Melancholia
I have a love hate relationship with Lars Von Trier. On one hand, he has created some of my favou
rite films that encourage the wildest of emotions – both unwarranted and surreal – and the evocative movies are unlike any other (I think we all know how I feel about Dancer In The Dark). On the other hand, he has a mouth like a freight train, bulldozing through all he has built up and slamming it to dust. He is also, in my opinion, a little pretentious. And sometimes, that comes across terribly. For example, Anti-Christ spent too long trying to shock inside of exploring the meatier sides of the story and ended up being, well, dull.
But you can’t be too mad at Von Trier (which, by irony, makes you even angrier at the Danish Director) because he comes up with this undeniably exquisite film – Melancholia. Starring his new muse Charlotte Gainsbourg and the divine Kirsten Dunst, the movie revolves around a planet that is heading to crash land. Focusing the story on one family, and telling two different halves, a wedding and an apocalypse become the unnerving companions of Von Trier’s drama. As newly-wed Justine copes with her impending depression, her older sister Claire is trying to grasp control unravelling as the titular planet threatens to destroy all life.
The main draw of Von Trier’s work here is Von Trier superb pivotal role as Justine. The 90’s famed actor has since grown with her talents, leaning much more to dramas and Von Trier, as he does with most his leading actresses, has coaxed an expressive and endearing performance from Dunst here. Captivating, acutely, the cloud of depression that surrounds its victims, Dunst is on true form. She is able to slip between her despondency on her own wedding day and that detachment when people are willing you to feel joy is encompassed extremely well in the nuanced performance by Dunst. She then deftly handles the catatonic state of the “Claire” segment, quite rightly earning her the Best Actress at Cannes because it is emotional, stunning and accurate.
This character exploration is furthered by Gainsbourg’s segement as Claire. Though weighted as the strict elder sister who is mix-matched next to Justine’s furative and unwinding state – Gainsbourg levels her with this humanity. Not only grappling with Justine’s depression that has impended their lives (through no fault of any, by the way,) Claire also seems most attentive to the consequence of the Melancholia planet that could obliterate them at any moment. Gainsbourg levels Claire’s compassion with her intricate control that is matched by the doom that lingers in the sky, causing her own emotions to spiral away from her.
With this gorgeous imagery, an amazing score and a story that is rather focused on its players with the planets collision coming secondary, with is rather indicative to Von Trier’s otherworldly elements as a director. He can truly coax performances and mortality out of what could’ve been science fiction fodder. Rather than let the action speak, he lets the atmosphere and the galaxies surrounding the minds of our heroines be the driving force of the film.With a great prelude of artistic merit, Melancholia is a balance of different elements that level it up from "art-house." In short, it’s phenomenal.
TTFN
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