DIRECTOR
Lars von Trier
- Known for
- Breaking the Waves (1996)
23 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
Lars von Trier is a director and screenwriter best known for Breaking the Waves.
All facts (23)
- #001
In 1995, as his mother was dying, she told her dying son that the man he believed to be his father was not in fact his biological father. After her death, he found his biological father, and after four contentious meetings, his father told him that if he wanted to speak with him again, he could do so through his lawyer.
- #002
Lars von Trier has never visited the United States.
- #003
After Steven Spielberg saw Europa (1991), he offered von Trier the chance to direct a film in America, but von Trier turned the script down.
- #004
The 'von' was added to his name because his peers at the Danish Film School called him that.
- #005
He has directed three actresses who won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival: Björk for Dancer in the Dark (2000), Charlotte Gainsbourg for Antichrist (2009) and Kirsten Dunst for Melancholia (2011).
- #006
Shortly before her death, von Trier's mother, Inger Høst, a civil servant, confessed that his real father was not Ulf Trier (another ministry employee) but her employer, Fritz Michael Hartmann; she explained that she had wanted a man with 'artistic genes' and that Hartmann, a member of a famous family of Danish composers that includes Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann and Niels Viggo Bentzon, seemed suited to that purpose.
- #007
Along with a group of other filmmakers, he helped found a collective known as Dogme 95. The collective agreed to make films in accordance with specific rules, such as using only handheld cameras and shooting only on location.
- #008
Following controversial remarks at the press conference for Melancholia (2011) that were ironic and intended as biographical jokes but were largely misunderstood by the press and the public, he was declared 'persona non grata' at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Five months after the festival, in October 2011, he announced that as a result of the controversy he would avoid all future public statements and interviews.
- #009
He left his pregnant wife and moved in with (much younger) nannies.
- #010
Udo Kier is the godfather of his daughter Agnes.
- #011
He was scheduled to direct the four operas of Wagner's Ring at the 2006 edition of the Bayreuth Festival in Germany, but he withdrew from the project in 2004, stating through the festival that he felt it would be beyond his powers and that he would not be able to realize his own ambitions.
- #012
He has said that one of his favorite films is The Philadelphia Story (1940).
- #013
He directed an Oscar-nominated performance: Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves (1996).
- #014
In 2017, thirteen moving boxes' worth of material from Lars von Trier's life was placed in a special collection at the Danish Film Institute's library. Most of the material came from Trier's own basement. Some of it was also used for an exhibition at Brandts in Odense, Denmark.
- #015
At the 2004 Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival), he was awarded UNICEF's 'Cinema for Peace Award.' He received the award because nearly all of his films deal with subjects such as compassion and morality.
- #016
He considers Dogville (2003) his best film because 'it's so damn well written.' By contrast, he considers the film's sequel, Manderlay (2005), his worst.
- #017
His planned American trilogy was never completed. After starting with Dogville (2003) and its sequel Manderlay (2005), the third film, titled 'Washington,' was never made (as of 2022).
- #018
He added the 'von' to his birth name (Lars Trier) as a tribute to director Josef von Sternberg.
- #019
He has the letters F, U, C and K tattooed on the knuckles of his right hand.
- #020
In 2007, Lars von Trier was set to begin work on a horror film titled Deccal (Antichrist), which posited that the world was created by Satan rather than God. However, in May 2007 it was reported that he was suffering from depression and might give up filmmaking entirely.
- #021
Lars von Trier shares his birthday with Jane Campion and Jacques Audiard. All three directors/writers have won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
- #022
Lars von Trier is the nephew of the filmmaker Børge Høst.
- #023
His controversial remarks at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival concerned his joking remarks about Adolf Hitler's actions, framed around "understanding" (which was clearly not taken as such, and he was subsequently declared Persona Non Grata by the festival committee). Von Trier was born on 30 April, the same date as Hitler's suicide.
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