‘Melancholia’, dictionary description… “a mental condition and especially a manic-depressive condition characterized by extreme depression, bodily complaints, and often hallucinations and delusions”.Smash ceremony to pieces. Hype, ego, pomp, sensationalism, formality, persona, ceremony… Blow it to smithereens and what is left? A whole new way of looking at the world around us, whether real or imaginary, an altered perspective. Well, we’ve all seen that Lars von Trier is a fan of ...

For most of the planet, the official end of summer does not come until the autumn equinox on September 21. However, for people in the film industry, the Fall season begins in only a few weeks, with the beginning of the autumn film festival cycle. Kicking off (startingly early this year) in Montreal on August 18 with the Montreal World Film Festival and then dashing across the pond to the Venice Film Festival, which begins on August 28, and then back across to the Toronto Film Festival, ...

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This was a very endearing press conference, especially in light of Lars Von Trier’s press conference two days prior for MELANCHOLY (2011) that still had everyone’s head spinning in Cannes. Von Trier’s comments on his Nazi sympathies as well as his protested desire to return to Denmark and focus only on soft and hardcore porn had everyone at Cannes thinking twice about Danish cinema and its praiseworthy art-house directors. Nicolas Winding Refn is a former student of Von Trier so naturally,...

This was a very endearing press conference, especially in light of Lars Von Trier’s press conference two days prior for MELANCHOLY (2011) that still had everyone’s head spinning in Cannes. Von Trier’s comments on his Nazi sympathies as well as his protested desire to return to Denmark and focus only on soft and hardcore porn had everyone at Cannes thinking twice about Danish cinema and its praiseworthy art-house directors. Nicolas Winding Refn is a former student of Von Trier...

 SLEEPING BEAUTY (2011)One of the films in competition at the 64th Cannes Film Festival was SLEEPING BEAUTY (2011) by writer/director Julia Leigh. While one might recall the sweet animated Disney film SLEEPING BEAUTY (1959) or the classic fairytale in reference to this title, this film is a far cry from these classics with the same name; rather, this ‘sleeping beauty’ is about the erotic desires of a young woman and her ‘female gaze’, as opposed to the much discussed, much debated cinem...

 SLEEPING BEAUTY (2011)One of the films in competition at the 64th Cannes Film Festival was SLEEPING BEAUTY (2011) by writer/director Julia Leigh. While one might recall the sweet animated Disney film SLEEPING BEAUTY (1959) or the classic fairytale in reference to this title, this film is a far cry from these classics with the same name; rather, this ‘sleeping beauty’ is about the erotic desires of a young woman and her ‘female gaze’, as opposed to the much discussed, much debated cinem...

Lars Von Trier       Jafar Panahi  The 64th edition of the Cannes Film Festival is now history, but two standout personalities on opposite poles of the spectrum have defined this year as one of the most unusual in memory. In one corner, we have the Danish filmmaker provocateur Lars Von Trier whose verbal missteps about Nazism at his press conference led...

7 .............                                                                                                                                                          NEWSLETTER N° 510: May 23, 2011 Follow this LINK if you cannot read the newsletter properly    Contact the Editor to Advertise with us  This weekly newsletter reaches 111 952 film professionals....

7 .............                                                                                                                                                          NEWSLETTER N° 509: May 20, 2011 Follow this LINK if you cannot read the newsletter properly  Contact the Editor to Advertise with us  This weekly newsletter reaches 90 952 film professionals. Dail...

Lars von Trier poses during the photocall of "Melancholia" (AFP/File, Francois Guillot) Lars von Trier poses during the photocall of "Melancholia" (AFP/File, Francois Guillot) Cannes barred provocative Danish director Lars von Trier Thursday amid a growing backlash over his remarks about Adolf Hitler, but his film remains in the race for the festival's top prize. Blackballing one of Europe's most prominent film-makers, festival organizers declared the 55-year-o...

Lars von Trier poses during the photocall of "Melancholia" (AFP/File, Francois Guillot)Cannes barred provocative Danish director Lars von Trier Thursday amid a growing backlash over his remarks about Adolf Hitler, but his film remains in the race for the festival's top prize.Blackballing one of Europe's most prominent film-makers, festival organizers declared the 55-year-old auteur "persona non grata" -- telling him in effect to stay away from the world's biggest cinema jamboree.In a statement, ...

The Festival de Cannes provides artists from around the world with an exceptional forum to present their works and defend freedom of expression and creation. The Festival's Board of Directors, which held an extraordinary meeting this Thursday 19 May 2011, profoundly regrets that this forum has been used by Lars Von Trier to express comments that are unacceptable, intolerable, and contrary to the ideals of humanity and generosity that preside over the very existence of the Festival. ...

  In a week when men behaving badly dominate the headlines, a refreshing sense of cognitive dissonance has set in at the 64th Cannes Film Festival.  The festival features a record four female directors in contention for the coveted Palme d’Or — the festival’s grand prize, which will be bestowed on May 22. But some of this year’s most highly anticipated films by men, including such legendary figures as Terrence Malick, Lars von Trier and the Dardennes brothers, have shared a st...

CANNESDanish director Lars von Trier apologised on Wednesday for remarking at the Cannes film festival that he sympathised "a little bit" with Adolf Hitler.    "If I have hurt someone this morning by the words I said at the press conference, I sincerely apologize," he said in an email sent to AFP by Meta Louise Foldager, a producer of his latest film "Melancholia".    "I am not anti-Semitic or racially prejudiced in any way, nor am I a Nazi." ...

Melancholia is the most recent movie by the Danish director Lars von Trier, starring Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The film premiers at the Cannes Film Festival today, May 18. At the press conference, director Lars von Trier used a funny but somewhat dark (and maybe inappropriate) attitude to answer different questions. When asked if he would consider making a comedy after directing so many melancholic movies, Lars cleverly stated that the problem is that most of his "melancholi...

Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg look on in disbelief as the "Melancholia" director shocks at Cannes press conference. Danish director Lars Von Trier pulled a Mel Gibson in Cannes Wednesday, giving a shocking and hilarious press conference for his new film Melancholia in which he admitted to being a Nazi, to understanding Hitler and speculated that his next movie could be The Final Solution. Von Trier has never been very P.C. and his Cannes press conferences alway...

  Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin. Courtesy of IMDb. It's never too early to begin handicapping the Palme d'Or race.  The film-festival world's most prestigious prize captures the attention of attendees in Cannes the way the New Hampshire primary mesmerizes political pundits -- it's hashed out and obsessed over for every possible shade of meaning -- and provides a film festival with a certain level of suspense. With the competition now one-third underwa...