Lars von Trier facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lars von Trier
Trier at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, 2014
Born	Lars Trier (1956-04-30) 30 April 1956 (age 69) Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Alma mater	National Film School of Denmark University of Copenhagen
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter
Years active	1967–present
Notable work	Filmography
Movement	Hyperrealism, Dogme 95, German Expressionism
Spouse(s)	Cæcilia Holbek [da] ​ ​ (m. 1987; div. 1995)​ Bente Frøge ​ ​ (m. 1997; div. 2015)​
Children	4
Awards	Palme d'Or, EFA, Cesar, Bodil, Goya, FIPRESCI
Honours	Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog

Lars von Trier (né Trier; 30 April 1956) is a Danish film director, producer, writer, actor, and songwriter.

Early life and education

Born Lars Trier in Kongens Lyngby, Denmark, north of Copenhagen, his parents are Inger Høst and Fritz Michael Hartmann (her former boss at Denmark's Ministry of Social Affairs and a World War II resistance fighter). He received his surname from Høst's husband, Ulf Trier, whom he believed to be his biological father until 1989.

He studied film theory at the University of Copenhagen and film direction at the National Film School of Denmark. At 25, he won two Best School Film awards at the Munich International Festival of Film Schools for Nocturne and Last Detail. The same year, he added the nobiliary particle "von" to his name, possibly as a satirical homage to the equally self-invented titles of directors Erich von Stroheim and Josef von Sternberg, and saw his graduation film Images of Liberation released as a theatrical feature.

Career

1984–1994: Career beginnings and the Europa trilogy

In 1984, The Element of Crime, von Trier's breakthrough film, received twelve awards at seven international festivals including the Technical Grand Prize at Cannes, and a nomination for the Palme d'Or. The film's slow, non-linear pace, innovative and multi-leveled plot design, and dark dreamlike visual effects combine to create an allegory for traumatic European historical events.

Von Trier's next film, Epidemic (1987), was also shown at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section, and featured two story lines that ultimately collide: the chronicle of two filmmakers (played by von Trier and screenwriter Niels Vørse) in the midst of developing a new project, and a dark science fiction tale of a futuristic plague – the very film von Trier and Vørsel are depicted making. He next directed Medea (1988) for television, based on a screenplay by Carl Th. Dreyer and starring Udo Kier, which won the Jean d'Arcy prize in France.

Von Trier has referred to his films as falling into thematic and stylistic trilogies. This pattern began with The Element of Crime (1984), the first of the Europa trilogy, which illuminated traumatic periods in Europe both in the past and the future. It also includes Epidemic. He completed the trilogy in 1991 with Europa (released as Zentropa in the US), which won the Prix du Jury at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, and picked up awards at other major festivals. In 1990 he also directed the music video for the song "Bakerman" by Laid Back. This video was re-used in 2006 by the English DJ and artist Shaun Baker in his remake of the song.

Seeking financial independence and creative control over their projects, in 1992 von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen founded the film production company Zentropa Entertainment, which has sold more than 350 million tickets and was nominated for multiple Academy Awards as of 2016. Named after a fictional railway company in Europa, their most recent film at the time, Zentropa has produced many movies other than Trier's own, as well as several television series. To make money for his newly founded company, von Trier made The Kingdom (Danish title Riget, 1994) and The Kingdom II (Riget II, 1997), a pair of miniseries recorded in the Danish national hospital, the name "Riget" being a colloquial name for the hospital known as Rigshospitalet (lit. The Kingdom's Hospital) in Danish. A projected third season of the series was derailed by the death in 1998 of Ernst-Hugo Järegård, who played Dr. Helmer, and that of Kirsten Rolffes, who played Mrs. Drusse, in 2000, two of the major characters, which led to the series' cancellation.

1995–2000: the Dogme 95 manifesto, and the Golden Heart trilogy

Dogme 95 Certificate for Susanne Bier's film Open Hearts

In 1995, von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg presented their manifesto for a new cinematic movement, which they called Dogme 95. The Dogme 95 concept, which led to international interest in Danish film, inspired filmmakers all over the world. It required filmmakers to shirk several common techniques in modern filmmaking, such as studio lighting, sets, costumes, and non-diegetic music. In 2008, together with their fellow Dogme directors Kristian Levring and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg received the European film award for European Achievement in World Cinema.

In 1996 von Trier conducted an unusual theatrical experiment in Copenhagen involving 53 actors, which he titled Psychomobile 1: The World Clock. A documentary chronicling the project was directed by Jesper Jargil, and was released in 2000 with the title De Udstillede (The Exhibited).

Von Trier achieved international success with his Golden Heart trilogy. Each film in the trilogy is about naive heroines who maintain their "golden hearts" despite the tragedies they experience. This trilogy consists of Breaking the Waves (1996), The Idiots (1998), and Dancer in the Dark (2000). While all three films are sometimes associated with the Dogme 95 movement, The Idiots was the only one to meet all the necessary criteria to be "certified" as such.

Breaking the Waves won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and featured Emily Watson, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Its grainy images, and hand-held photography, pointed towards Dogme 95 but violated several of the manifesto's rules. The second film in the trilogy, The Idiots, was nominated for a Palme d'Or, with which he was presented in person at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, despite his dislike of traveling. In 2000, von Trier premiered Dancer in the Dark, a musical featuring Icelandic musician Björk, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. The song "I've Seen It All" (co-written by von Trier) received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.

2003–2008: The Land of Opportunities and other works

The Five Obstructions (2003), made by von Trier and Jørgen Leth, is a documentary that incorporates lengthy sections of experimental films. The premise is that von Trier challenges Leth, his friend and mentor, to remake his 1967 experimental short The Perfect Human five times, each time with a different obstacle.

His next proposed trilogy, Land of Opportunities, consists of Dogville (2003), Manderlay (2005), and the unmade Washington. The first two installments were shot with the same distinctive, extremely stylized approach, with the actors performing on a bare sound stage with no decoration, buildings' walls marked by chalk lines on the floor, a style inspired by 1970s televised theatre. Dogville starred Nicole Kidman as Grace Margaret Mulligan, a role taken by Bryce Dallas Howard for Manderlay. Both films feature an ensemble cast including Harriet Andersson, Lauren Bacall, James Caan, Danny Glover, and Willem Dafoe. The films question various issues relating to American society, such as intolerance and slavery.

In 2006, von Trier released the Danish-language comedy film, The Boss of It All, which was shot using an experimental process he named Automavision, involving the director choosing the best possible fixed camera position, then allowing a computer to randomly choose when to tilt, pan, or zoom. He followed this with an autobiographical film, The Early Years: Erik Nietzsche Part 1 in 2007, which von Trier wrote and Jacob Thuesen directed, a film that tells the story of von Trier's years as a student at the National Film School of Denmark. It stars Jonatan Spang as von Trier's alter ego, called "Erik Nietzsche", and is narrated by von Trier himself, with all main characters being based on real people from the Danish film industry. The thinly veiled portrayals include Jens Albinus as director Nils Malmros, Dejan Čukić as screenwriter Mogens Rukov, and Søren Pilmark.

2009–2014: The Depression trilogy

The Depression trilogy includes Antichrist and Melancholia. The films star Charlotte Gainsbourg, and deal with characters who suffer depression or grief in different ways. This trilogy is said to represent the depression that Trier himself experiences.

Antichrist follows "a grieving couple who retreat to their cabin in the woods, hoping a return to Eden will repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage; but nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse". The film stars Willem Dafoe and Gainsbourg. It premiered in competition at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, where the festival's jury honoured the movie by giving the Best Actress award to Gainsbourg.

Melancholia, released in 2011, is an apocalyptic drama about two depressive sisters played by Kirsten Dunst and Gainsbourg, the former of whom marries just before a rogue planet is about to collide with Earth. The film was in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Best Actress award for Dunst.

2015–2018: The House That Jack Built and the return to Cannes

In 2015, von Trier began work on a new feature film, The House That Jack Built, which was originally planned as an eight-part television series. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2018. Despite more than a hundred walkouts by audience members, the film still received a 10-minute standing ovation.

2019–present: Revival to Riget and planned feature film, Études

After the release of The House That Jack Built, von Trier planned to produce Études, an anthology film consisting of ten black and white segments, each ten minutes long, inspired by the musical form. In December 2020, it was announced he would produce a belated third and final season of The Kingdom, titled The Kingdom Exodus. It was also announced that Søren Pilmark would return as Jørgen 'Hook' Krogshøj, as would Ghita Nørby as Rigmor Mortensen, alongside a new cast including Mikael Persbrandt as Dr. Helmer, Jr. It was shot in 2021, consisting of five episodes to be released in November 2022. The miniseries premiered out of competition at the Venice Film Festival as a five-hour feature-length film. It received positive reviews from critics.

In 2024, Von trier announced that he was working on a new film titled After which will benefit from funding from the Danish Film Institute.

Influences

Von Trier is heavily influenced by the work of Carl Theodor Dreyer and the film The Night Porter. He was so inspired by the short film The Perfect Human, directed by Jørgen Leth, that he challenged Leth to redo the short five times in the feature film The Five Obstructions.

Writing

Von Trier's writing style has been heavily influenced by his work with actors on set, as well as the Dogme 95 manifesto that he co-authored. In an interview with Creative Screenwriting, he described his process as "writing a sketch and keep[ing] the story simple...then part of the script work is with the actors." He again cites Dreyer as an influence, pointing to his method of overwriting his scripts, then significantly cutting the length down. Reflecting on the storytelling across his body of work, von Trier said, "all the stories are about a realist who comes into conflict with life. I'm not crazy about real life, and real life is not crazy about me."

Filming techniques

Von Trier has said that "a film should be like a stone in your shoe". To create original art he feels that filmmakers must distinguish themselves stylistically from other films, often by placing restrictions on the film making process.

Fritz Michael Hartmann (c. 1950)

Von Trier often shoots digitally and operates the camera himself, preferring to continuously shoot the actors in-character without stopping between takes.

Health

On 8 August 2022, it was announced that von Trier had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. On 12 February 2025, it was announced via Instagram that von Trier had been admitted to a care facility for the condition.

Filmography

Films

Awards and honors

Among his more than 100 awards and 200 nominations at film festivals worldwide, von Trier has received: the Palme d'Or (for Dancer in the Dark), the Grand Prix (for Breaking the Waves), the Prix du Jury (for Europa), and the Technical Grand Prize (for The Element of Crime and Europa) at the Cannes Film Festival. Von Trier has also received both Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nomination for the former.

• In von Trier's second trilogy, Golden Heart, is the first franchise or trilogy to have won both Bodil and Robert for Best Actress in a Leading Role, respectively Emily Watson, Bodil Jorgensen, and Björk, while Watson and Björk also have won the European for Best Actress.
  • Also in Golden Heart, three of them have nominated the Palme d'Or, with the latter won.
• In von Trier's fourth trilogy, Depression, is the first franchise or trilogy to have sweep the Robert for Best Danish Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects.

See also

In Spanish: Lars von Trier para niños