Lars von Trier

Lars von Trier is one of the most celebrated filmmakers of Denmark, best known for his provocative stylistic cinematic experiments, and headlong dives into controversial subject matter. In his home country, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, and Dogville director has received seven Bodil Awards (given by Danish critics) and 15 Robert Awards (the top Danish industry prize).

Things have (thankfully) finally been stirring on the Croisette after a rather lukewarm start to the festival here with a couple of high profile movies hitting the big screen of the Grand Theatre Lumière. One is by perennial controversial Danish director Lars Von Trier (Antichrist, Melancholia) just back from a years-long time-out for bad behavior.

As we gear up for Cannes, the HFPA’s Elisabeth Sereda takes a look at previous festival misbehaviour and expects more to come. The line-up was announced by festival programmer Thierry Fremaux and Cannes president Gilles Jacob With Berlin and Sundance over and as we gear up for Cannes, the talk among the international press is not so much what films are going to be shown (we can look that up) as to who is going to misbehave in the most entertaining way.