“For a long time I thought I was a Jew and I was happy to be a Jew,” Melancholia director Lars von Trier said this morning, “then I met (In A Better World director) Susanne Bier and I wasn’t so happy. But then I found out I was actually a Nazi. My family were German. And that also gave me some pleasure. What can I say? I understand Hitler…I sympathize with him a bit.”

(l. to r.) Charlotte Gainsbourgh, Lars Von Trier, Kirsten Dunst at this morning’s Melancholia press conference.

“I don’t mean I’m in favor of World War II and I’m not against Jews, not even Susanne Bier. In fact I’m very much in favor of them. All Jews. Well, Israeli is a pain the ass but…now how can I get out of this sentence? Ok. I’m a Nazi.”

Please, please don’t take this guy seriously. Okay, go ahead…what do I care? But he lives to say stuff like this. He’s an artist, a madman…unbalanced. And he loves getting this kind of attention.

Here’s a festival video link.

Update: Von Trier has apologized for his Nazi comments. “If I have hurt someone this morning by the words I said at the press conference, I sincerely apologize,” Von Trier said in a statement. “I am not antisemitic or racially prejudiced in any way, nor am I a Nazi.”