These days, Lars Von Trier is best known for making films about people screwing, people pretending to be retarded, or people getting their genitals ravaged by a talking fox, and for writing “F*CK” on his knuckles while praising the Nazis. But back in 1967, he was just an 11-year-old boy who wanted to make a stop-motion animated film about sausage. At least, that’s what I take from this recently-uncovered short film by Lar Von Trier (or Lars Trier as he was known then – the “von” came later), Turen til Squashland… En Super Pølse Film. Or in English, Trip to Squash Land… A Super Sausage Film. (*shot in neck with dart, thrown into van to avoid terrible sausage joke*)
The two-minute film features a sausage superhero, a bunny that gets abducted (made even darker by the accidental pulsating techno beat provided by the noise of the film rotating), and then of course ends with a cloud that says “SLUT.” I’m pretty sure that was the basis for Melancholia.
“Slut” apparently means “End” in Danish, but I’d like to think it was a Freudian translation.
It seems worth noting that Trier had a non-normative childhood. His parents—who were lifestyle nudists—didn’t believe in punishment, but still managed to keep a distinct emotional distance from him. The controversial Danish director’s mother also told him on her deathbed that he was the product of an affair. [DangerousMinds]
I like to think of Scandinavia as Florida’s child prodigy cousin who went to college when he was 16 but lost his scholarship when it turned out he was schizophrenic.