Article: ARE WE HAVING 'VON' YET? FILM HE'S BEEN CRIPPLED BY DEPRESSION, ACCUSED OF MISOGYNY AND HAD A FALLING OUT WITH BJORK. NO WONDER THE ICONOCLASTIC FILM-MAKER LARS VON TRIER HAS TURNED TO COMEDY FOR HIS NEXT PROJECT. 'I WANTED TO LIGHTEN UP A BIT,' HE TELLS STUART HUSBAND

Received wisdom states that you should be wary of film directors with a 'von' in their name, as it invariably bespeaks a tendency toward the despotic. Think of Josef von Sternberg stalking his sets in kinky boots and wielding a riding crop, or Erich von Stroheim glaring imperiously through his monocle. Many people - not least the director himself - have been happy to add Lars von Trier to this brotherhood of auteurs with hauteur. The work that's brought him acclaim and derision in equal measure, and made him Denmark's best known film-maker since Carl Theodor Dreyer, six decades ago, may have varied widely in style - from the early doom-haunted Euro-noir of The Element of Crime and Europa, ...

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