It’s hard to determine what to make of Lars von Trier and the way his mind works. He’s a filmmaker like no other, oozing intrigue and always leaving a trail of controversy in his wake. At this year’s Cannes film festival, von Trier’s ill-conceived comments regarding Adolf Hitler have caused a bigger stir than his apocalyptic feature Melancholia, a film that doesn’t quite match the explosive sentiment of his now-infamous words.
Incorporating his fascination for empty rituals and depression, Melancholia explores the idea of a planet colliding with Earth, centering on sisters Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) as they try to come to terms with the world, and their lives, coming to an end. Justine’s marriage to Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) goes horribly awry soon after the reception, yet as a result of her worsening state of depression, she doesn’t seem to care. Once excited by the prospect of a fairytale wedding, we eventually see Justine draw parallels with her unceremonious mother Gabby (Charlotte Rampling), who doesn’t see the point in celebrating when the end is so nigh.
After charting Justine’s worsening depression in Part One, the film shifts focus to her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) in Part Two. Claire, initially presented as someone with a level head, grows increasingly distressed by the impending doomsday, despite her haughty husband John (Kiefer Sutherland) insisting that the planets won’t collide after all.
It’s in the tail-end of the film that things take a turn for the unexpected, likely dividing those who will get behind Melancholia and those who will lambast it.
Dunst was a late replacement for Penelope Cruz, but she does well to create a façade for Justine. Von Trier had previously stated that Dundst actually benefited from suffering her own spell of depression during filming by enhancing the authenticity of her performance. Alongside the ever-so-talented Gainsbourg, Dundst is standout amongst the strong ensemble cast, von Trier also eliciting top performances from Sutherland and young Cameron Spurr as Claire’s son Leo. Visually, von Trier lends a visceral yet dreamlike vision of Doomsday, while the ominous overture of Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde” cleverly foreshadows later events. Slow-motion sequences, drawn faces and a warped vision of reality; the elements of a von Trier ideal are all there. But Melancholia is a film where determining a definite opinion proves difficult, and to judge it on a first viewing is perhaps unfair to von Trier. Exploring it again to understand his thoughts on the end of our existence would serve it better.
Verdict
Unlike von Trier himself, Melancholia is surprisingly uncontroversial in content, but remains an interesting take on the psychology of the apocalypse.
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For more of Katina’s coverage of the 2011 Cannes film festival, click here.
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