"Lars von Trier is like the boy who wants to impress the mother by putting his finger in his own shit."
by Miriam BalePage 5 of 5
The L: I have to talk to you about food. It's a great food movie, like Jeanne Dielman...
LG: [Whispers reverently.] Oh, Jeanne Dielman, I love. I went to a film festival once and saw Jeanne Dielman at 9 o'clock in the morning. And I was hypnotized, mesmerized by this, for hours. Now that you are quoting it, I also used a lot of Jeanne Dielman for I Am Love. Of course, we don't have the gravitas and the austerity of Chantal Akerman. But the lesson, we tried to get the lesson of Chantal Akerman.
The L: So, do you cook?
LG: I am a cook.
The L: Do you see similarities between the cooking process and filmmaking?
LG: It's about collaborators, it's about tools, and it's about, most importantly, shaping a new form out of the natural ingredients.
The L: You've made such an epic, with this film, and you're young. Do you go bigger or smaller next?
LG: I would like to make something like Passage to India. E.M. Forster, but... rock'n'roll.
The L: You mentioned Jeanne Dielman and Minnelli, what other films do you like?
LG: I love Showgirls. That's a feminist movie.
The L: [Laughs] I prefer Basic Instinct, as a feminist film.
LG: Watch it again.
The L: Showgirls?
LG: You're right in some ways. But Showgirls is subversive, completely subversive. It's like Lacan would say, woman doesn't exist. It's a construct. And you see the process of constructing this identity and how the women can rub off this identity.
The L: Is a drag queen movie a feminist movie? That elimination, that woman doesn't exist?
LG: No it's against that concept. It's not a drag queen movie. Watch it again! Cahiers du Cinema dedicated like forty pages.
The L: I know. My favorite filmmaker, Jacques Rivette, loves that film, but I don't know...
LG: Since you mention Jacques Rivette. La belle noiseuse, that's a good movie.
The L: I know! The way the body is used in that movie!
LG: I want to make a movie like that. That's what I want to do.
The L: From a clothing movie to a body movie? You know who you should meet? The costume designer and costume scholar Deborah Landis.
LG: Deborah Nadoolman Landis?
The L: You know her?
LG: I don't know her, but I know her. She's a genius. You have no idea how much I love her. And John Landis. You cannot believe how much I love John Landis. He's one of my.... Oh my God.
The L: Really? Do you like An American Werewolf in London?
LG: Masterpiece of all time.
