Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux all but confirmed that Lars von Trier's "The House That Jack Built" will be part of the competition. As we previously reported to you earlier last week, Fremaux and his committee were split on von Trier's latest endeavor and had decided to offer him a non-competition slot. However, the director had denied the offer and wanted competition instead.
Fremaux seems to be insinuating that it has to do more with Von Trier's "Persona Non-Grata" status at the festival, which was given to him in 2011 when the Danish provocateur was barred from the festival for sympathetic comments on Hitler and the Nazis. “Pierre Lescure, the president of the Cannes Film Festival, has been working very hard in the last few days for the removal of the persona non grata status which was put in place five years ago, in the belief that it was time to make space for him again as cineaste,” Frémaux said in the interview.