Melancholia

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

Well, it's certainly a lot happier than Antichrist. But that's not saying much. It's defiantly more welcoming though. And I DO love my disaster films so the idea of someone like Lars von Trier taking one on does make me somewhat giddy. Even if it's only a part of the film, it've very well done and looks stunning.

And the end of the world is just absolutely gorgeous in this. I am loving everything I see out of the Phantom camera. It all looks like some elegant perfume commercial, true, but I still love it. Like in Antichrist we have a little slow motion prologue that seems separate from the rest of the film, especially seem as the main segments are shot in a more Dogma 95 style, despite using the Alexa. He somehow manages to make it look like home video. Skill.

The film is divided into two halves, each focusing on a different sister. Kirsten Dunst is dealing with what I can only assume, given the director, is clinical depression. She does her best to make it through her wedding day but things get nice an awkward. I would have no problem marrying Alexander Skarsgård. Kirsten Dunst is just great in this.

The next half we follow her sister, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, who has trouble dealing with family dramas but also the impending doom from the impact of a giant planet subtly named Melancholia.

While it still doesn't exactly feel cohesive in places, I actually really enjoyed this film. As much as you can enjoy a film about sadness. If this is how Lars works out his emotions, all the more power too him. It's vastly more accessible than the majority of his work and certainly easier to sit through than Antichrist. It has a very authentic feeling in the portrayal of depression. And the final sequences got me more worked up than any Roland Emmerich end of the word.