Lars von Trier

In 1989, on her deathbed, Trier’s mother revealed to her son that his biological father was Fritz Michael Hartmann who was German-speaking, Roman Catholic. Till then Trier considered Ulf Trier to be his real father.

Trier had been married twice. His first marriage was to Cæcilia Holbek from 1987 to 1995 and his second marriage was to Bente Frøge from 1997 to 2015. Both the marriages ended in a divorce. He has four children, namely, Benjamin Trier, Ludvig Trier, Selma Trier and Agnes Trier.

Like many artists, Lars von Trier too suffers from depression due to which he finds it difficult to focus on his work.

Lars von Trier was born on 30 April 1956, in Kongens Lyngby, Denmark, to Fritz Michael Hartmann and Inger Høst. Later on, his mother married Ulf Triet and Lars adopted the surname of his stepfather. His biological father was the head of Ministry of Social Affairs in Denmark.

The young Trier grew up to be fearless, left-wing, neurotic, and a movie buff. Trier studied film theory and film direction from University of Copenhagen and National School of Denmark, respectively. While studying, he made two short films and won ‘Best School Film Awards’ at Munich International Festival of Film Schools.

Lars von Trier is known for his exquisitely different style of film-making. He began his journey of directing movies during his college years. But the movie that got him recognition was ‘The Element of Crime’ which was a psychological drama and first in the instalment of ‘Europa’ trilogy.

‘The Element of Crime’ was released in 1984 and helped him won more than 10 awards and a prestigious nomination at the Cannes Film Festival. Later, Trier directed ‘Epidemic’ (1987) and ‘Europa’ (1991), thus completing the Europa trilogy.

Trier along with his producer friend, Peter Aalbaek started a Danish film company, Zentropa Entertainment, in 1992. Apart from Trier’s own movies, the company has also produced movies of other directors as well as several television series.

In 1996, Trier wrote and directed ‘Breaking the Waves’ a story about an unconventional couple who breaks the stereotype of marriage. The plot of the movie revolves around a woman, who is asked by her husband to have intimate relations with other men, when he is left immobilized after an accident.

‘Breaking the Waves’ was his first film in the ‘Golden Heart’ trilogy. The other two movies of the trilogy are ‘The Idiots’ (1998) and ‘Dancer in the Dark’ (2000).

Lars von Trier is known for his every single movie which has broken all the stereotypes and won him many awards. But with ‘Breaking the Wave’ he presented an unusual story to the world. The movie gave a strong message to its audience about the number of sorrows and sacrifices one has to endure in love. ‘Breaking The Wave’ is considered to be the most acclaimed film of Lars von Trier. The film won him more than 20 awards and it collected $4 million at box office in US.