LONDON, England (CNN) -- When Danish auteur Lars von Trier presented his gothic thriller, "Antichrist" at Cannes Film Festival last month, it was greeted with cat-calls, jeers and, at times, disbelieving laughter. Danish auteur Lars von Trier has been making films that shock, provoke and impress for over 40 years. Filmmakers are expected to give audiences a hard time at Cannes and the two-hander starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a couple grieving the loss of a child is no exception. But it was the level of pornographic sex and visceral brutality that outraged some and astonished many. Von Trier was labeled a woman-hater for the wince-inducingly horrific final scene in which female lead Charlotte Gainsbourg takes a pair of rusty scissors to her genitals and performs a DIY clitoridectomy right to camera.
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Pornographic sex and visceral violence in "Antichrist" shocked early audiences
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Von Trier was accused of misogyny but claims to identify with the female character
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"Antichrist" stars Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe as a bereaved couple
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Von Trier's "The Idiots" (1998) was first mainstream film to show non-simulated sex
Von Trier claimed each morning she would say "Mr @placeholder, I despise you," and spit at him.