Even when he’s taken a vow of silence, Lars von Trier still manages to make headlines, thanks in part to the nature of his last feature: the two-part erotic epic Nymphomaniac. Following his controversy at Cannes, the director has now lifted his commitment to avoid interviews, revealing a personal struggle that might affect his output of new work.
Speaking to Politiken (via The Guardian), the filmmaker reveals his battle with drugs and alcohol and that he’s now been sober for 90 days. “I don’t know if I can make any more films, and that worries me,” the Danish director says. “There is no creative expression of artistic value that has ever been produced by ex-drunkards and ex-drug-addicts. Who the hell would bother with a Rolling Stones without booze or with a Jimi Hendrix without heroin?”
When it comes to his past work, he says that a “daily bottle of vodka” was the key into entering a “parallel world” of creativity, and all of his films — aside from Nymphomaniac, which took 18 sober months to write — were scripted under the influence. Despite having the fear that this sobriety would lead to only “shitty films” he recently announced plans for a new TV project, one “without precedent,” so we’ll have to wait and see if this newfound path for the helmer means we’ve seen his last work. In the meantime, watch a naked von Trier’s revealing interview with Politiken.
What do you think about the director’s comments? Do you believe we’ll see another film from him?