Talk:Lars von Trier

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I just found this page where it's fairly obvious that the biography on WP was copied from that page. We have to rewrite most of it. --Maitch 17:10, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Contents 1 Lars von Trier's porn 2 Motivation for USA-trilogy 3 Casting section 4 Release year for Wasington 5 Misogyny 6 Parents "Refused to make rules..." ? 7 Wasington Article

[edit] Lars von Trier's porn

Am I insane or is it not fact that von Trier branched off and directed some gay pornos? Pacian 20:24, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

He ownes the company that produced some gay porn. The reason for this was to generate cash. He didn't direct, but is unofficially the producer of one. The films were not the great cash cow they hoped for, so they shut down the production fairly quick --Maitch 21:11, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

"The reason for this was to generate cash"? You mean that after producing a string of Scandinavian cinema's biggest critical and financial hits, Lars von Trier's company suddenly felt obliged to start producing gay porn, risking its international reputation and financing, simply because it was greedy after the kind of petty cash a low budget porn video can generate (typically $100,000, as opposed to, say, the $40,000,000 genereted by Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark)? Folks, that's simply the kind of derogatory, anti-pornographic remark frequently made by young Danish academics today, not based on fact or any level of insight but simply reflecting the neo-puritanical zeitgeist that erupted in Denmark at the start of the new millennium. That Lars von Trier loves to provoke or that anybody could simply enjoy making films about sex is unthinkable for these young people. For the record, Lars von Trier's company Zentropa has produced four sex films: Constance (1998), Pink Prison (1999), HotMen CoolBoyz (2000) and All About Anna (2005). Only one of these, HotMen CoolBoyz, was made for a gay audience. -CK

The link to Pink Prison does not in fact lead to an article about the film but is re-directed elsewhere. Zahir13 14:25, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm reading this after seeing Mandelay and it has two erotic scenes -- not, of course, including the whippings —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.142.231.238 (talk) 07:07, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Lars von Trier is one of the owners of a prodcution company called Puzzy Power under the Zentropa umbrella. They have at least made 3 movies

All about Anna, Constance and Pink Prison

The idea I believe, was to make adult movies that appealled to women. If anybody has more information about this feel free to edit my text.

[edit] Motivation for USA-trilogy

I removed a remaining paragraph which direcly plagiarized the above link while adding no useful information. Also, under the "USA-land of opportunity trilogy" section, I modified several poorly-stated sentences. The previous author claimed that "American film critics said he had no right to make the film Dancer in the Dark about a country in which he has never been to". I have found no published review from a US critic that states such a thing, nor any direct quote from LvT saying that was his motivation, and the way it was written made LvT sound petty and paranoid. If there's a source for this, we need to direct the reader to it. --24.81.13.220 03:25, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

The sentence about Dancer in the Dark is correct from my memory, but it might have been poorly written. It was not a reaction from the american reviews, which I'm pretty sure LvT doesn't read, but a reaction to the questions from american reviewers during the Cannes festival. I don't think it's petty and paranoid. I think it's bold to say that. The americans have made several movies about countries they'd never been to - why can't he. During that interview he also talked about how the movie Casablanca was filmed entirely in the USA. --Maitch 11:15, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

The way it was written made it sound (to me, at least) like there was some kind of universal criticicism of DitD on those grounds, and that was LvT's reason for the USA trilogy. The widespread criticism is simply not true, and it seems unlikely that LvT is spending years of his life and millions of dollars on the trilogy simply as a response to a few ignorant comments -- I suspect his goals are more complex than that, and I feel we shouldn't be ascribing motives here, just recording facts. (Though if he is making it solely for that reason, I think the "petty and paranoid" label would apply!) --24.81.13.220 22:17, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

nobody ever seems to level that as a criticism of Amerika_(Kafka_novel) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.142.231.238 (talk) 07:11, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Casting section

I find the casting subsection ambiguous. Many successful directors cast a few favorite actors in many of ther films and give them a variety of roles (eg, Welles, Kurosawa, Herzog, Hitchcock, just to name the 'biggies'). Is LvT really any different? --Misterwindupbird 19:09, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

I find it to be interesting, and a key to understand the craftmanship behind his movies. Instead of changing this, we should add more! The same goes for Welles, Kurosawa, Herzog, Hitchcock! :) NuclearFunk

David Lynch, Kevin Smith, Woody Allen --it would seem that preferring your troupe is more the rule than the exception —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.142.231.238 (talk) 07:15, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Release year for Wasington

I have removed the release year for Wasington, because the year 2007 is speculation and highly unlikely. The movie is on hold due to von Trier having trouble writing the script. Instead the movie "The Manager of it All" is being filmed in February and released in 2007. I truly doubt that von Trier could manage to shoot this film and still find time to complete Wasington to be released in 2007. A film like Wasington is by the way very likely to be released at the Cannes film festival, so my guess would be May 2009 considering his filmography, although May 2008 is possible. I think the confusion comes from IMDb, but they are not very good at updating movies in production. --Maitch 13:28, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Misogyny

Much seems to have been made of how he has had very contentious relationships with the actresses in his movies. Bjork and Nicole Kidman both refuse to work with him on future projects because of supposably the way they were treated and how he pushed them on set. Should something be said about this? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.42.160.231 (talk) 04:12, 4 May 2007 (UTC).

Kidman refuses to work with him? You got evidence for that? Cop 633 11:59, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Parents "Refused to make rules..." ?

From the article]s second paragraph, emphasis mine...

...and also refused to make any rules for their children, with complex results for von Trier's personality and development.[2] The young Lars found in cinema an outlet to the outside world through which he could learn about subjects otherwise forbidden from his study by his parents.

Is not "forbidding someone from studying something" a pretty definite "rule"? Not familiar with the subject matter to make a definitive change, myself... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.242.134.90 (talk) 06:20, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wasington Article

I think Wasington should have its own article, o it hould stop directing to here because it's confusing. People who misspell "Washington" that are looking for Washington State are being directed over here. If Wasington has its own article there could be a warning put up asking users if they meant Washington the State. QuirkyAndSuch (talk) 09:05, 6 April 2008 (UTC)