Synopsis
Enjoy it while it lasts
Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.
Melancholia
2011 Directed by Lars von Trier
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Zentropa Entertainments Memfis Film Zentropa International Sweden Slot Machine Liberator Productions Zentropa International Köln Danmarks Radio (DR) Film i Väst ARTE France Cinéma
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Alternative Titles
世紀末婚禮, 忧郁症, 멜랑콜리아
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Kirsten Dunst representing depression and not being bothered by the upcoming end of the world? relatable.
Charlotte Gainsbourg representing anxiety and freaking out because of the upcoming end of the world? also relatable.
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The feel bad movie of the year! I think Von Trier's next movie should be about puppies.
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if you have/had depression or anxiety or both (like i used to!) then you'll relate and you'll wish a planet would REALLY crash into Earth!
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some of those dramatic hand-held close-ups made me feel like I was watching the office
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kirsten dunst taking a nap AND a bath in the middle of her wedding is a huge fucking mood
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Typically I can find the words to describe how I feel regarding a film as the credits are still rolling on the screen. My mind builds up various thoughts throughout and I cannot wait to unleash them as soon as possible, but I had to sleep on Melancholia before typing up this review. In fact, I'm still not quite sure if I am ready.
A graceful and fascinating look at a subject like depression, I found moments within the film that were utterly spellbinding, and in those moments I was sure I was in love with this work by Von Trier. However, every so often I was forced to question whether the nature of the storytelling and the pacing of…
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"The film needs to be slower and duller at the start so that the viewers who walked into the wrong theatre have time to leave before the main action starts."
-Andrei TarkovskyAn enigmatic feature with wannabe Tarkovskian cinematography, planetary imagery, a classical score and a high-budget-looking Dogme style? Trier must be out of his mind!
Not quite.
Melancholia's two very first shots are references to cinematic influences:
- The first pays respect to L'année dernière à Marienbad (1961).
- The second shot displays the famous painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder entitled Jagers in de Sneeuw (The Hunters in the Snow), previously featured in two Tarkovsky masterpieces.The film feels, above all, as an attempt to fix the evident…
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Moonbathing as an existential reverence to the inescapable encroachment of death.
While The Tree of Life (2011) offers an eye-opening look at the dawn of time via the prism of the human person, Melancholia on the other hand wrestles with the spiritual and intellectual questions regarding faith and man’s place in the universe as it also exposes an excruciating insight on the human condition, vividly exhibiting the destruction of life with an operatic allure and an unsparing finale.
The film begins with hopelessness and ends with the same sentiment. The narrative offers no escape to both its characters and to the imminent mortality of man. It begins with the end, showing the merciless pit of despair and concludes everything with none other than extinction, arrayed in a deafening dissonance of terrestrial clamors and a crescendo of strings.
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