Sadness in Melancholia – Review

Yet another polarising piece from Lars Von Trier ! The ‘ like it hate it’ syndrome applies strongly with MELANCH0LIA. I fall firmly into the ‘ like it’ camp. I am not alone, as it was nominated for the Palme d’Or in Cannes this year and Kirsten Dunst won the Best Actress Award there for it. In all it has won 27 Awards and had 29 nominations.

Lars Von Trier may be the gloomiest Dane since Hamlet and his pessimistic view of humanity and existence is powerfully running though this film, but its beauty is undeniable. The Cinematography is ravishing. The visual tableaux and semi surrealistic shots he lays before us are wonderful.

The film opens with a series of seemingly strange and unsetting shots that are accompanied by the music from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. The story then commences in two parts. The first is titled ‘Justine’, the second ‘Claire’. Justine is Kirsten Dunst, all alabaster and shiny in her wedding gown en route to be married to Michael ( Alexander Skarsgard) at the majestically rich mansion of her sister Claire ( Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her husband John ( Kiefer Sutherland). You have met dysfunctional families on screen before, with members bitterly at odds with other and so individually eccentric and peculiar they may be certifiably mad. But this family takes some beating. The mother is played by Charlotte Rampling and Justine’s father is John Hurt. Stellan Skarsgard is also at the wedding. He is Justine’s boss at her advertizing agency job. The wedding celebration is a disaster and Justine unravels mentally and emotionally.

At the same time as these joyless events are underway, a planet named Melancholia is hurtling at great speed on what appears to be a catastrophic collision course with Earth. Many scientists assure the world that it will miss by hundreds of thousands of miles and there is to naught to fear. Others are certain that the collision is inevitable and that we are facing the absolute end of the world – literally. (The old 50′s Hollywood sci-fi movie WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE comes to mind.)

Negatives ? Many may find that it reminds them slightly of TREE OF LIFE, in that their directors are being grandiose and creating almost their personal magnum opus in film. Pretentious perhaps. This did not bother me one whit. My sole negative was ( yet again, and again and again) the hand held camera sweeps. But when the cinematography was flawlessly executed (with unforgettable images such as Dunst lying naked in the woods by a translucent pool, bathed only in the glow of the approaching planet Melancholia – or the tracking shot from high above as she and Claire ride horses along a narrow, straight country road through tendrils of fog or the ruined lives and minds of the family as they do battle amid the splendours of the Versailles-like mansion ) it was extraordinary.

Esoteric, provocative, lush, dark – this film is above all, a career defining role for Kirsten Dunst. I seriously did not know she could be that good. You can see, clearly and dramatically, her demons take hold, and her face held tautly in a rictus of a smile while all light and hope is extinguished from her eyes.

As mentioned at the start – I doubt you will get many fence-sitters here. Some will find it lugubrious and bleak. I can only say that I was drawn in hopelessly from the first scenes and found the aesthetics and acting performances to be dazzling. It is quite a finale also !! For those who like happy endings, I can only say, remember your Dante and ‘ abandon all hope ye who enter here’. Four and a half stars ( without the hand held moments it would be five. )