Björk's "Danish Director" Statement
Sunday, October 15, 2017 at 11:00AM By Nathaniel R
Catherine Deneuve, Björk, and Von Trier at Cannes (2000)
The floodgates have opened post Weinstein and now everyone wants to speak out. This morning Björk issued a statement about her experience working with "a Danish director," a hilariously coy non-naming of names since she's only starred in one movie, Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark (2000) after which she never appeared in a movie again, unless you count her performance art collaboration with her then-boyfriend Matthew Barney on Drawing Restraint (2009). Which, well, the sexual violence was onscreen in that one with Barney and Björk carving each other up while naked underwater and turning into whales or some such. You know how that happens.
Here is her statement which is worth parsing due to its unexpected Dogville allusion...
It's no surprise that she uses the word "game" in regards to Lars von Trier's on set bullying. It's never been a secret that he's extremely difficult to work with or that he plays sadistic games with actors (he's a bit Hitchcockian in that way) or that he enjoys being difficult but thinks of it as playful. See: The Five Obstructions.
But it's her reference to Lars Von Trier's Dogville that's the eyebrow-raiser here. She writes:
The town of DOGVILLE piles on the abuse to out of towner Grace (Nicole Kidman)
i am sure of that the film he made after was based on his experiences with me. because i was the first one that stood up to him and didn't let him get away with it
Dogville, his excellent experimental film with Nicole Kidman is about many things (America, abuse, mob mentality, revenge, hypocrisy, religious piety, rape, xenophobia) but we never considered that it might also be about Dancer in the Dark and Björk!
She follows with:
and in my opinion he had a more fair and meaningful relationship with his actresses after my confrontation so there is hope
There is, of course, no way she could really know this. That said Nicole Kidman, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Uma Thurman, and Kirsten Dunst don't seem as bitter about their Lars von Trier experiences as Björk always has (her disdain for Von Trier is well known). Thurman and Gainsbourg have even returns for another film so perhaps she's right. Von Trier has not been shy about his own mental health issues (Melancholia is one of the greatest films ever made about depression) and at least Kidman and Dunst appear to be able to keep him in perspective / in line if their press conference appearances are indication.
We'll let Kiki have the last "word" with her famous reaction to von Trier infamously talking himself into 'Persona Non Grata' status at the Cannes press conference for Melancholia (2011)
Reader Comments (12)
Let's also not forget The Juniper Tree and Pret-a-Porter. But of course it's obvious who she's talking about. I'm most curious about the statement that Von Trier touched her inappropriately. Is this a new allegation, or something she's talked about before?
The actresses that came after Bjork knew what they were getting themselves into, as the stories of his on-set behaviour and psychological manipulations on set were fully out there. It was perceived to his way to create the atmosphere to get the performances he did. Actresses knew they were probably going to face some form of bullying or mental torture working with Von Trier and went along with it because they felt he could draw out an extraordinary performance from them. And that was usually the case.
I think Bjork, being an inexperienced actress should never have been allowed to work with someone as hard-core as Von Trier. The actresses after her were all pros able and willing to handle his manipulative directing style. Telling that Kidman never went back for seconds though, even after he repeatedly asked her to work with him again, and they kept in contact. Guess she felt that once was enough with the Von Trier experience.
Delete your comment.
Bob: I teach argumentation and composition classes to first year college students. Please enroll.
Oh Lars.... you're in deep shit.
Isn't this part of the reason why Helena Bonham Carter passed on 'Breaking the Waves'?
Lars von Trier is a sick man.
Please stop with all the 'artistic justifications' for bullying and humiliating actresses.
Manipulating a human being into feeling bad and harassing her sexually has nothing to do with directing.
It's sadism and a perversion, not 'art'.
In his old interviews Lars says, that he's on Prozac and he's an alcoholic.
He was in hospital for clinical depression a few times.
He has serious mental health problems.
Many people quit working with him, even Anthony Dod Mantle.
If Lars continues with his crap, he'll be the next Harvey.
Lars von Trier dropped Dod Mantle cause he's a shitty DoP - who kept doing his usual ugly shtick of dutch angles, saturated colors, jerky in and out zooming, wonky handheld.
Tippi Hedren also tweeted about her experience with Hitchcock.
It would be interesting to hear Catherine Deneuve's perspective...has anyone ever asked her?
Deneuve was/is on
von Trier's side - against Bjork.
She writes about it in detail in her memoir - thought Bjork was unreasonable and unprofessional.
The whole cast and crew was on Trier's side in the conflict 'cause Bjprk was behaving so erratically.
I don't believe this story for second.
Bjork was toxic, ran away for several days during shooting, left the film crew scratching their heads - trying desperately to shoot around her scenes, not knowing if she would ever return.
She basically tried to and, almost succeed in, killing the movie.
She also threatened to pull all the music and songs from the movie!
As she had written all the music and songs, she owned the rights to it, and could do whatever she wanted with it.
So for a while it looked as if they had no lead actress and no music for their musical!
Bjork was not used being to told what to do, and that pissed her off.
Two strong personalities clashing!
I don't believe her for a second von Trier sexually abused her. Emotionally abused her?
perhaps. Did he manipulate her? No doubt.
Wrong on his part? Maybe.
But he coaxed a helluva performance out of her.
In the 'Dancer in the Dark' making-of, there's a moment where the crew shows 'masks' of Björk made for another actress to 'play' her, in the case Björk didn't come back to the shooting!