Last week’s massacre in Norway that killed 77 people in Oslo and Utøya was the worst tragedy to befall that nation since a møøse bit my sister (too soon?). But as with all spree killings, the media is wasting no time trying to get the accused to make us a mix tape. According to Facebook, Anders Breivik’s third favorite film (behind Gladiator and 300) was Lars Von Trier’s Dogville. The twist is, this time around, even Von Trier (whom you may remember was recently banned from Cannes) admits that his film, which ends with “a crescendo of violence. The town is burned and all its citizens are brutally murdered by the gangsters,” bears some similarity to the massacre.
“I feel badly about thinking that Dogville, which in my eyes is one of my most successful films, should have been a kind of script for him,” Von Trier said. “It’s horrific.”
“My intention with Dogville was totally opposite. Namely, to ask whether we can accept a protagonist who takes revenge on the entire village. And here I take the absolute distance from revenge. It’s a way to nuance the protagonist and our feelings and perhaps even uncover it, so it just is not black and white ‘.
“And you can ask if I regret making the film,” Von Trier is quoted as saying. “And yes, if it was an inspiration, I’m sorry that I made it. But of course I have educational purposes with my films, even if I hesitate to admit it, and my views are the complete opposite of Breivik and his deeds.”
“The other day asked a Belgian journalist asked Von Trier, a Dane, how he feels about the reported fact that Breivik’s manifesto repeatedly emphasizes Denmark as the only decent country because of the Danish policy towards Muslims,” Thoren writes.
“‘It makes me really hurt, but I understand it well,’ Von Trier replied. ‘We might have saved the children and young people on the island done much more with [the far-right] Danish People’s Party. For it is the change in attitude which they have provoked, and as we just have let happen, we are paying the price for now. [from a Danish interview translated by HollywoodElsewhere]
“I sink eet eez strange because all of zeez years I sink I am Danish. Oont zen one day I vake up and discover zat I am a neo-Nazi! Ja, I have neo-Nazi blood! And all of ziss time I did not know it! Okay, okay, I don’t mean zat I want to shoot Norwegians — unless one of zem is Susanne Bier! –I just mean zat… Oh how do I get out of ziss sentence? I mean zat I understand Anders Breivik. Ja, I understand him. Sitting in front of his computer, shooting all of zose people, hating Muslims, I understand him, you know? …Hallo, eez zeess sing on? I guess I just vish za shooter had been a Juden, because zen zair’s no way he would haff been so generous viss all of zose bullets! …Hallo? Kirsten? I don’t seenk zeess mic is working. …Ja, ja, great crowd! Now. Are zere any gypsies or homosexuals een za audience…”