Lars von Trier
Biography: Lars von Trier (born Lars Trier; 30 April 1956) is a Danish film director and screenwriter. He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective, although his own films have taken a variety of different approaches. He is known for his female-centric parables and his exploration of controversial subject matter. Von Trier began making his own films at the age of 11 after receiving a Super-8 camera as a gift, and his first publicly released film was an experimental short called The Orchid Gardener, in 1977. His first feature film came seven years later, The Element of Crime, in 1984. As of 2010, he has directed a further 10 feature films, 5 short films and 4 television productions. He has been married twice and is currently married to Bente Frøge. Von Trier suffers periodically from depression, as well as various fears and phobias, including an intense fear of flying. As he himself once put it, "Basically, I'm afraid of everything in life, except filmmaking".
Place of Birth: Not available
Birthday: April 30, 1956
Deathday: N/A
Popularity:
Known For
The Boss of It All
2006-12-08
The Boss of It All
Overview: An IT company hires an actor to serve as the company's president in order to help the business get sold to a cranky Icelander.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: da
Release Date: 2006-12-08
Popularity:
Europa
1991-06-27
Europa
Overview: A young, idealist American gets a job as a train conductor for the Zentropa railway network in postwar, US-occupied Frankfurt. As various people try to take advantage of him, he soon finds his position politically sensitive, and gets caught up in a whirlpool of conspiracies and Nazi sympathisers.
Genres: Crime Drama Thriller
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1991-06-27
Popularity:
The Five Obstructions
2003-11-07
The Five Obstructions
Overview: Lars von Trier challenges his mentor, filmmaker Jørgen Leth, to remake Leth’s 1967 short film The Perfect Human five times, each with a different set of bizarre and challenging rules.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: da
Release Date: 2003-11-07
Popularity:
… But Film Is My Mistress
2010-05-12
… But Film Is My Mistress
Overview: Guided by Liv Ullmann and with commentaries from a number of prominent filmmakers for whom Bergman is and remains an important influence - such as Woody Allen, Olivier Assayas, Bernardo Bertolucci, Arnaud Desplechin, John Sayles, Martin Scorsese and Lars von Trier, the film provides a vivid portrait of the artist who in each new project found a challenge for himself and for the people he worked with - both actors and colleagues behind the camera.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: sv
Release Date: 2010-05-12
Popularity:
Epidemic
1987-09-11
Epidemic
Overview: A director and a screenwriter write a screenplay together about a globally spreading epidemic. Unbeknownst to them, an outbreak develops around them in the real world.
Genres: Drama Horror
Original Language: da
Release Date: 1987-09-11
Popularity:
Lars von Trier: The Burden From Donald Duck
2020-12-24
Lars von Trier: The Burden From Donald Duck
Overview: Lars von Trier was interviewed by Christian Lund at his home outside Copenhagen in November 2020.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: da
Release Date: 2020-12-24
Popularity:
The Early Years: Erik Nietzsche Part 1
2007-12-25
The Early Years: Erik Nietzsche Part 1
Overview: Erik Nietzsche is an intelligent but in many ways inexperienced shy young man who is convinced that he wants to be a film director. In the late 1970s, Erik is accepted by the Danish National Film School where he enters a world of angry and unhelpful tutors, weird fellow students and unwritten rules. In this both exhilarating and angst-provoking period for him, Erik feels increasingly like a foreigner in the film industry. Frequently, he is merely an observer of the absurdities that surround him. He encounters trade union disputes, falls in love and experiences self-assured empowered women who refuse to make a commitment. The film is a drama full of comedy - a sharp portrait of a conceited but entertaining world of film which we suspect our dogged young director will eventually conquer with his vision.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: da
Release Date: 2007-12-25
Popularity:
Tranceformer: A Portrait of Lars von Trier
1997-12-12
Tranceformer: A Portrait of Lars von Trier
Overview: A portrait of Denmark's most acclaimed and controversial director, Lars von Trier. A meeting with von Trier on a private level as well as with his film universe. Filmmaker Stig Björkman follow von Trier during a period of more than two years, meet him at work, at home and at leisure. Written by Fredrik Klasson
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: da
Release Date: 1997-12-12
Popularity:
Von Trier's 100 Eyes
2000-12-02
Von Trier's 100 Eyes
Overview: Although at first sight this might look like a simple ‘making of DANCER IN THE DARK’, the later developments in the film reveal the whole drama of Lars von Trier’s inner life during the shooting process. All his doubts and insecurities in collaborating with the crew and actors - especially actresses - are exposed. The biggest drama started when Björk walked off the set. Nobody knew whether she would be back or not. Admitting that he feels threatened by women, who can ‘make him feel embarrassed’, the director gives this documentary the nature of a personal diary. When he discusses the importance, purpose and beauty of the use of a hundred cameras in a certain sequence or the meaning of the Dogma 95 rules, the audience is witnessing the process of the artist’s search. Is the pain that the director went through during the shooting really visible in the final result, as Lars von Trier claims in this film? (from: http://www.idfa.nl/)
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2000-12-02
Popularity:
Colors
2013-12-30
Colors
Overview: The most suffocating is the awareness that nothing is happening. All the veins are drying without the blood running through them. I came to Barão Geraldo because things happen here. Here people love as much as dolls hang themselves and chicken are slaughtered to death. Would I still hang dolls and burn memories in the next 18 years? It astonishes me how less and less I do not care for things that are not my extension. Being my own destruction is the only way. Intimacy is a farewell. All I see is a lot water and all the colors are not enough. All forms of comunication are not enough for a lot of water.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: pt
Release Date: 2013-12-30
Popularity:
Dogville Confessions
2004-06-27
Dogville Confessions
Overview: A documentary on the creation of Lars von Trier's fascinating drama Dogville starring amongst others Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany, Stellan Skarsgård, Ben Gazzara, Lauren Bacall and James Caan. Showcasing behind-the-scenes footage and providing a much deeper look inside the world of filmmaking including some moments of insight that are hard to believe.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2004-06-27
Popularity:
Side by Side
2012-08-19
Side by Side
Overview: Since the invention of cinema, the standard format for recording moving images has been film. Over the past two decades, a new form of digital filmmaking has emerged, creating a groundbreaking evolution in the medium. Keanu Reeves explores the development of cinema and the impact of digital filmmaking via in-depth interviews with Hollywood masters, such as James Cameron, David Fincher, David Lynch, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Steven Soderbergh, and many more.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2012-08-19
Popularity:
A Conversation with Lars von Trier
2005-10-17
A Conversation with Lars von Trier
Overview: Filmmaker Eva Ziemsen was determined to interview renowned film director, Lars von Trier. Her provocative offer, to conduct the interview nude, led to a revealing and truthful conversation about filmmaking.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-10-17
Popularity:
Trier's Element
1991-01-01
Trier's Element
Overview: Behind-the-scenes documentary about Lars von Trier's latest movie Europa (1991). Also features unique footage of Trier and cast shooting a bit of footage for Trier's 30-year project "Dimension".
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1991-01-01
Popularity:
Portrait of Lars von Trier
1991-01-01
Portrait of Lars von Trier
Overview: Danish documentary from TV2 in 1991.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1991-01-01
Popularity:
Im Laboratorium des Doktor von Trier: Zurück zur Magie des Kinos
1998-01-01
Im Laboratorium des Doktor von Trier: Zurück zur Magie des Kinos
Overview: German/French TV documentary portraying Danish film director Lars von Trier.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-01-01
Popularity:
Filmbyen, la nouvelle Mecque du cinéma ?
2007-01-01
Filmbyen, la nouvelle Mecque du cinéma ?
Overview: Filmbyen is a cinema-town created by Lars Von Trier (director) et Peter Aalbek Jensen (producer). They founded together a company whiwh regroups all the cinema business industry. That documentary retraces the Filmbyen story, how it functions, the artistic and economic issues that arise.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2007-01-01
Popularity:
I Am Curious, Film
1995-10-28
I Am Curious, Film
Overview: The Scandinavian entry in the BFI's Century of Cinema series of documentaries
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: sv
Release Date: 1995-10-28
Popularity:
Lars From 1 - 10
1998-01-01
Lars From 1 - 10
Overview: Breaking The Waves director Lars Von Trier invents his own set of rules for filmmaking.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-01-01
Popularity:
Ennenstadt Europa – The Making of The Element of Crime
1984-05-31
Ennenstadt Europa – The Making of The Element of Crime
Overview: Behind the scenes documentary of Lars von Trier's The Element of Crime (1984).
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: da
Release Date: 1984-05-31
Popularity:
Arteholic
2014-10-16
Arteholic
Overview: Palm Springs resident and film and art legend Udo Kier is "arteholic". He lives, breathes and makes art and at times he is even a living art piece. In this playful docu-fiction, we follow Udo on a road trip through famous museums in Frankfurt, Cologne, Paris, Copenhagen and Berlin, and eavesdrop as he chats with artists including Marcel Odenbach, Rosemarie Trockel, Jonathan Meese and Tobias Rehberger and filmmakers such as Nicolette Krebitz and Lars von Trier.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: de
Release Date: 2014-10-16
Popularity:
Menthe: The Benefactor
1979-01-01
Menthe: The Benefactor
Overview: Based on the sadomasochistic novel by Dominique Aury, "Story of O", tells the story of a voluntary female submission.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: da
Release Date: 1979-01-01
Popularity:
Creation of the Kingdom of Exodus
2022-11-20
Creation of the Kingdom of Exodus
Overview: Get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the creative challenges Lars von Trier presents his cast and crew to bring his vision to life from script to shoot and to the screen at home.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: da
Release Date: 2022-11-20
Popularity:
Plankton Salesmen
2017-10-29
Plankton Salesmen
Overview: A nostalgic look at the birth and death of arthouse film distribution in the early 2000s in Russia. The story of the Cinema Without Borders company and its two founders, Sam Klebanov and Anton Mazurov.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: ru
Release Date: 2017-10-29
Popularity:
Ironie und Gottessuche - Das Kino des Lars von Trier
1998-01-01
Ironie und Gottessuche - Das Kino des Lars von Trier
Overview: Documentary on Lars von Trier
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1998-01-01
Popularity:
En invitation fra Lars von Trier
2015-01-12
En invitation fra Lars von Trier
Overview:
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: da
Release Date: 2015-01-12
Popularity:
The Name of This Film Is Dogme95
2000-11-01
The Name of This Film Is Dogme95
Overview: The Name of this Film is Dogme95 is an irreverent documentary exploring the origins of Dogme95, the most influential movement in world cinema for a generation. The film tells how a 'brotherhood' of four Danish directors armed with a radical Manifesto, has inspired, outraged and provoked filmmakers and filmgoers the world over. The rules of Dogme95 take filmmaking back to its brass-tacks - stories must be set in the here and now; the films must be shot on location, with a handheld camera, using natural light, and direct sound; the rules forbid murders and weapons (staples of the much-loved action-movie genre); and, most amusingly, the director must not be credited (that holds also for the director of The Name of this Film is Dogme95...).
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2000-11-01
Popularity:
Goodbye, I'm Kurt
1969-05-03
Goodbye, I'm Kurt
Overview: A story of 6-year-old Alberte who decides to leave her parents, because they are always busy working or watching TV, and don’t have time to do fun things with her. She moves to the boat right outside her house, and decides that her new name is Kurt. She has always wanted to be a boy.
Genres: Drama Family
Original Language: da
Release Date: 1969-05-03
Popularity:
Good Night, Dear
1968-05-11
Good Night, Dear
Overview: Lars von Trier himself has one of the lead roles in this short film about a bank employee being subjected to a brutal robbery.
Genres: Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-05-11
Popularity:
Kaptajn Klyde og hans venner vender tilbage
1980-12-26
Kaptajn Klyde og hans venner vender tilbage
Overview:
Genres: Family
Original Language: da
Release Date: 1980-12-26
Popularity:
The Kingdom
1994-11-24
The Kingdom
Overview: Set in the neurosurgical ward of Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet, the city and country's main hospital, nicknamed "Riget", a number of characters, staff and patients alike, encounter bizarre phenomena, both human and supernatural.
Genres: Drama Fantasy Horror Mystery
Original Language: da
Release Date: 1994-11-24
Popularity:
The Making of Europa
1991-12-31
The Making of Europa
Overview: Documentary about the making of Lars von Trier's 1991 film.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1991-12-31
Popularity:
The Element of Crime
1984-05-14
The Element of Crime
Overview: Fisher, an ex-detective, decides to take one final case when a mysterious serial killer claims the lives of several young girls. Fisher, unable to find the culprit, turns to Osbourne, a writer who was once respected for his contributions to the field of criminology. Fisher begins to use Osbourne's technique, which involves empathizing with serial killers; however, as the detective becomes increasingly engrossed in this method, things take a disturbing turn.
Genres: Crime Drama Science Fiction
Original Language: da
Release Date: 1984-05-14
Popularity:
The Orchid Gardener
1977-05-06
The Orchid Gardener
Overview: A young, mentally ill man, a visual artist in crisis Victor Marse (Lars von Trier) meets two nurses (Eliza and her girlfriend) during his stay in a sanatorium. These nurses are obvious lesbians. Victor lives with Eliza and her son. He imagines another woman when he is roaming at a coast. He pretends committing a suicide but Eliza does not react to it. Every moment, he stays in front of a blank canvas and thinks. Meanwhile he dresses into Nazi clothes or into women dresses, then he leaves to go to the cinema, and abuses and probably kills a small girl. His masochistic affair with Eliza lasts; he is close to shooting her with a gun but instead she takes out a whip. Victor goes along the streets then he lies naked in front of the canvas on which he has left his bloody fingerprints. After this he drives a funeral car to his work - he is employed in a garden where orchids are grown. Eliza is now the past and in the end, Victor might be dead as someone drives a cross into the ground.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: da
Release Date: 1977-05-06
Popularity:
Trespassing Bergman
2013-08-28
Trespassing Bergman
Overview: In the sixties, Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) built a house on the remote island of Fårö, located in the Baltic Sea, and left Stockholm to live there. When he died, the house was preserved. A group of very special film buffs, came from all over the world, travel to Fårö in search of the genius and his legacy. (An abridged version of Bergman's Video, 2012.)
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2013-08-28
Popularity:
Bergman: A Year in a Life
2018-07-12
Bergman: A Year in a Life
Overview: The year 1957 was one of the most prolific for the Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman: he shot two films, released two of his most celebrated films and produced four plays and a TV movie while juggling with a complicated private life.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: sv
Release Date: 2018-07-12
Popularity:
To Each His Own Cinema
2007-10-31
To Each His Own Cinema
Overview: Commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, "To Each His Own Cinema" brought together 33 of the world's pre-eminent filmmakers to produce short pieces exploring the multifarious facets of cinema and their perspective on the state of their chosen artform in the early 21st century.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2007-10-31
Popularity:
Living the Light: Robby Müller
2018-09-20
Living the Light: Robby Müller
Overview: For her extraordinary film essay, Living the Light, Director and Director of Photography Claire Pijman had access to the thousands of Hi8 video diaries, pictures and Polaroids that Müller photographed while he was at work on one of the more than 70 features he shot throughout his career; often with long term collaborators such as Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch and Lars von Trier. The film intertwines these images with excerpts of his oeuvre, thus creating a fluid and cinematic continuum. In his score for Living the Light Jim Jarmusch gives this wide raging scale of life and art an additional musical voice.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2018-09-20
Popularity:
The Purified
2003-01-17
The Purified
Overview: The filmmakers who created the Dogme Manifesto reflect, argue, and watch clips of their own films.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2003-01-17
Popularity:
FreeDogme
2000-01-01
FreeDogme
Overview: Marie Berthelius and Roger Narbonne conference call Lars von Trier, Win Wenders, Lone Scherfig, and Jean-Marc Barr and are also linked by digital video. The discussion is about the Dogme 95 film movement and how technological transformations affect cinematic practice.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2000-01-01
Popularity:
The Kingdom II
1997-11-01
The Kingdom II
Overview: Set in the neurosurgical ward of Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet, the city and country's main hospital, nicknamed "Riget", "Riget" means "the realm" or "the kingdom" and leads one to think of "dødsriget", the realm of the dead.
Genres: Comedy Drama Fantasy Horror Mystery
Original Language: da
Release Date: 1997-11-01
Popularity:
The Exhibited
2000-03-13
The Exhibited
Overview: Jesper Jargil's documentary portrait of a bizarre piece of Danish experimental theater directed by Lars von Trier.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2000-03-13
Popularity:
Looking Back At The Idiots
2005-04-28
Looking Back At The Idiots
Overview: In 2005 the cast and crew with Lars Von Trier gatherd to talk about Lars Von Trier's Dogma film The Idiots.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: da
Release Date: 2005-04-28
Popularity:
The Humiliated
1998-10-30
The Humiliated
Overview: A very intimate look on Lars von Trier and his cast and crew, during the production of "The Idiots".
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-10-30
Popularity:
Ernst-Hugo
2008-12-28
Ernst-Hugo
Overview: A gripping portrait of the dramatic, extravagant and ego-centric actor Ernst-Hugo Järegård (1928-1998) who would always be at the center of everything. On the out side he was a hailed and confident diva. In his solitude he was plagued by insomnia, anxiety and a complicated relationship with his father. Includes Ernst-Hugo Järegårds last performance "Aktörens läte/ The sound of the actor" (1998) and "Abstract Poker" (1971).
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: sv
Release Date: 2008-12-28
Popularity:
Wag the Dogma
2001-06-11
Wag the Dogma
Overview: Quixotic Martino Sclavi dives deep into the Danish film scene to uncover the truth behind the Dogme 95 Manifesto, along the way the film systematically breaks each and every one of the Dogme 'vows of chastity' - employing special effects, comedy sound design, and a singing narrator to boot.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2001-06-11
Popularity:
The Idiots Who Started The Party
2020-10-13
The Idiots Who Started The Party
Overview: Danish film has never felt stronger on the international stage than it did with the Dogme films, which at the world premiere of 'The Party' and 'The Idiots' during the Cannes Film Festival in 1998 put Denmark on the film world map. Another eight films under the strict Dogme rules followed and created great international careers for several of the talents in front of and behind the handheld camera. Thomas Vinterberg, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, Paprika Steen, Ulrich Thomsen, Trine Dyrholm, Iben Hjejle, Anders W. Berthelsen, Lone Scherfig, Sonja Richter and many more of the country's greatest filmmakers look back on when Denmark became Dogme.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: da
Release Date: 2020-10-13
Popularity:
The Idiots
1998-04-28
The Idiots
Overview: A mix of home-video and documentary styles about a group of young people who have decided to get to know their “inner-idiots” and thus not only facing and breaking their outer appearance but also their inner.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: da
Release Date: 1998-04-28
Popularity:
100 Cameras: Capturing Lars von Trier's Vision
2000-01-01
100 Cameras: Capturing Lars von Trier's Vision
Overview: A behind-the-scenes look at the making of "Dancer in the Dark" by Lars von Trier.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2000-01-01
Popularity:
The Missing Films
The Missing Films
Overview: Making film wears down director Lars von Trier, but he is not able to live without them. In the documentary film this Danish auteur’s all-consuming love affection for film is portrayed. Now he is standing at a cross-road. While film as we know it is dying.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: da
Release Date:
Popularity:
The Copyist
1999-11-25
The Copyist
Overview: It is the young Christian Tafdrup's (Tafdrup himself) greatest wish to become a real film director. He joins the reputable company Zentropa, where he is even lucky enough to meet the famous Lars von Trier (von Trier himself), who does not have many positive words for Tafdrup. Tafdrup tells aspiring young women that he is actually a director, and he therefore gets them to show up for auditions
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: da
Release Date: 1999-11-25
Popularity:
Inside Björk
2003-08-23
Inside Björk
Overview: Following the career of Björk, this documentary looks at her early musical career with local icelandic bands, her acclaimed stint in The Sugarcubes, and her massive success as a free-spirited solo artist.
Genres: Documentary Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2003-08-23
Popularity: