Cannes: Despite previous Hitler comments, Lars von Trier's 'Nymphomania' would have been welcome
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In 2011, director Lars von Trier was basically run out of Cannes when he said in a press conference for his film “Melancholia” that he “sympathized with Hitler a little bit.”
“What can I say, I understand Hitler. I think he did his wrong things…but I understand the man,” von Trier said.
Fast forward to 2013, and von Trier has another film, “Nymphomaniac,” that seems like a Cannes natural for producing controversy and outrage.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The movie stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Shia LaBeouf, Jamie Bell and Willem Dafoe in a story of a woman (Gainsbourg) described as a self-diagnosed nymphomaniac.
The movie follows the character from her youth to middle age. LaBouef has said that the multiple sex scenes filmed in the movie are real, and that von Trier blurred out “everything that is illegal."
Deadline.com called it a “four-hour sex-o-rama.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}So why is “Nymphomaniac” out of the running?
Festival officials at the festival said von Trier is not banned from Cannes, despite ordering him to leave in 2011, and that he simply missed the cut-off submission date.
But the film is premiering in Denmark just four days after the festival ends, on May 30, which means von Trier would likely have had a version that he could have provided.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FOX411’s emails to von Trier’s production company asking whether his film could make a surprise arrival at Cannes were not returned. And the Guardian UK’s movie critic Xan Brooks argued that Cannes without the controversial filmmaker is just not the same.
“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."
According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Nymphomania" is being released in both hard-core and soft-core versions. And despite forgoing Cannes, the film has been picked up by distributors in several territories including the U.S., Germany, U.K. and even France.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Von Trier won Cannes' highest prize, the Palme D'or, in 2000 for "Dancer in the Dark."