Lars von Trier

Lars von Trier born Lars Trier 30 April 1956 is a Danish film director and screenwriter He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective although his own films have taken a variety of different approaches He is known for his femalecentric parables and his exploration of controversial subject matter Von Trier began making his own films at the age of 11 after receiving a Super8 camera as a gift and his first publicly released film was an experimental short called The Orchid Gardener in 1977 His first feature film came seven years later The Element of Crime in 1984 As of 2010 he has directed a further 10 feature films 5 short films and 4 television productions He has been married twice and is currently married to Bente Frøge Von Trier suffers periodically from depression as well as various fears and phobias including an intense fear of flying As he himself once put it Basically Im afraid of everything in life except filmmaking