Charlotte Gainsbourg Talks Lars Von Trier: “For Me, There Is A Before Lars, And An After Lars” – Zurich Film Festival

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Charlotte Gainsbourg revealed the lasting impact of working with Danish director Lars von Trier at a Masterclass at the Zurich Film Festival this week, where she also received its honorary Golden Eye career award.From 2009 to 2013, the British-French actress shot three films with the director – Antichrist, Melancholia and the two-part Nymphomaniac  – and at the time was sometimes referred to as his muse.Gainsbourg said the period she spent working with von Trier, who has recently announced he is taking a break from directing following his diagnosis with Parkinson’s Disease, was a milestone in her career.“For Me, There Is A Before Lars, And An After Lars,” she said. “He taught me so much and different things with each film.”“You have such freedom with him,” she continued. “You get into a scene, you know your lines and then he just says, ‘Well, that was just crap… What I wrote was crap, so let’s start again from scratch’.

So, he is not accusing you and you explore. The whole thing is exploring, then you go to another director and think you will have the same freedom and no, that director is very attached to his lines.”The actress revealed that her first meeting with von Trier fell flat.“It didn’t go that well and I came out thinking, ‘Oh, he’s not interested’, and then he called, and I did his film,” she said.Their first collaboration on Antichrist arose after the actress who originally signed for the role dropped out at the eleventh hour.“There was a bit of a panic on their side.

They interviewed a few actresses. I don’t know why he chose me. I don’t know what he knew about me,” he said.Gainsbourg won best actress at Cannes in 2009 for her performance in the film as a woman who retreats to a cabin in the woods with her