Lars von Trier is one of the few creative people on this planet our entire staff loves, and we each have spent several long nights worshipping at the altar that is his incredible body of work. Now, according to the director’s first interview in years, it seems the golden age of LVT may be coming to an end.
Speaking with a Danish publication known as Politiken, Lars Von Trier has revealed that he spent a good portion of 2014 seeking help to conquer his addiction to drugs and alcohol. The filmmaker is now sober, and he feels it is because of his newfound sobriety that he will no longer be able to create. LVT said he had to drink a bottle of vodka daily to help him enter a “parallel world” he felt he needed to be in to be creative, and that almost all of his films were written under the influence. Nymphomaniac is the only exception to this fact, and it took him far longer to complete than any of his other projects. For example, Dogville was written in 12 days, but the script for Nymphomaniac took 18 months to complete.
The director worried that now, because he was clean, he would only produce “shitty films.”
“I don’t know if I can make any more films, and that worries me,” he said, adding: “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?”
You can read more excerpts of Lars’ conversation at Politiken. If your translator doesn’t work automatically, The Guardian has a lovely write-up that you can enjoy as well. We’ll bring you more on Lars’ plans for the future as soon as additional information becomes available.
