When Terrence Malick won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2011 with “The Tree of Life,” it was one of the few times award juries actually recognized one of the best movies of the year. The runner-up? One of 2011’s best movies, Lars von Trier‘s visceral exploration of depression in “Melancholia.” Turns out that von Trier’s film was actually the jury’s favorite, until the Danish director gave a press conference with an anti-Semitic joke that made him lose the award.
Speaking to French outlet Liberation (via The Film Stage), a selection of jury members talked about the selection process and what they think of the films they awarded in the past. One of the jury members is Olivier Assayas (“Personal Shopper“) who was on the competition jury in 2011 and revealed that it was Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia” that gained the jury’s favor.
The 2011 Cannes competition jury also included Robert De Niro, Jude Law, Uma Thurman, actress Martina Gusmán, producer Nansun Shi, writer Linn Ullmann, and filmmakers Mahamat-Saleh Haroun and Johnnie To. According to Assayas, problems began with jury president De Niro, who was “rather unfamiliar with international cinema.” But despite the jury being over the moon for “Melancholia,” von Trier himself changed things when he gave an infamous press conference where he joked about how he “understood” Hitler and kind of sympathized with him.
“The other scandal was the press conference where Lars von Trier made an anti-Semitic joke,” Assayas explained. “Everyone got on their high horse. My position was to say that I was not engaged as a morality judge, and that ‘Melancholia’ was magnificent. There were consequences on the record, as he was a serious contender for the [Palme d’Or]. At first, there were only two of us, Jude Law and I, who thought that Terrence Malick’s ‘The Tree of Life’ could also claim the highest prize. The reason other members joined our cause was because they had lost their favorite.”
After the anti-Semitic joke, Lars von Trier was declared “persona non grata” by the Cannes organizers. The director was banned from the festival until last year when he premiered “The House That Jack Built” which did not play in competition.
