noisedfisk

There seems to be no end to the humiliation fairytale author Hans Christian Andersen has to endure in the year of celebration of his 200th year anniversary. After bicentenary festivities publicly proclaimed as failures and the near-bankruptcy of his memorial fund, Denmark’s beloved national author found himself the object of scorn of Lars von Trier, the mischievous genius of Danish cinema.
Characteristically, von Trier did not make any attempt to restrain himself in an interview with journalist Stina Lundberg Dabrowski, the Swedish equivalent of America’s Barbara Walters and Britain’s Michael Parkinson, on Swedish national television, SVT1.
‘I can’t stand H.C. Andersen,’ von Trier said. ‘His stories are the worst faggot bullshit (Swedish: bí¸gskräp, ed.) that exists. I hate that sort of thing. I hate all that fairytale atmosphere.’
Von Trier added that H.C. Andersen, who many modern biographers believe to have been gay, had always sought public recognition, and had ended up as a stale establishment in literature.

Von Trier, on the other hand, said he never tried to cater to public demand.
‘I make films for the public that I am,’ he said. ‘I don’t respect the public. Eighty percent is too stupid to be my public.’
He added that his international breakthrough, ‘Breaking the Waves’, had been meant as a joke.
‘I decided to create a story that was so unlikely and filled with clichés that no one would fall for it,’ he said. ‘And of course, everybody fell for it. You just have to do something stupid enough, and then you’ll do fine.’

Von Trier expressed his admiration for the actresses he had worked with, and said he himself was more woman than man. His admiration, however, did not include musician Björk, whose clashes with him during the filming of ‘Dancer in the Dark’ almost led to the film’s demise.
‘Björk isn’t a woman, she’s a little troll,’ he said, adding, however, that he had had a decent working relation with her. ‘She’s an evil bitch, who tried to ruin the film from the beginning. She walked in the first day thinking: ‘Here I come, and you’re going bankrupt’.’
Von Trier added that he had wept in desperation and hurled a chair into a television set during his fights with the singer.