Melancholia (2011)

Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with the Earth.

Director:

Lars von Trier

Writer:

Lars von Trier

Stars:

Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander Skarsgård

31 wins & 46 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kirsten Dunst	...	Justine
Charlotte Gainsbourg	...	Claire
Alexander Skarsgård	...	Michael
Brady Corbet	...	Tim
Cameron Spurr	...	Leo
Charlotte Rampling	...	Gaby
Jesper Christensen	...	Little Father
John Hurt	...	Dexter
Stellan Skarsgård	...	Jack
Udo Kier	...	Wedding Planner
Kiefer Sutherland	...	John
James Cagnard	...	Michael's Father
Deborah Fronko	...	Michael's Mother
Charlotta Miller	...	Betty 1
Claire Miller	...	Betty 2

Storyline

On the night of her wedding, Justine is struggling to be happy even though it should be the happiest day of her life. It was an extravagant wedding paid for by her sister and brother-in-law who are trying to keep the bride and all the guests in-line. Meanwhile, Melancholia, a blue planet, is hurtling towards the Earth. Claire, Justine's sister, is struggling to maintain composure with fear of the impending disaster.

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Plot Keywords:

disaster | fear | title appears in writing | topless female nudity | wedding cake | 

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Taglines:

Enjoy it while it lasts

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Genres:

Drama | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some graphic nudity,sexual content and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Facebook [us]

Country:

Denmark Sweden France Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 May 2011 (Denmark)

Also Known As:

Melancolía

Filming Locations:

Tjolöholm Castle, Fjärås, Sweden

Box Office

Budget:

$7,400,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$257,174 (USA) (11 November 2011)

Gross:

$3,029,870 (USA) (24 February 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Zentropa Entertainments, Memfis Film, Zentropa International Sweden

Technical Specs

Runtime:

136 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to Lars von Trier, 'Hole 19' is 'limbo'.

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Goofs

Justine is walking out onto the front field towards the golf course and lake at night. As she is looking up at the planet a crew person is seen walking between two hedges to the upper right.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Michael: Sir. Eh...
[looking backward]
Michael: Yeah, you're good. You can back up a little more, if you want. I think you need the... I think you need that extra...
Justine: [laughing] I don't think he can hear you.
Michael: Sir. Sir, can you hear me up there?
[fiddling with controls]
Michael: Do you copy, sailor? He's in a different county, I think that's...
Justine: [laughing]

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Connections

Referenced in At the Movies: 25 Years of Margaret & David (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Tristan und Isolde"
Written by Richard Wagner

User Reviews

Lars von Trier's Wagnerian opera of 2011 - the Ragnarok of western capitalism

Melancholia is LVT's Wagnerian opera. Justine is a mythological creation. She is the white goddess, Diana bathing, la Belle Dame Sans Merci, Cassandra tormented by futurity. It ends in Gottedammerung, the destruction of the world.

The Cannes jury was right to honour it. In 2, 10 or 100 years this will be manifestly THE film of 2011, capturing as it does this precise historical moment, on the cusp of epochs. More than just an economic crisis, or even the end of Western capitalism, or the American Century, or of Europe - though it is all that - it is the consummation in fire of all we have ever known. Leaders and experts sit mesmerised and powerless, making reassuring noises, or setting aside puny provisions; taking shelter in denial or custom. While Melancholia and Earth act out their dance of death; gravity, the most ineluctable force in the universe, does its work.

Justine, being incapable of happiness, is therefore incapable of illusion. She has always known. Herself untouched by affect, by human assimilation or persuasion, she writes the killer tag lines which manipulate others. Having a damaged soul, she suffers from a disorder of perception - she sees things as they actually are. She knows precisely how many beans are in the jar -like those who called the top of the Dow Jones index, at 12807 exactly. On one level, she represents the spirit of financialisation, the final, hottest white dwarf phase of capitalism, quantifying, inhumane, ultra-competitive (seen also in Skaarsgard's brutal ad boss, and in the brother-in-law who paid for the wedding - "an arm and a leg, for most people" -he means it literally I think - chilling!) And, like the Sybil, Justine wants to die. She wills the destruction of herself and everything else. 'The Earth is evil.'

LVT is the holy idiot of European cinema. Much as Justine destroys her stellar career, then hours later, in the garden, consciously and irrevocably obliterates her marriage and future happiness, so LVT - in the most perfect example of parallel process - in his acceptance speech at Cannes compulsively befouls himself, his credibility, future opportunities, his film and all associated with it. (Poor Dunst, beside him. Did she always know? I wonder.)

Which brings me to Kirsten Dunst.Once the all-American teenage sweetie in some of my favourite films.(The US invented the teenager, much as the English Victorians invented childhood, and its richest and most creative seam of film and TV deal with this stage of life. In a way, America is the world's teenager; and all teenagers are Americans by proxy.) In fact, Dunst is German-American, with all the ancestral baggage that implies. (Read Sylvia Plath's 'Daddy' if you don't know what I mean). Beneath the apple-pie sunny exterior of her teen roles, there was always something remote and uncanny about her beauty. And now, with teen / young adult roles behind her, this strangeness, this well, German-ness, is exposed. In the riveting opening shots of 'Melancholia' she looks like Marlene Dietrich - unheimlich, fascinating. Like la Belle Dame Sans Merci, she takes possession of a man through his unconscious: like the groom in the film, he will follow her, exchanging all that is dear - home, family and hope of happiness - for bitterness and despair.

In the scene in the limo, the earliest, lightest part of the story, she seems American, in accent, face, body, She becomes less American , more northern European, and ultimately less like a human being at all, as her story unwinds. Those who criticise the inconsistency in her accent are missing the point. The change is about the character, not her nationality, which is purposely vague. (In fact, in what country does the film take place? Would you ask that question of 'the Ring'?)

I get the impression that just as Lars is working through some issues around his German-ness – hence the Wagnerianism -, so is Dunst, which must have made his Cannes performance doubly excruciating. (I hear she wants to be called 'Keersten' now, pronounced the German way.) For the girl who has been being other people superbly well from her childhood, it seems to me that Dunst the adult truly exposes something painfully real of herself in this film. ('Exposing' is the right word in every way.)

And she pulls it off. The film is stunning. She is stunning, and thoroughly deserves Best Actress. Bravo, Lars von Trier!