Lars von Trier: 'I'm not sorry for Hitler joke'

Lars von Trier has retracted his apology for controversial jokes he made at a Cannes press conference earlier this year.

The Melancholia director initially apologised in May for branding himself a "Nazi" and saying he "sympathised" with Adolf Hitler.

The 55-year-old, in a further "profound" apology, stated that he had been "needlessly hurtful" and "unintelligent".

However, von Trier - who has been banned from the festival - told GQ magazine: "I don't think there is a right or wrong thing to say.

"I think that anything can be said. That is very much me... to say I'm sorry for what I said is to say I'm sorry for what kind of a person I am, [and that] I'm sorry for my morals, and that would destroy me as a person.

"It's not true. I'm not sorry. I am not sorry for what I said. I'm sorry that it didn't come out more clearly. I'm not sorry that I made a joke. But I'm sorry that I didn't make it clear that it was a joke."

Emphasising his point, he added: "I can't be sorry for what I said – it's against my nature... but that's maybe where I'm really sick in my mind. You can't be sorry about something that's fundamentally you. Maybe I'm a freak in that sense."

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Watch Lars von Trier's joke about Nazism at the Melancholia press conference below: