Lars von Trier and Nicolas Winding Refn are two of the most famous Danish filmmakers working today. Of course, “famous” is maybe too strong a word, given that they both work strictly in the arthouse vein, Trier with his torturous Antichrist, Dancer in the Dark, and Melancholia, and Refn with his blood-soaked neon in Drive and Only God Forgives. But, while the two of them do know each other, only Refn was at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, to promote his new model world-as-Hell film The Neon Demon. During the press conference for that film, he discussed plenty of stuff, but the most salacious of it came when he was asked about Trier.
Of course, the reporter who asked him to comment on von Trier knew what he was doing. Refn’s mother, Anders Refn, is actually von Trier’s longtime editor, and one of the producers of Neon Demon had formerly been a longtime producer of von Trier’s films. And Refn and von Trier have exchanged words through the press before, as pointed out by the Playlist. It all began, as has most of the drama in the indie filmmaking world, with the words of von Trier during his own press conference after the Cannes screening of Melancholia, during which he made jokes about Nazis. Refn commented on this in the past, saying that von Trier’s words were despicable, a thing to which von Trier responded, “I’ve known him since he was a kid! Fuck him.”
After that, Refn said in an interview that the two of them were fine, and would get along, but that von Trier’s “getting old and his comedy routine is a bit tiresome.” That had been it, until this most recent press conference, when a reporter asked why both he and von Trier tended to “push” actors. Refn responded, “Well, Lars is Lars. He’s over the hill,” but it didn’t end there. Amid nervous, barely contained laughter, Refn then told the crowd that von Trier has “done a lot of drugs,” and that he tried to sleep with Refn’s wife, but has since found “some other slut,” which, outdated term aside, kind of implies that Refn thinks his own wife is a slut?
Anyway, watch the whole clip below. It’s long, more than 40 minutes, but definitely worth it if you’re a fan of Refn’s previous work. He talks of The Neon Demon at length, especially about the strength of working with women.
Watch the trailer for The Neon Demon below. It hits U.S. theaters June 24.