Gainsbourg defends Von Trier

Charlotte Gainsbourg seems so impossibly delicate in person that it’s hard to imagine her mutilating herself on camera. I suspect it’s even harder to watch — part of what makes her a canny choice as one of Lars Von Trier’s notoriously put-upon leading ladies.

In this excellent video interview with the Guardian’s Xan Brooks (no embed available, unfortunately), given in the wake of the incensed media reaction to “Antichrist,” Gainsbourg intelligently defends her participation in the project, as well as her director’s intentions.

She politely but firmly dismisses the accusations of misogyny levelled at Von Trier as “stupid,” and laughs off the idea that she was somehow exploited on camera. (“I was willing to do it, and I knew what I was doing.”) Most interestingly, Gainsbourg suggests that her character was intended to be reflective of the director himself:

The character was called “She,” he was called “He.” So we had no identity, and the way Lars picked me, I had the impression that he knew nothing about me. He never talked about any film that I had done, nothing like that. So I didn’t have a clue why he chose me, but it gave me a kind of mystery of being this anonymous woman.

I really trusted him, and that’s also a thing that I find unjust when people say that he hates women. Because I really had the impression that I was portraying him. That he was the woman. That he was going through that misery of physical condition and panic attacks and I related to him completely, and I had the impression that he related to me, in that he was understanding my feelings.

It’s a measured, thoughtful interview in that Gainsbourg still seems to be coming to terms with the film herself. The video also offers some footage from the film that I hadn’t seen before — check it out here.