Lars von Trier Quotes

The work of art assumes the existence of the perfect spectator, and is indifferent to the fact that no such person exists.

I didn't want people to sit there and watch 10 minutes of film, and all they write about is 48 frames.

If people ask me, 'For you, what is your most important film?' I have a feeling that they all sort of want me to answer with one of the Bergman films. But I cannot choose.

I am extremely eclectic in choosing my films as an audience, and as a direct result of that, I love exploring, I love cinema, and I love learning from different experiences.

I make films that are what they are. Some people like them, and some people don't.

As a filmmaker, I make the films that I love, that are in my heart. That's what I care about.

It's quite strange in fashion, and it's probably the same with movies and acting - the big choice is between being radical, making a choice that will be more specific that will reach less people but will be very strong and very directional, and making a choice that will be more popular and catch the interest of a large group of people. Sometimes people are trying to push you in one direction or another.

Reviews are all bullshit, because they always change. When House of 1000 Corpses came out, all the reviews were awful. It was impossible to find a review better than "The worst movie ever made." And now I'll see more-modern magazines, and sometimes they'll re-review things, and I'll read this great review for it. It's the same thing with White Zombie! People talk about "Oh, White Zombie, these classic records. Why don't you do them now?" Everyone hated those records when they came out! The reviews were terrible.

Quentin Tarantino faced the same backlash when his films came out until eventually people felt they were actually much smarter.

I think that you’ve got to make something that pleases you and hope that other people feel the same way.

I'm always a little skeptical when I hear people promoting a film and they say it has something for everyone.

I was playing the game where I was going to be a great TV or film writer some day and there was nothing else that I thought about, including other people.

There are a lot of movies that are badly made that I love, and there are a lot of movies that are just beautifully made but I don't like them. And critics have a tendency - that's all they focus on, which is, "I like it. I don't like it. It's good. It's bad."

I don't think you should criticize people's music because maybe it just isn't for you.

We all have the people we follow on Tumblr whose opinions or taste we respect. And I think because you see so much more variety of opinions and everything on the internet, it's less decided that something is good or bad. It's more like we all just sort of like what we like.

A lot of people love Tarantino’s films because they’re spectacular, they’re beautiful, they’re wonderful. He hires the best group of artists - not only actors, but everyone around: best photographers, best set designers, best production designers, costume designers. A lot of people love his films because they’re bloody, they’re gory, they’re savage. But very few people see that he’s a very political director.

I really respect people who, while they only do films, they have a wide repertoire and a wide thematic array of films they do.

I don't like filmmakers to tell people how they should react to their movies. I absolutely have favorites, and I have others that I'm mortified by, but I keep that to myself. I think I've managed to find some very interesting things that I've been very satisfied with recently. I don't know if that's gonna keep going.

People will keep on taking them for theorists, when all they wanted was to paint in gay, bright colours, like the old masters.

There are two things you can't argue in film: comedy and eroticism. If something doesn't make you laugh, no one can tell you why it's funny, and it's difficult to reason someone out of an erection.

If you're not connected emotionally to a story, then you're dead. You're as a filmmaker really just opening the door for people to lose interest and their minds to wander, for them to start picking it apart. That's what people will do, people will naturally tear stuff apart because they're trapped with it, they paid money for it. And they came into it wanting to love it. So all you can really do is piss off the audience. Unless you do things right.

There are films that I don't like, and then someone will come up to me and say it's their favorite movie. The movies belong to the people. You make them and you put them out. For me, I love the process of making films. For me, my favorite film is always my next one.

Film is, to me, just unimportant. But people are very important.

My films are misinterpreted all the time. I don't mind that. Everybody's films are misinterpreted. But there's no malice or stupidity in the people that misinterpret them. You know what you do, but someone else sees it, and they want to talk about it or write about it, and so they misinterpret them.

I haven't watched it [the film 'Pink Floyd at Pompeii'] in years. I find it excruciating.