Danish director Lars Von Trier regrets the comments he made about Nazism during the Cannes Film Festival, and blamed his native country's humour.
5 July 2011 Lars Von Trier regrets making "foolish" comments about Nazism at the 'Melancholia' press conference at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
The director believes "Danish humour" was to blame for the comments – in which he said he was a "Nazi" after years of thinking he was Jewish – and believes he was "stupid" to have said it in conversation with journalists.
He said: "I've learned I should not go to big press conferences because when these things come out of my mouth, especially with this stupid, stupid Danish humour not everybody understands it. I regret that I was so foolish."
He now claims calling himself a Nazi was because he recently discovered his biological father was German.
He told Empire magazine: "It was just to clarify that I thought I was Jewish and then I found out I was a 'Nazi'."
He continued: "I believe there is a little bit of Nazi in all of us, and there is also a little bit of a human being in Hitler. I think if you deny that, then I think it's dangerous."
