Lars von Trier has a new fan. Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian man who killed 77 people (69 of whom he gunned down at a kids' summer camp), named von Von Trier's "Dogville" as one of his favorite films.
Though this seems fitting, since the Danish director became a persona non grata at the Cannes Film Festival after declaring himself a Nazi, it turns out he's actually not in favor of slaughtering large numbers of innocent people.
In response to Breivik's praise, von Trier said, "I feel badly about thinking that 'Dogville' which in my eyes is one of my most successful films, should have been a kind of script for him," The Hollywood Reporter recounts.
He continued, “It’s horrific. My intention with 'Dogville' was totally opposite. Namely, to ask whether we can accept a protagonist who takes revenge on the entire village. And here I take the absolute distance from revenge. It’s a way to nuance the protagonist and our feelings and perhaps even uncover it, so it just is not black and white.”
Did you get that?
Put more succinctly, "The last scene of 'Dogville' bears painful similarities with Utoeya," the auteur admitted. "You're asking me if I'm sad for having made this film? Yes, if it has proved to have inspired him, I'm sorry for having made it," said von Trier, adding that the film's intention was to educate the public, not inspire violence.
Besides feeling "badly" about Brieivik, von Trier is busy, err, researching his next feature film, "Nymphomaniac," which will be about "a woman's erotic birth" the Hollywood Wire Tap reveals.
In order to appear slightly less creepy appeal to a wider audience, the director is reportedly making both hard and softcore versions of this film.
Which makes us feel much better.
