4. Lars Von Trier
Most Controversial Film: Antichrist Like Oliver Stone, Lars Von Trier appears to be a man that loves a bit of controversy. It gets people to see his movies and keeps the attention on him. It's not just movies such as The Idiots, Antichrist and Breaking the Waves that have given Von Trier an infamous reputation, it's his stupid and attention-seeking comments such as those at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival where joked he was a Nazi. Judging the director on his work alone and it's clear why such a controversial aura around him exists. The Idiots is a nasty piece of work and also features scenes of unsimulated sex in what is a wholly awful film. Film critic, Mark Kermode, hated it so much he swore at the screen in bad French during the film's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Antichrist is the film which courted the most controversy for the Danish director is Antichrist, another explicitly sexual film with dubious moral values. Opinions on the film are fiercely divided and the grotesque scenes of self-harm, most notably when Charlotte Gainsbourg's character cuts off her own clitoris with a pair of scissors. Von Trier's relationship with women is incredibly suspect and he and his films have displayed misogyny on numerous occasions, most obviously in Antichrist. With his new film, Nymphomaniac, set to feature large amounts of unsimulated sex, it doesn't seem as if Von Trier is going to shrug off the controversial label any time soon.