MELANCHOLIA

This movie starts out with a stunning long visual prologue played out to the sound of Wagner’s Tristan & Isolde that sets the tone of this powerfully dramatic story told in two parts named after two sisters.

The first is Justine, who is a severely disturbed and melancholic bride, struggling to get through the lavish Wedding Party that Claire her older officious sister has taken great pains in organizing.  It’s in the glorious setting of a luxurious country club owned by Claire’s wealthy husband John, whose patience with the family he married into gets stretched to breaking point. The very odd cast of guests include Gaby, the pathological bitter mother, Dexter the lecherous father with his two girlfriends both called Betty, Jack the father of the groom who's also Justine's Ad Agency employer and who’s obsessed with pursuing her just for a campaign tag line.  And then there is Michael the unfortunate groom who has to stand on the sidelines as his bride, and ultimately his brand new marriage, slowly comes apart at the seams in front of his very eyes.  On the way to the wedding Justine spots a bright red star in the sky, which John, a passionate astronomer, tells her is the planet Melancholia.

The second part is  Claire, and by now the older sister is taking care of Justine who has suffered a total mental collapse.  And the rogue planet that was just a speck in the sky is now looming large and set to collide with Earth. The sisters roles are somewhat reversed as the fatalistic Justine calmly faces the prospect of impending doom, whilst more realistic Claire becomes increasingly distraught as the planet gets closer and closer.

This totally extraordinarily and stunning apocalyptic movie from the enigmatic Danish auteur Lars Von Trier had me hypnotically on the edge of my seat right up to the end of the world.  Literally. It’s a powerful and provocative piece that is both a deeply disturbing and uncomfortable study of an earth that Von Trier seemingly wants to dispense with entirely, and its also an utterly magnificent work of art.

I won’t pretend to understand all (or any?) of the metaphors peppered throughout the whole piece, you’ll need to read a much more esoteric review for that (NY Times?).  But I do think that this is such an intense and multi-faceted piece that it will inevitably not be seen and interpreted by any two people in the same way.

Kirsten Dunst as Justine deservedly won the Best Acting Award at Cannes, and although Charlotte Gainsbourg looked nothing remotely like her, convincingly played her humorless sister Claire.  The rather superb cast included Charlotte Rampling, Stellan Skarsgaard, and his real life son Alexander Skarsgaard, John Hurt, Keiffer Sutherland,  and Udo Kier as the extremely annoyed (and funny) Wedding Planner.

I’ll confess that I am not a major fan of this filmmaker’s work (loved 'Dancer From The Dark' though) and the controversy around his infamous tasteless remarks at Cannes which went viral has maybe colored some peoples judgments on the movie itself.  There are evidently only two camps.  Those who hate Melancholia and those that unequivocally love it,  I am so firmly in the latter.

It's by no means a perfect movie (the beginning of the 2nd half really needs editing etc) and its baffling and even confusing in parts, BUT it has the best end of the world that I have EVER seen ….. and unique work as mind-blowing and as outstanding as this are few and far between.  It should be seen …. even if you sadly do end up hating it.


★★★★★★★★★★