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Friday, May 20, 2011 9:49 PM UTC

Hitler reacts to Lars von Trier

It's the "Downfall" video the meme was made for!

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Topics: Cannes Film Festival, Movies,

Hitler reacts to Lars von TrierA still from "Hitler reacts to Lars Von Trier"

Trying to choose the greatest Hitler reacts clip would be like trying to choose the greatest Taiwanese animation video. It’d be like trying to pick the most beautiful star in the night sky. (I will, however, admit, when pressed, a special fondness for Hitler finding out that “Ugly Betty” has been canceled.)

But of all the classic moments containing the portentous phrase “Mein Führer,” surely the one for which the meme was created dropped Thursday, when Hitler found out that “Melancholia” filmmaker Lars von Trier had been banned from the Cannes Film Festival after making some unfortunate comments about “the Nazi aesthetic.” Apparently not everyone likes a jokey “OK, I’m a Nazi,” maybe in particular people whose country was occupied by Nazis.

But you know who would like the Nazi aesthetic? Hitler! So, sure enough, today you can enjoy a dramatic rendering of how outraged the Führer would be to learn that his little jaunt to a film festival in the South of France and a meet-and-greet with a Danish director would be a Dogme 95-free affair. Oh, the anguish of “the only man in Germany to understand the symbolism of the missing buildings in ‘Dogville’”!

Sure, it’s offensive — the great dictator apparently has a masturbatory thing for Charlotte Gainsbourg in “Antichrist” — but you can’t deny that Hitler’s disdain for those know-it-all French sure feels authentic.

Mary Elizabeth Williams

Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub. More Mary Elizabeth Williams.

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Founded in 1946, the Cannes Film Festival is perhaps the most prestigious of all film festivals. It is held annually in the French resort town of Cannes.

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