Melancholia, the latest film from divisive director Lars Von Trier (Antichrist), is a majestic, melodramatic work of millennial angst; a film about feeling like the world is ending, as well as the literal end of the world.
The film is split into three parts: the first, and arguably the best, shows a wedding gone awry. Justine (Kirsten Dunst, Marie Antionette) is set to marry Michael (Alexander Skarsgard, True Blood); but while he is desperately in love, she is battling depression. The film depicts weddings as the worst they can possibly be: as sites of conflict between family members, where love becomes a battlefield. The second part depicts Justine living with her long-suffering sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg, The Tree, Antichrist) and her family. Justine has become physically and emotionally crippled by her depression, and Claire is providing the best support she can, while at the same time fighting off paranoia about a mysterious planet that has entered the earth’s orbit: Melancholia. The third part sees Melancholia headed for a collision course with earth.
The summary of parts for this film does not do justice to the whole. It is a film about depression, but it’s not depressing – and I’m sure some will find it very moving, and some will find it incredibly annoying. Depending on your tolerance for slow motion, limited dialogue and characters staring wistfully into the distance, you will either find the film to be very profound and portentous, or pompous and pretentious.
The two most lauded aspects of this film have been Dunst’s performance, and the cinematography. The style of the film is certainly impressive: Von Trier has created a world of digitally painted horizons and heavens, and slow motion scenes of the world crumbling. This film is almost looks like a space opera, with a melodramatic style accompanying a deceptively simple premise, and about a broader universe beyond the one we see from earth.
Kirsten Dunst turns in the performance of her career, and has already received much Oscar hype. It is interesting, because if anything Dunst is a focal point of understated calm in this dramatic film. She is the eye of the storm in a whirlwind. Dunst’s character, Justine, copes better with the impending crisis of the word ending than the other characters: perhaps because she is innately a pessimist and expects the worst – and so when the worst arrives she is not surprised. Her performance will be talked about, if only because of Dunst’s own, and much-publicized, battle with depression.
Melancholia is not a melancholy film, and all that the word implies: miserable, glum, and dismal. Instead it is a majestic, operatic, artistic expression of life. It won’t be universally praised – but then, what great work of art is?
Melancholia is released in Australia on December 15th
Director: Lars Von Trier
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Alexander Skarsgard, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, John Hurt, Stellan Skarsgård, Udo Kier
