{"id":13097,"date":"2011-10-04T04:15:07","date_gmt":"2011-10-04T03:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=13097"},"modified":"2020-03-08T08:38:48","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T08:38:48","slug":"melancholia-review-lars-von-trier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2011\/10\/04\/melancholia-review-lars-von-trier\/","title":{"rendered":"Melancholia"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Despite a Cannes premiere overshadowed by controversy, director Lars Von Trier has returned with arguably his finest film.<\/p>\n

It explores the relationship between two sisters at a large country house: Justine (Kirsten Dunst), recently married to Michael (Alexander Skarsgard), and Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), who along with her husband (Kiefer Sutherland), has organised the wedding and reception.<\/p>\n

Split into two parts, the first involves an extravagant wedding reception, filled with misery; whilst the second focuses on the two sisters as they stay in the same location, as a large blue planet called Melancholia threatens to collide with the earth.<\/p>\n

Opening with a stunning slow-motion overture, set to Wagner\u2019s Prelude to Tristan and Isolde, it blends intimate drama with grand, apocalyptic disaster and the end result is a stylish and – unusually for Von Trier – heartfelt film.<\/p>\n

In the past the director’s sneaky, contrarian could be both a blessing and a curse, making his films boldly inventive, exasperating, or sometimes both.<\/p>\n

His last film Antichrist<\/a> (2009) displayed some of his undoubted gifts as a director before collapsing into a ludicrous orgy of violence and hysteria, which scandalised the audiences at its world premiere in Cannes.<\/p>\n

After the climactic scene of the film – which was one of those genuine ‘is Von-Trier-taking-the-piss?’ endings – a bizarre dedication appeared to Andrei Tarkovsky.<\/p>\n

Why? I’m not exactly sure, other than the Danish director seems like a big fan.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But strangely, it is his latest that bears the touch of the great Russian director.<\/p>\n

Here he seems to be channelling two very different films: Solaris (1972), with its exploration of a ‘living’ planet affecting human emotions, and The Celebration (1998), Thomas Vinterberg\u2019s hellish depiction of a family gathering, which still stands as the highpoint of the Dogme movement Von Trier helped create.<\/p>\n

But Melancholia has its own unique charms and manages to capture the Dane at his very best \u2013 he never takes the material too seriously, but also isn\u2019t afraid to indulge in big, bold strokes.<\/p>\n

The wedding section is filmed with his puckish sense of humour that often drives his detractors crazy: not only do the happy couple struggle to even reach the party in their limousine, but when they get there, discover that no-one is really happy anyway.<\/p>\n

Opting for a handheld shooting style, after the slow-motion imagery at the beginning, the director has a lot of fun with the tacky misery of the event: the meaningless counting of beans, unhappy relationships and fruitless driving around in golf carts create a tangible atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Rarely has despair been so joyously captured on screen.<\/p>\n

But there is something more here than Von Trier just having a cheap dig at the shallow pretensions of the rich: he is making a wider point about human emotions, our capacity for self-delusion and the wisdom of despair. Speaking of emotions, according to\u00a0Cine Vue<\/a><\/em><\/strong> some films are able to make us smell scents and feel other sensations apart from the audio-visual experience.<\/p>\n

If we are going to die and life is meaningless anyway, surely it is the natural condition?<\/p>\n

As the second half of the film progresses, Christine appears to grow stronger as her misery gives way to a higher wisdom about her situation and that of the planet.<\/p>\n

This could have been what he was aiming for in Antichrist, in which nature was a chaotic force that \u2018reigned\u2019 over the humans.<\/p>\n

But here he seems a little more focused as wider cosmic forces in the shape of a rogue planet come to affect the central characters – but instead of shrill hysteria and genital mutilation we get a richer reflection on life and existence.<\/p>\n

Both films could be seen as a therapy double-bill for the director – who has talked about his battles with depression over the last few years – but with Melancholia he seems to be taking his foot off the accelerator and his work feels all the better for it.<\/p>\n

Coming across as a darker, more subversive version of Jonathan Demme\u2019s Rachel Getting Married (2008), it is a perfectly pitched antidote to the traditional ‘movie wedding’ (frequently a virus-like staple of US romantic comedies) and sprinkled with a pleasingly arch mood.<\/p>\n

This is matched by some great locations and production design: the use of Tjol\u00f6holm Castle in Sweden is inspired, providing a visually interesting backdrop, with its immaculately tendered golf course, claustrophobic interiors and frequently stunning exteriors, which revolve around atmospheric night scenes of the ever encroaching blue planet.<\/p>\n

Dunst gives a career-best performance, convincingly showing her character\u2019s descent into depression and subsequent stoic acceptance of impending global doom, whilst Gainsbourg is equally strong as a more na\u00efvely empathetic character.<\/p>\n