Dark Days for Film-making World As Depression Lays Von Trier Low

Film director Lars Von Trier, renowned for dark, psychologically difficult, artistically pioneering films, has been left unable to work following a serious depression and is doubtful about when he would be able to return to filmmaking, it was revealed yesterday.

In an interview published in a Danish newspaper, Von Trier, known for films such as Breaking The Waves and Dogville, which starred Nicole Kidman, said the aftermath of his depression had left him 'like a blank sheet of paper'. 'It's very strange for me, because I've always had at least three projects in my head at one time,' he added.

Von Trier, 51, was admitted to a Danish hospital at the start of the year. He said he had lost focus and took no pleasure in his work. 'You can't make a film and be depressed at the same time,' he was quoted as saying. 'They say that it can take a couple of years to recover after a depression. But let's see.'

Von Trier is also known the Dogma filmmaking principles by which directors forego props and lighting, sound editing and any equipment other than hand-held cameras.

He was one of 33 top directors to be recently invited to make a film of the Cannes festival by the organisers. He said he was unsure whether he would be able to begin work on a horror movie called Antichrist that he had planned to start filming toward the middle of this year. The movie depicts Satan, rather than God, as the world's creator.

'I assume that Antichrist will be my next movie. But right now I don't know,' he told the Danish newspaper. His gloomy and complex films reflect a troubled personality. He suffers from multiple phobias, including an intense fear of flying. 'Basically, I'm afraid of everything in life, except filmmaking,' he once said.

In an interview in 1989 he described himself as 'a melancholy Dane dancing in the dark to images on the silver screen'.

More recently, von Trier, who was raised by bohemian communist parents in the Danish capital and discovered the identity of his natural father late in life, claimed not to watch films, preferring video games. He also enthusiastically endorsed Prozac.