What do you think of Lars von Trier, Ds?

As a private person I have no problem whatsoever - he seemed quite normal the times I've run into him on occasion at my local pharmacy (stacking up on anti depressants no doubt ;-) ) His public persona can swing from pleasant, to boring to wildly provocative, which is probably on purpose... - after all he has a product to sell, and he usually also has a message to convey although he never wants to spell out that message ;-) I find it insanely stupid with all these journalist who wants him to explain his movies - what artist is asked to do that ?! His background and upbringing clearly has something to do with his movies (brought up by two extreme leftwing parents who worked for the danish welfare department at government level - he had no borders for his behavior in the school years and was encouraged to rebel against authorities, which made him go the other way and be a very obedient child in a rather strict school... - at 30 after having wreaked total havoc in the danish film school , his mother died and on the deathbed told him that, that the jewish father whom he had thought was his father really wasnt, and it was instead a higher ranking permanent secretary. Presumably his mother wanted some better genes... - confronting this other person lead to rejection... (The first article on this page is a very good recent interview and the second is an ok overview of his movies NB english language: http://www.dfi.dk/tidsskriftetfilm/66/frontpage.htm)

I really liked Breaking the Waves and I find things to like in his films but after Breaking the Waves his films seemed more and more to become about pulling off some odd stunt and I kind of felt this worked less for me with each film.

I kinda agree with you, BtW is his best, but I also really like the miniseries (Riget) The Kingdom, remade in the US with the same title, with less black humor and more horror, but still watchable after all - The US version is very colored by Steven Kings (he wrote the US script) own experiences after he was run over by a car. There a marked differences between the two series and frankly the acting is better in the danish version - However he never got around to make the final 4 episodes in danish, so to get a "real" conclusion you have to turn to the King remake... The danish version ends in utter deliberate chaos inspired by Twin Peaks. As for the rest, well they all have something interesting, but some are to long and unfocused and others are just plain weird. There is no doubt in my mind that he is a fantastic director who could have reached Kubrick heights if he wasnt afraid to fly and had access to bigger budgets, but as it is we have to settle for what we get. This new one seems to be a return to form IF you can stomach the truly horrifying things depicted - at least it is a far cry from any dogma handheld stuff ect. - The visuals is supposedly gorgeous (filmed by the current oscar winner for photography (Anthony Dod Mantle - Slumdog) who has lived in Denmark for the last 20 years and has filmed a lot of danish movies...) Usually v Trier does most of the photography himself, but this time I think he settled for the directing mostly... The setups and disturbing ideas is obviously his...

I've read a bit about Cannes this year and also seen some discussions of the films and it does seem fairly unanimous that Antichrist is the best film this year. I'll certainly see it because I think his stuff is always worth checking out but I have not really been sucked into one of his films since Breaking the Waves.

Well as you can see, I absolutely think you should check it out ;-) - But do read some of Eberts analysis first - I dont think it hurts, but actually helps you distance yourself a little so it isnt a purely emotional experience.