Lars von Trier Quotes

I would say that I am a poor Christian; I'm not a believer. It was this idea very early in my life that life on Earth, nature or man could not be a creation of a merciful God.

The cognitive therapy that takes place in the film Antichrist is a form of therapy that I have used for some time, and it has to do with confronting your fears. I would say that especially the part of the film that has to do with therapy is humoristic because people who know about this form of therapy would know that the character is more than a fool.

I'm very proud of being persona non grata. I've never been that before in my life, and that suits me extremely wellI'm known for provocations, but I like provocations when they have a purpose. And this had no purpose whatsoever. Because I'm not Mel Gibson. I'm definitely not Mel Gibson.

Evil gives you far more strings to pull. But I must say that I have never been interested in the psychology of evil, not in the slightest. Perhaps I'm not interested in evil, but in the dark sides of human beings.

I think its a very strange question that I have to defend myself. I don’t feel that. You are all my guests, it’s not the other way around, that’s how I feel.

I come from a family of communist nudists. I was allowed to do or not do what I liked. My parents were not interested in whether I went to school or got drunk on white wine.

Basically, I'm afraid of everything in life, except filmmaking.

We start with a rehearsal where the actors kind of bring what they think should be in the scene. But we film everything, and we use cuts of this first take, also.

True values entail suffering. That’s the way we think. All in all, we tend to view melancholia as more true. We prefer music and art to contain a touch of melancholia. So melancholia in itself is a value. Unhappy and unrequited love is more romantic than happy love. For we don’t think that’s completely real, do we?…Longing is true. It may be that there’s no truth at all to long for, but the longing itself is true. Just like pain is true. We feel it inside. It’s part of our reality.

I like gardening. I'm really a nature man. I spend as much time as I can in nature. I feel really safe there.

I did a lot of strange things. But I am a bad Catholic that's for sure. Although I think it's difficult to believe in evil.

I'm fighting against my will to control. I think that is what I am doing. I would like to accept things in life, in all matters of life I would like to accept, but it's so difficult. I think we all have this struggle.

If people do not laugh it's not comedy.

I’m having a vacation and it’s so beautiful and maybe I’ll never get another film idea in my life.

If there are some people that like the film and some people that do not, that's fine for me, because I do not intend to make very broad films.

I think it's important that we all try to give something to this medium, instead of just thinking about what is the most efficient way of telling a story or making an audience stay in a cinema.

If anyone would like to hit me, they are perfectly welcome. I must warn you, though, that I might enjoy it. So maybe it's not the right kind of punishment.

I am a man of very many anxieties but doing strange things with the camera is not one of them.

My films generally center around thousands of pictures being flashed in rapid succession to create the illusion of motion.

Political correctness kills discussion.

Everything is going to hell, but we should smile all the way.

When I was in film school, it was said that all good films were characterised by some form of humour.

I hope my films will never completely be without the ability to mark anybody.

When I show a film at a festival, I am showing myself. Everything is at stake for me.

If you want to provoke, you should provoke someone who is stronger than you, otherwise you are misusing your power.

I am not very tough with raising my children, but you can argue that to be more tough will help your children.

If I made a musical in the beginning of my career, it would have been crane shots and tracking shots and people coming out of cakes and whatever, but these techniques are something that I’ve left behind me.

If one devalues rationality, the world tends to fall apart.

I think that sexuality is the part of human beings that is closest to nature. And nature is dangerous somehow, yes, if you put nature against civilisation, nature is definitely a threat.

I had an almost fetishistic attraction to film technology.

A film has to be like a stone in the shoe.

I am crazy about time cuts. I have a theory that the audience tie everything together so they don't see time cuts but the time cuts give us the possibility of jumping in time, which means a psychological evolution can be cut down.

I encouraged the cast to make up their own lines.

You know, I really do have some morals. I do actually care about people. And I do have a political standpoint.

I can't tell you why I choose stuff, it's really something I don't analyse. The only thing I can say is that a film has to demand to be made, I don't have a plan of what films I'm going to make. The only thing that I know now is that I'm not too crazy about doing things again that I've been into before.

I am the best film director in the world.

That's the great thing about entering a convent: There are things that you simply can't do, so you don't have to worry about them

Even if you feel all right, tell the actors you don't have full power, and they will help you.

Unfortunately, on one or both of my shoulders sits lots of anxiety and that is a controlling factor in my life.

I always do something that I’ve never done before...

I am very romantic about communism even still, but I know terrible things happened.

I think that limitations are the most important part of any art form

Only a fool does not fear actors, but you can't beat them, and if you can't beat them, join them, as they say. As I've got older I've become very interested in that part of the work

One of the things that got me thinking during therapy is that they say that fear is only thoughts, and nothing will happen because thoughts will never be real. And my thesis, or joke, in film Antichrist, is that they really do become real.

I understand Hitler... I sympathise with him a little bit.

I think working with actors is a little bit how a chef would work with a potato or a piece of meat. You have to kind of have a look at the potato or the piece of meat and see what kind of possibilities are in the ingredient. I know I'm using the wrong metaphor. I think my job is to see what potato is there and from there, just work under their conditions.

Just the fact that you're working is good for you.

I had a lot of frustrations, and I was drinking far too much, and I was just trying to survive and this is what came out of it.