancer in the Dark (2000) that shifts between two types of style, where each style relates to Selma’s point of view. When we follow Selma in her everyday life the film is chaotic filmed with handheld cameras and the look is murky. During the dream sequences/musical number her world is suddenly sunny and filmed with steadicam.
Trilogies
Most of von Trier’s work is a part of a thematic trilogy. The exceptions to this rule are his early work from before he graduated the Danish Film School, some TV projects and of course The Kingdom (Riget), which was planned as a trilogy of three seasons with 13 episodes in total. Sadly the latter was unfinished due to death of the actor of one of the main characters.
The Europa-trilogy illuminated the traumas of Europe in the future. This trilogy includes The Element of Crime (1984), Epidemic (1988) and Europa (Zentropa, 1991).
The Golden Heart-trilogy was about heroines with golden hearts that despite their experience with the evil in the world stays naive. This trilogy includes Breaking the Waves (1996), Idioterne (The Idiots, 1998) and Dancer in the Dark (2000). It's worth noting that while a lot of people consider this von Trier’s Dogme trilogy, only Idioterne (The Idiots) is a real Dogme film. While the two other films share trades with Dogme in style due to the use of handheld camera they can best be described as pre and post Dogme.
The USA - The Land of Opportunities-trilogy follows one character Grace and is set in the USA's past. Von Trier decided to set the trilogy in America, because American film critics said he had no right to make the film Dancer in the Dark (2000) about a country in which he has never been to. This made von Trier angry because Hollywood produces several of pictures every year about another country shot on a sound stage in USA. This trilogy is the result of that. For all the three movies he is using the same unique style, where the movies are being filmed at a bare sound stage. On this stage there is not set and buildings are marked by lines on the floor. This style is inspired by the 1970's televised theatre. The trilogy consists of Dogville (2003), Manderlay (2005) and Washington (2008).
Filmography
External links
