Daily Inspiration Quote by Lars von Trier

Restlessness, framed as a work ethic, becomes a kind of artistic alibi. When Lars von Trier says, "I always do something that I've never done before", he's not selling novelty for its own sake so much as staking out a defense against safety, repetition, and - crucially - accountability. If every project is a first, then every misstep can be recast as research. That posture fits a director whose career thrives on provocation: not just in subject matter, but in the rules of making and watching films.

The line reads like a manifesto for formal self-sabotage. Von Trier repeatedly builds constraints (Dogme 95's anti-gloss vow, Dancer in the Dark's fractured digital musicality, The Five Obstructions' puzzle-box challenges) and then uses those constraints to force an emotional outcome that feels too raw to be polite. "Never done before" is also a way of keeping the audience off-balance: you can't settle into the comfort of "a von Trier movie" because the pleasure he offers is often the pleasure of being denied pleasure.

There's subtext, too, about control. Von Trier is famous for orchestrating chaos while insisting it's experimentation. The quote carries an implicit dare: if you want reassurance, go elsewhere. In a culture that rewards brands and reliable IP, he insists on reinvention - even when reinvention looks like trolling, or when it drags collaborators and viewers into discomfort they didn't consent to. It's not innocence; it's strategy. The novelty is the point, and the point is power.