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1-8 of 8
- Get into the creative mind of film director Lars von Trier and learn how reading in his world is connected with writing. Trier calls literature his "basic medium" and reveals his inspiration from writers as Thomas Mann, Leo Tolstoy, and Marcel Proust. He refers to dramaturgy as his "toothache" connected to his reading of Donald Duck, but writing is "the greatest kick you can get," he says. Even though dramaturgy has been difficult for Lars von Trier, he experiences joy when writing the manuscripts for his films: "The greatest thing is when you let it go, like when you levitate in meditation. You do that sometimes when you're writing. Then you write fabulously and you experience a high," he says. "I hope I'll manage to make a movie intuitively. But I'm stuck in the mire. The mire of dramaturgy." Lars von Trier is a passionate reader: "What I love about literature is that one man decides. It's a dictatorship." When writing 'Joseph and his Brothers' Thomas Mann had an obstacle: "It says so in the Bible" and having obstacles when writing and making films are important, Trier feels. "Andrej Tarkovskij made his very best movies in the Soviet Union because he was in this strange oppressed situation". "Apparently, you need to have a chain around your neck, somehow. It's like athletes who make things difficult for themselves or circus performers who do something and so becomes a reward for themselves," Trier says. "Henrik Ibsen almost reinvented dramaturgy and made it more efficient", but "the problem is that things become clichés because they then just become part of the development of cultural history," Lars von Trier says preferring August Strindberg. Strindberg "was wonderfully crazy and so creates things that are completely unforeseen, I'm sure Strindberg will live much longer than Ibsen," Trier states. "The reason why the novel is so good is that you have a friend in your hand: The writer who wants to tell a story," Trier says. "The funniest thing is to tease and not reach a conclusion. The problem is I'm too conscious of it. I contemplate too much." "First of all, I'm convinced that provocations are very important - particularly in a democracy. political correctness is the most dangerous thing imaginable because no one questions anything. Then everything stops." Looking back at his work Lars von Trier states: "I wouldn't say that I've changed anything, but I've tried to create a genre that is a blend of naturalism and surrealism, you might say." "When you're walking somewhere on Earth, something catches your eye. In the end, you collect all kinds of tidbits. My ambition with the film has been to somehow expand the medium," Trier says. Lars von Trier (b.1956) is a Danish film director and screenwriter, whose prolific career spans almost four decades. His pivotal work is known for its technical innovation and examination of existential, social, and political issues in movies such as 'The Element of Crime' (1984), 'Europa' (1991), 'Breaking the Waves' (1996), 'The Idiots' (1998), 'Dancer in the Dark' (2000), 'Dogville' (2003), 'Antichrist' (2009), 'Melancholia' (2011), Nymphomaniac (2013) and 'The House That Jack Built' (2018). He is also the creator of the TV series 'The Kingdom' (1994-1997) and one of the creators of the innovative Dogma 95 style manifesto (along with e.g. Thomas Vinterberg), which has since marked Danish and European film alike. Among his numerous awards at film festivals worldwide, Trier has received the Palme d'Or, the Grand Prix, Prix du Jury and The Technical Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as The University of Copenhagen's DKK 1 million Sonning Prize 2018. In 2018 Brandt Museum in Odense, Denmark presented a major exhibition providing a retrospective overview of the work of Trier: 'Lars von Trier - The good with the evil'. Trier is also the founder and shareholder of the international film production company Zentropa Films. In 2022 Lars von Trier will release the third part of 'The Kingdom', entitled 'The Kingdom Exodus'. Lars von Trier was interviewed by Christian Lund at his home outside Copenhagen in November 2020.
- Aged just 18, Danish-Palestinian Yahya Hassan (b.1995-d.2020) caused a stir and received death threats because of his powerful poetry collection, which sold in 100.000 copies, criticizing the hypocrisy of the welfare state, his family, and Muslims in Denmark. Everyone knows that the teenage years can be turbulent, emotional and painful. Many of us have dabbled with tormented poems and had serious clashes with our families: But rarely does angry young men come with the talent of Danish-Palestinian Yahya Hassan. In this interview Yahya Hassan talks about his poetry, born out of rage, grief, joy, humor and a love of words: "I am driven by an interest in writing. Too me, writing is a quiet room outside the problems of life. Wherever I go I always have the words with me."
- The story of one of the most radical performances in art history told by German artist Ulay, who in 1976 decided to steal Hitler's favorite painting from Berlin's national museum and hang it in the home of a Turkish immigrant family. "This particular painting you could say was a German identity icon." In 1976 Ulay decided to steal the painting 'Der arme Poet' (The Poor Poet) (1839) by Carl Spitzweg, which was said to be Hitler's favorite painting. By stealing the painting from the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) in Berlin, Ulay broke away from what he had done previously, aiming "to give a strong signal about what I was about as an artist at the time."
- 'The most intact world is the world of art. Nothing is better or more interesting to me than paintings.' Renowned German artist Georg Baselitz looks back on his life, his roots and inspirations, and considers where he is at today.
- The unsurpassed Swedish playwright Lars Norén grew up in a home that felt "radically unsafe." In this rare interview he traces his writing back to his childhood experiences.
- "The past is always happy and the future also. Only the present hurts," says Michel Houellebecq in this very rare interview, which the French author has said is his last public stage interview. Considered one of the most important European writers today, Houellebecq speaks with great generosity and humour about love, religion and happiness, offering thoughtful insight into his work, including his most recent novel, the praised 'Serotonin' (2019).
- Pioneering American video artist Bill Viola is interviewed in London in 2011 by Christian Lund, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (an art museum located on the shore of the Øresund Sound in Humlebæk, 35 km north of Copenhagen, Denmark).