At the Cannes photocall for the Lars von Trier-directed Melancholia, Kirsten Dunst breezed through as a (mostly) polished-up version of her usual grungy self in a sunshiney golden dress, red lipstick, and tastefully restrained jewelry. I do like the cut of this dress and the fabric is gorgeous as well, but something about how it’s put together (the waist?) seems a little bit matronly. Still, Kiki pulls it off and manages to look rather endearing here.

That is, she looks pretty good until we get to the feet. Why bother with a manicure without a pedicure to match? Also, I’m not loving these sandals, which probably cost more than most of my shoes combined but look like they came from Walmart.

Also present at the photocall was Kiki’s Melancholia co-star, Charlotte Gainsbourg, who is quite pregnant and (presumably) deemphasizing her bump in an all black outfit. Somehow, she pulls it off without looking like a douche (unlike, say, the hattastic Adrien Brody). How to explain this discrepancy? I’ve got no idea except to point towards the fact that Charlotte is French, so she should be allowed to wear black in Cannes.

Much further along on the bad behavior scale would be Danish director Lars von Trier, who “pulled a Mel Gibson” by turning a Cannes press conference into a rather tasteless joke about how he’s a Nazi who loves Jews but sympathizes with Hitler. All of the following verbal diarrhea arrived in response to a question about von Trier’s Germanic ancestry:

“For a long time I thought I was a Jew and I was happy to be a Jew,” [von Trier] began, “then I met (Danish and Jewish 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.”

Von Trier qualified that “I don’t mean I’m in favor of World War II and I’m not against Jews, not even Susanne Bier” before digging himself deeper. “In fact I’m very much in favor of them. All Jews. Well, Israel is a pain in the ass but…”

As Melancholia stars Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg, sitting on either side of Von Trier, stared at him agog, the director paused.

“Now how can I get out of this sentence? Ok. I’m a Nazi.”

It was a grandiose performance by European cinema’s premiere enfant terrible as Von Trier managed to shock just about everyone in the room. And also made them laugh with the sort of chuckle that gets caught in the throat.

The Nazi comments came at the end of a sprawling routine in which Von Trier said his new movie “may be crap…there’s quite a big possibility that it might not be worth seeing” and mused that his next project with Dunst and Gainsbourg would be a 3 to 4 hour porn film “with lots of uncomfortable sex.”

Von Trier’s deadpan delivery and cheerful cherub-like smile hinted to the audience that everything was one big joke.

Certainly no one took the director seriously when, asked if he would like to do a film on a larger scale, answered: “Yes. We Nazis like to do things on a big scale. Maybe I could do The Final Solution.”

[From Hollywood Reporter]

Of course, it’s always wise to never take anything seriously if it comes out of von Trier’s mouth, but I do believe he’s gone too far with this little off-topic rant. There’s such a thing as being “politically incorrect” and then there’s also such a thing as being “an insensitive, unfunny jerk.” Not to mention a self-indulgent, pretentious circle jerk as well. By the way, here’s the trailer for Melancholia, which is billed as “a beautiful movie about the end of the world” and the cast of which includes Alexander Skarsgard and Kiefer Sutherland.

Photos courtesy of WENN