Category: Film Reviews
Tags: Lars von Trier, Melancholia

Melancholia is this year’s ridiculously controversial Lars Von Trier movie. Last year’s Antichrist divided critics and audiences with extreme violence and a possibly misogynistic outlook. Melancholia gained some extra hype when Trier (predictably) offended everybody in the 2011 Cannes festival, when he suggested that he has some sympathy for Hitler. Despite what you might expect though, the film is not some sort of assault on the viewer, but a much more subdued and perhaps even thoughtful film.

The film is split in two parts and its main premise toys with a well- worn science fiction scenario. A planet named Melancholia is on collision course with the earth and the end of everything is near. In the first part, we are introduced a young couple (played by Kirsten Dunst and Alexander Skarsgård, a.k.a Eric from True Blood), getting married in a luxuriant estate, somewhere in the country. The groom is happy and understanding but Justine, our protagonist, is not well. The estate belongs to her controlling, sensible sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her uptight husband (Kiefer Sutherland) and they are not happy with her mood swings. It soon transpires that she suffers from depression and her increasingly erratic behavior threatens to derail the facade of happiness.

In the second part, Justine comes to live with Claire in the estate. Her depression has has blossomed into a debilitating condition and she has stopped caring for anything. Claire is increasingly fearful of the huge blue planet, which is slowly and inexorably moving towards the earth. Anxiety consumes her, but her sister is less affected. For Justine, human life is inherently evil and should be wiped out from existence.

It could be argued that Trier is saying something about the human condition here. Perhaps damaged people like Justine are better suited to face the void because can perceive the horror of existence. Or something. Normally, all this should have a devastating effect on the viewer, but- as always with Trier- it is difficult to know how much to take seriously. The film is full of stately, often unsettling compositions, remminiscent of Pre- Raphaelite paintings. The acting is great and Trier benefits from a stellar supporting cast, with John Hurt, Charlotte Rampling, Udo Kier and Stellan Skarsgård in smaller parts. Despite all that, Melancholia is a cold, formalist affair and it’s impossible to ignore the suspission that Trier is fucking with the audience as usual and that all this is just empty bullshit.

Still, the film does offer us the most sensual image of the year: Kirsten Dunst, bathing naked in the silver light of the telluric planet. For all its pretentions, Melancholia works better if seen as a series of beautiful images, as opposed to a film with a deeper meaning.

(-Dimitris Kontogiannis-)

About the Author: CnB