The von Trier Scandal

The Cannes film festival is all abuzz right now. Unfortunately, it's not for the films, but for the controversial ramblings of director Lars von Trier. During his press conference for the film "Melancholia", he let loose some serious diarrhea of the mouth, stating (among other things)...

"I thought I was a Jew for a long time and was very happy being a Jew ...... Then it turned out that I was not a Jew ...... I found out that I was really a Nazi which also gave me some pleasure."

As a result, he was declared persona non grata by the Cannes board of directors. Here's my "2 cents" on the matter, which I just copied from a blog comment I posted:

He really did cross the line with those remarks. Why did these things even cross his mind to say?? That’s really disturbing to me. Also, his attack on Susanne Bier, Jews and Israel was uncalled for, no matter how jokingly he said it. It really takes away from the art, which is what Cannes is about. We should have been talking about the film and performances of Kirsten Dunst and others, but instead we are talking about this idiot’s sick idea of a joke.

The truly sad thing is the impact it will have on the cast and crew of the film. Everyone knows that he is an attention whore, but people like Kirsten Dunst don't deserve to have their Oscar chances ruined by such publicity stunts.