Lars von Trier

Lars von Trier (né 1956) is a world-known Danish screen writer and film director. Lars von Trier was educated at the Danish Film School and his films have always been marked by experiments and hypnotizing aesthetics. Moreover, his films are often placed under a set of rules, which means that the conventional aesthetics are crossed out and new ways are being explored. Throughout his career Lars von Trier has changed his narrative focus from the predominantly aesthetic to the more deeply psychological, although many of his productions contain both. In 1995 Lars von Trier and his film colleagues, Thomas Vinterberg, Kristian Levring and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, developed a manifesto for a new cinematic movement which they named: Dogme 95.The purpose of the Dogme 95 was to emphasize the acting and the narrative rather than the medium. They did so by means of a number of ‘chastity vows’. In 2000 Lars von Trier won La Palme d'Or for “Dancer in the Dark” and in 2009 he received the Nordic Council’s Film Prize for his controversial film “Antichrist”. Von Trier continues his idiosyncratic and courageous approach to film-making in his latest release, Nyphomaniac, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg. July 2014 will see his film The Boss of it All brought to the Soho theatre following a sell-out run directed by Jack Mcnamara at the Edinburgh festival last year.