LONDON (Reuters) – For Danish film director Lars von Trier, the outrage that greeted "Antichrist" at the Cannes festival in May was music to his ears.

Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe as a couple who struggle to cope with the loss of their young son, the psychological horror story drew gasps, groans, jeers and just a few cheers when it was screened at the annual cinema showcase.

Explicit scenes of love-making, graphic violence and sexual self-mutilation, not to mention a talking fox, made Antichrist one of the most talked-about films at the festival for years.

Von Trier was angrily asked to justify his film at a press conference and early reviews generally agreed that the film was misogynistic, deliberately provocative and turgid.

But typically for a director who has polarized opinion throughout his career, not everyone hated it. The Telegraph gave the dark story of death and self-loathing a top rating.

"I feel very good about it," von Trier told Reuters, when asked about the negative reaction to his film.

"If you'd asked me before how should a film reception be, it should be something like that," he said in a telephone interview ahead of the film's theatrical release in Britain on July 24. It has been given an 18 rating and will be shown in its entirety.

"It suits me fine that people get out of the cinema with some kind of an emotion. That's very good."

Von Trier, often referred to as the "enfant terrible" of contemporary cinema, has avoided reading reviews, although he suggested he was not impervious to what people said.

"I don't think I've read one review," he said. "I think the film is like a kid, you know, it has to live its own life. Of course, I would like a phone call now and then."

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