Kanye West says people look at him 'like Hitler' (AP)

EASTNOR CASTLE DEER PARK, England – Kanye West says he feels like people look at him like Hitler.

The 34-year-old rapper known for his outbursts was the headline act at the Big Chill music festival Saturday night, where he ranted in the middle of his set about being misunderstood and underappreciated.

"I walk through the hotel and I walk down the street, and people look at me like I'm (expletive) insane, like I'm Hitler," he said. "One day the light will shine through and one day people will understand everything I ever did."

West received light boos from the crowd as a result.

The performer also defended the music video for his song "Monster," which features cannibalism and girls hanging from their necks.

"Who saw the video before it got banned, before they took it down and before women's groups starting saying that a person that lost the most important woman in his life is now against women in some way?" asked West, referring to the 2007 death of his mother Donda West.

West, who started his set roughly 30-minutes late, apologized to the crowd for his tardiness, saying he needed to make sure his performance was great.

"Michael Jordan changed so much in basketball, he took his power to make a difference. It's so much (expletive) going on in music right now and somebody has to make a (expletive) difference," he said.

The multiplatinum-seller is known for his outspokenness, most notably his diss toward Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, where he grabbed the microphone from her as she accepted the award for best female video and said Beyonce should have won it. In 2005 he said "George Bush doesn't care about black people" during a Hurricane Katrina telethon.

At the music festival, West talked about some of his awards show drama, saying some of his sponsorships were canceled as a result.

But West closed his show on a positive note by paying tribute to Amy Winehouse.

West, who said he met the late singer a few years ago during Paris fashion week, played snippets of Winehouse's "Tears Dry On Their Own" and "Back to Black." He said it was "beautiful" to meet the performer and that she was "amazing."

Then, in Kanye fashion, he began to rant.

"Thank you for protecting your artists that are still here," he said to the crowd. "This is for McQueen, for Amy, for Michael and for all the media, can you lighten up on all your artists that are still here?" he asked, receiving a roaring cheer from the crowd and leaving the stage with his 3-man band and 20-something backup dancers.

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Mesfin Fekadu covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://www.twitter.com/musicmesfin

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Cannes expels Von Trier for Hitler remarks (Reuters)

CANNES, France (Reuters) – The Cannes film festival expelled Danish director Lars Von Trier on Thursday for jokingly calling himself a Nazi and Hitler sympathizer, leaving the world's biggest cinema showcase in a state of shock.

His comments angered Jewish groups and caused U.S. actress Kirsten Dunst to squirm with embarrassment beside him at a press conference on Wednesday as he launched into a bizarre monologue about his Jewish and German heritage.

The 55-year-old, formerly a darling in Cannes who won the top Palme d'Or award in 2000, quickly apologized, but it proved too little too late.

"The board of directors firmly condemns these comments and declares Lars Von Trier persona non grata at the Festival de Cannes, with effect immediately," organizers said in a statement on Thursday.

The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, which had complained after the remarks were first reported, welcomed Cannes' decision to throw Von Trier out.

"The organizers of the Cannes film festival have eloquently taken a determined moral stand against cavalier expressions of hate and insensitivity to those brutalized by the Nazis -- Jew and non-Jew," said the group's vice president, Elan Steinberg.

"We cannot look into Von Trier's heart to judge the sincerity of the 'apology' he issued. Only his future words and actions can tell us whether he understands the hurt he has caused."

France's main Jewish organization CRIF said the comments were part of what it called "the worrying tendency of normalizing Nazism."

DID HE REALLY MEAN IT?

Among hundreds of movie-goers milling about in the Mediterranean sun outside the Grand Theater Lumiere, some questioned whether the famously provocative Von Trier really meant what he said.

"He did it out of pure provocation, which is very much like Trier who always pushes the envelope," said Christophe Calmels, whose company Films Sans Frontieres distributes von Trier's 2003 film "The Five Obstructions."

"It's not surprising (his expulsion), it's what he had coming -- just like Galliano," he added, in reference to fashion designer John Galliano, who was recently sacked by Dior after footage surfaced of him making anti-Semitic comments in Paris.

"The question is did he really believe what he said?"

Von Trier's latest movie "Melancholia" is in competition in Cannes this year, and had been seen as a possible prize winner before his remarks appeared to snuff out its chances.

A spokeswoman for Cannes said she did not know whether it was the first such expulsion and if Von Trier would be allowed back to the festival in the future. She added that Melancholia would remain in competition.

During Wednesday's press conference, Von Trier joked that he was a Nazi and that he sympathized with Adolf Hitler.

"I think I understand the man (Hitler)," Von Trier said. "He's not what you would call a good guy, but I understand much about him and I sympathize with him a little bit. But come on, I'm not for the Second World War, and I'm not against Jews.

"I am of course very much for Jews. No, not too much because Israel is a pain in the ass. But still, how can I get out of this sentence?"

At the end of the conference he also muttered the phrase: "the final solution with journalists."

As the press conference broke up, Dunst, who was no longer smiling, could be heard saying: "Oh Lars, that was intense."

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

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