How does he get the money to make his movies?

From what I understand, reading the book on Von Trier by Jack Stevenson, Von Trier makes money for his films, by:

1. Filming primarily in Denmark.

2. He usually gets partial funding from the Danish Film Commission.

3. He owns film equipment, which he rents out to other filmmakers.

4. He (I think) films commercials for Danish media.

5. Since he has his own production company, Europa, all the commercials, and stuff he does outside his own projects, goes back into his production company so he can have money for said personel projects.

There many be more, but I recommend the book by Jack Stevenson...

"Can I touch your hair?"-Meiying (Wenwen Han) The Karate Kid (2010)

Socialist filmmaking. The taxpayers of Denmark pay for this guy's crap.

Some of the funding is from the state-but it's less than a fifth actually. This movie did not make money but most of his actually do. His companycofounder has stated that they would have been much richer if they did not also produce other movies. In the first 10-15 years of their company the money LVT made went into producing other films-I guess sometimes it's the other way around.