Melancholia

MOVIE #1,113 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 08.17.23 RANKING LARS VON TRIER: #7 The second chapter of LVT’s “Depression Trilogy” is another genre experiment and it’s crazy that he’s doing this so late into his storied career. This never gives off sci-fi notes in any traditional way (hard sci-fi, at least) and that’s probably to be expected. But it nevertheless fits into that mold (in addition to being a disaster/doomsday prepper offshoot, as well). Told in two parts with an otherworldly fantasy-style introduction, Melancholia tells the story of an ill-fated wedding night where the looming destruction of the earth is only hinted at (we do, however, see this inevitability in said intro segment). But, this being von Trier, we didn’t necessarily need to see the rogue planet colliding with earth to know how it was going to end. It could only end in one way: with a hopeless and fatal sadness. Or, in the eye’s of the tragically, irreparably depressed person: perfectly.

The film is sprinkled with subtle details, character quirks I found to be uncommon for a von Trier film. These added to the sense that this production was aiming at something fundamentally different with its form, almost as if it was satirizing a mainstream movie of outwardly similar ilk. For example, Kirsten Dunst’s nephew calls her Aunt Steelbreaker throughout the film. But this odd, superhero-sounding nickname’s origin story is never explained. It’s the perfect detail, just out of reach of our ability to fully understand it. It’s the kind of juxtaposition LVT loves, asking far more questions than it answers.

On the heels of the divisive Antichrist, it’s striking just how normal this movie is. In many ways, it feels like the biggest and most classic Film he’s ever made. From its bombastic soundtrack prominently featuring the music of Richard Wagner to its playful use of a wedding gone awry to set the action, it’s as if von Trier is mocking the very notion of a Big Hollywood Movie while also utilizing its form to get across his ideas.

The idea for the film emerged while he was in treatment for the depression that has haunted him in recent years. A therapist told him a theory that depressives and melancholics act more calmly in violent situations, while “ordinary, happy" people are more apt to panic. Melancholics are ready for it. They already know everything is going to hell. (“The Only Redeeming Factor is the World Ending”, The Danish Film Institute)

Whereas Antichrist tackled depression from the sick and depraved viewpoint of someone entangled in its web, Melancholia suggests an outside look: both how it affects the people around the ill person, and the simple notion that the infliction is so much bigger than they could ever truly comprehend and, ultimately, out of their control. In Antichrist, it's mother nature that is inherently evil, the causation for humans’ irrational and illogical behavior. But in Melancholia the root cause is less of the focus: why people are evil and/or destructive isn’t the point. It’s that they must pay the price for this behavior, one way or another. The destruction of the planet is secondary to what was already lost and not coming back.

Two children are killed in a flashback in both films: one at the very beginning (Antichrist) and one at the very end (Melancholia). The latter is the result of neglect and the former from a catastrophic, uncontrollable event. But it seems as if the cosmic force, the energy in both instances, is the same. Melancholia is the more successful movie, not because of its restraint in comparison, but because of the nuanced angle it takes. There is an acceptance here. It’s just as, if not more bleak than the previous entry, but it doesn’t necessarily come across that way. At one point Kirsten Dunst, suffering from an incurable depression, corrects herself: she says “the earth is evil” before landing on “life on earth is evil.” The earth — functioning as it does as a conceptual notion of human consciousness — can never be good or evil. It has a built-in expiration date even if that notion is impossible to grapple with for the ‘normal’ human mind. What Melancholia seems to propose is that the depressed CAN unpack that idea. And it’s perhaps the only reason she’s able to find peace at the end of the world.

ranking lars von trier cont'd
#8 ↩ • ↪ #6

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Melancholia is a 2011 apocalyptic psychological drama thriller art film written and directed by Lars von Trier and starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Kiefer Sutherland, with Alexander Skarsgård, Brady Corbet, Cameron Spurr, Charlotte Rampling, Jesper Christensen, John Hurt, Stellan Skarsgård, and Udo Kier in supporting roles. The film's story revolves around two sisters, one of whom marries just before a rogue planet is about to collide with Earth. Melancholia is the second film in von Trier's unofficially titled Depression Trilogy. It was preceded in 2009 by Antichrist and followed by Nymphomaniac in 2013. It was released on May 18, 2011.