Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011): Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany

Reviewed by Christopher Connor. Viewed at the Lumiere Theater.

We’ve seen it a million times before. The world is coming to an end. There is only a few days left to live. There is no hope.  But, we’ve never seen it like this before. Lars von Trier takes an overly used subject and creates an intense new, beautiful film with Melancholia.

The film opens with an overture, set to the music of Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde”, which serves the purpose of the beautiful and highly stylized prologue. In this, we are treated to images of what the end of the world could be like for the few characters in the movie. With stunning extreme slow motion and cinematography, like we saw in the opening in his previous film Antichrist, we are greeted with a close up of a woman’s worn face while birds fall from the sky behind her. There’s a woman running through a field, being pulled back and torn at by the trees and ground, attempting to drag her down. We see her in her wedding dress floating down a river reminding us of the painting of Ophelia. We see a woman and her child running in a golf course which seems to be made of quicksand. And ultimately we see the destruction of Earth by a humongous blue planet.

Part One focuses on the sister Justine (Kirsten Dunst). Newly married, she is taken with her husband to a large estate on a golf course which is owned by her brother-in-law, John (Kiefer Sutherland).  Although at first seemingly happy, Justine lets her mask slowly slip and the facade of happiness is soon revealed. This should be the happiest day in her life, but it is not. During the reception she sneaks away to avoid it all, her disapproving mother (Charlotte Rampling), her carefree father (John Hurt), and her boss who only wants the tagline for his new advertisement.  At the annoyance of her sister (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her brother-in-law, who is paying for the party, she wanders from room to room, to and from the golf course, slowly pushing everyone away, including her new husband. The only mention of the impending doom to come is when Justine first arrives, she points to the sky asking about a very bright red star that she has never seen before.

Part Two, Claire, turns its direction on the other sister. The only people now left at the estate are Justine, John, Claire, and their young son. By now, Justine’s clinical depression has only gotten worse and her sister has taken to looking after her. Now the mention of the planet, Melancholia, is properly introduced. Claire is obsessed with doomsday theories and is convinced that the planet will hit Earth despite the reassurances of her husband that it will only be a “fly by”. As the days slowly go by, the planet begins to loom over them as it gets bigger by the day and her worries intensify.

Charlotte Gainsbourg, who has worked with von Trier before, gives a truly standout performance in Melancholia. Singlehandedly, she has to express the fears of the end of the world while everyone else has either accepted, doesn’t understand, or doesn’t believe it is really going to happen. It’s often times just her facial expression, body language, and lack of words that really sell her anxiety and horrors. Kirsten Dunst, on the other hand, while giving what might be her best performance to date, still seems to fall a little short on occasion. Her dark, careless, depressed attitude sometimes comes off as a little too forced and, unfortunately, it’s noticeable. Even so, it doesn’t ultimately detract from the story and she manages to pull through.

Melancholia is a feast for the eyes. With superb cinematography, we witness the slow events of a few people’s lives as they await what might be the end of the world. But we don’t see it through breaking news reports, crashing buildings, meteors creating tidal waves, and all those other tired cliches. We see it through the pains and worries of Claire, the excitement of a once in a lifetime experience with John and his son, and through the resignation of Justine that life is surely to end.  The slow pacing lets the film gradually build up the tension and fear of what could possibly happen. We get to see it portrayed by just a few people who seem isolated from the world. And with this we get a beautiful new vision of the end of days, which works wonderfully well in creating an array of somber emotions, and what it means to exist before the end.

 

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Published:
02.19.12 / 1am
Category:
Films