Depressed Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier gets happy

GREAT DANE To squelch rumors of his career-ending depression, von Trier sent a message to his friends

When Lars von Trier's morose musical Dancer in the Dark debuted at Cannes in 2000, the audience erupted into equally throaty cheers and boos. Looking back, they hadn't seen anything yet. From Dogville and Manderlay—a pair of movies depicting a savage America—to the rigors of the Dogme 95 manifesto—a set of filmmaking rules so rigorous that the director himself has completed only one film that meets its standards—to famous feuds with Björk and Roman Polanski, the Danish director has left a wake of divided opinions behind him. Perhaps that's why his latest movie, a slight office comedy called The Boss of It All, was such a surprise.

"For me to do this film was like a really serious artist [making] pop music. I had to make a little joke about it: this fine artist has now gone pop"Here, Mr. von Trier takes a moment to speak with Radar about his recent bouts with depression, what he actually thinks of America (a country he has never visited), and what he'd like to be remembered for.

RADAR: There's been a lot of concern for you ever since you told a Danish newspaper that you were depressed.
LARS VON TRIER: Yes, I know. Maybe my problem is that I talk too much. I've been through three months of depression in the last year, and for some reason everyone seems to think I'm in a straight jacket, which I'm not.

That's a relief.
[Laughs.] Yeah, that's good. They took me out of the straight jacket so I could pick up the phone. A lot of the people from my company were at Cannes and they needed me to take a picture of myself to prove that I was not completely insane. Which, of course, you all still can discuss.

It must have been odd not to be at Cannes this year. This is one of your first movies not to make the festival's premiere in a while.
Yes, that's right. I think the Danish press was a little ... the reviews here are the worst reviews I've ever had.

Really? What do you think of The Boss of It All?
I'm fond of it. It's one of the most traditional films I've done, story-wise. It's supposed to be like some of these comedies you make in America: The Shop Around the Corner, Bringing Up Baby, and The Odd Couple, all these little talent films. Maybe not so sentimental. Those films were part of my childhood. I was always feeling very secure when I saw them. I was trying to find this mood in Boss of It All. It shouldn't be like Naked Gun, where you're supposed to laugh all the time. It should only be a little time where you can feel secure.

HAPPY DAZE Mr. von Trier with Nicole Kidman at the Cannes premiere of Dogville

Maybe I was reading into the movie a little, but I felt that you were expressing your frustration over reactions to your more transgressive films.
[Laughs.] Maybe I was. For me to do this film was like a really serious artist [making] pop music. I had to make a little joke about it: this fine artist has now gone pop.

This is certainly the first of your movies to get widespread comparisons to a sitcom—namely, The Office. But I heard you hadn't seen the show.
Right. That was on purpose, because I knew everybody was crazy about this show. I said, "I don't want to see it until I've made the film." Now I've started to see it, and it is very funny. But, no, it's nothing that I've directly stolen.

I'm surprised that The Boss of It All is getting some of your harshest reviews, because it seems like, at least in America, there were some very strong reactions to Dogville and Manderlay.
It has actually been very well reviewed in all other countries but Denmark. So it has been one of my best reviewed films so far. It's very strange. But this "one star or six" [mentality] is very Danish. I think the fact that it didn't open in Cannes was one of the reasons why the Danish critics were so hard on it.

I see. Speaking of Dogville and Manderlay, does the fact that you've snapped out of your depression mean you'll be completing the trilogy of movies about America you began with them? A lot of people seem to think you wouldn't.
It's not going to be the next film I make, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it. Right now I've fallen in love with a horror film. And I have a project called Antichrist, of course.

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