Lars von Trier at Cannes: "I'm a Nazi"

Everybody's favorite willfully offensive Danish director, Lars von Trier, admitted that he was a Nazi during a Cannes press conference Wednesday. While doing press for his new film Melancholia, von Trier began rambling about his Germanic heritage.

"For a long time I thought I was a Jew and I was happy to be a Jew…But then I found out I was actually a Nazi. My family were German…what can I say? I understand Hitler…I sympathize with him a bit."

Melancholia stars Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg were seen gaping in disbelief while von Trier spoke. Claiming his next film would be three to four hours of "lots of uncomfortable sex," von Trier also commented on whether he would attempt a larger-scale production in the future, noting that "We Nazis like to do things on a big scale" and musing "Maybe I could do The Final Solution."

Honestly, it kind of speaks to our double standards that von Trier can say this kind of stuff to a room full of reporters (though he's pretty obviously being tongue-in-cheek at points), while Mel Gibson gets in trouble for drunkenly spouting it to a cop. Maybe it's his chubby little cheeks and spectacles, but I find him kind of adorable in an asexual, teddy-bear kind of way, whereas if I heard this talk, coming from, say Willem Dafoe, I would be terrified.