Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.
- Awards
- 35 wins & 95 nominations
Videos6
Katrine A. Sahlstrøm
- Girl with Guitaras Girl with Guitar
- (as Katrine Acheche Sahlstrøm)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
Storyline
On the night of her wedding, Justine (Kirsten Dunst) 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 (Charlotte Gainsbourg), Justine's sister, is struggling to maintain composure with fear of the impending disaster. —napierslogs
- Taglines
- Enjoy it while it lasts
- Genres
- Certificate
- K-11
- Parents guide
Did you know
- TriviaThe image of Justine (Kirsten Dunst) floating down the stream with her bouquet was inspired by John Everett Millais' 1852 painting "Ophelia."
- GoofsThere is no reason for Melancholia to cause electricity problems on earth. However, its gravitational pull would have caused earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to tidal forces. These would have been globally destructive long before any actual collision.
- ConnectionsEdited into 5 Second Movies: Melancholia (2011)
- SoundtracksExcerpts from Tristan und Isolde
Music: Richard Wagner
Orchestra: The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (as The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra)
Conductor: Richard Hein
Recorder: Jan Holzner
Solo cello: Henrik Dam Thomsen
Arrangements by Kristian Eidnes Andersen
Top review
What the Hell????
Not to ramble strongly for or against this film, I can see why many people would love it and why many people would hate it. It's very unusual of a movie, has a strong feeling of artisticness, which gives it an advantage.
Unfortunately it hardly has any story or plot and barely anything happens in the film, as well as the two main parts are totally incohesive. The first half of the movie is about a depressed sister getting married, which shows a really strong depth to her hopelessness.
However, half way through the movie, it switches focus to the other sister, where miraculously, everyone else in the film but the sisters, her son, and her husband, simply leave. The entire second half of the film really has no connection to the first half except that it shares 3 of the same characters. Mid-film, it switches from a drama to a sci-fi, and I'm still at a loss whether to like the idea or abhor it.
There really is no cohesiveness to the two parts of the movie, so it almost seems like the writer either couldn't think of a full-length script and put two separate ones together, or thought it would be clever/genius to do so. The second part, given that there are only 3 characters (other than a little boy), is dull. The majority of the dialogue (and there is little) is a back-and-forth paranoid conversation with the husband and wife about whether or not this planet in the sky is going to hit the earth. There is no actual conflict, nothing that can be done about it, and totally makes no sense as a film, except to convey something apparently profound about the human soul or something. I dunno.
The constant replaying of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde as the entirety of the film's soundtrack gets quite annoying fairly quickly. Especially when it's the same part played over and over.
Two final things leave me with a sense of frustration/disappointment. The film's climax is the collision of this blue planet with earth and the characters do nothing in the film other than pointless dialog and running around. The film ends quite suddenly and while the cinematography seems beautiful, I really wonder what the whole point was. There was no story other than what can be described in a short sentence: Two sisters, a husband and their small boy are at a hotel golf resort to observe a blue planet 'moving past' Earth, mostly with dialog of depression and paranoia, when in fact it ends up colliding. The end.
My final gripe is Kiefer Sutherland's character. As an astronomer, he observes this blue projectile planet and is convinced that it will just pass Earth by. Yet when he realizes it doesn't, he ends up committing suicide, leaving his wife and young son behind. I can understand fear and hopelessness and surprise on his part, but what the heck kind of father/husband leaves his wife/child behind when the world is going to end, not doing everything possible to protect/comfort/care for them? It was stupid and didn't add anything to the story other than make me not like it. Not just the character, but the movie as a whole. Why would I want to spend 2 hours of my time watching dullness and nothingness that just is meant to make me feel depressed? It's artistic and beautiful, but sometimes making art into a film just doesn't work for me.
Unfortunately it hardly has any story or plot and barely anything happens in the film, as well as the two main parts are totally incohesive. The first half of the movie is about a depressed sister getting married, which shows a really strong depth to her hopelessness.
However, half way through the movie, it switches focus to the other sister, where miraculously, everyone else in the film but the sisters, her son, and her husband, simply leave. The entire second half of the film really has no connection to the first half except that it shares 3 of the same characters. Mid-film, it switches from a drama to a sci-fi, and I'm still at a loss whether to like the idea or abhor it.
There really is no cohesiveness to the two parts of the movie, so it almost seems like the writer either couldn't think of a full-length script and put two separate ones together, or thought it would be clever/genius to do so. The second part, given that there are only 3 characters (other than a little boy), is dull. The majority of the dialogue (and there is little) is a back-and-forth paranoid conversation with the husband and wife about whether or not this planet in the sky is going to hit the earth. There is no actual conflict, nothing that can be done about it, and totally makes no sense as a film, except to convey something apparently profound about the human soul or something. I dunno.
The constant replaying of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde as the entirety of the film's soundtrack gets quite annoying fairly quickly. Especially when it's the same part played over and over.
Two final things leave me with a sense of frustration/disappointment. The film's climax is the collision of this blue planet with earth and the characters do nothing in the film other than pointless dialog and running around. The film ends quite suddenly and while the cinematography seems beautiful, I really wonder what the whole point was. There was no story other than what can be described in a short sentence: Two sisters, a husband and their small boy are at a hotel golf resort to observe a blue planet 'moving past' Earth, mostly with dialog of depression and paranoia, when in fact it ends up colliding. The end.
My final gripe is Kiefer Sutherland's character. As an astronomer, he observes this blue projectile planet and is convinced that it will just pass Earth by. Yet when he realizes it doesn't, he ends up committing suicide, leaving his wife and young son behind. I can understand fear and hopelessness and surprise on his part, but what the heck kind of father/husband leaves his wife/child behind when the world is going to end, not doing everything possible to protect/comfort/care for them? It was stupid and didn't add anything to the story other than make me not like it. Not just the character, but the movie as a whole. Why would I want to spend 2 hours of my time watching dullness and nothingness that just is meant to make me feel depressed? It's artistic and beautiful, but sometimes making art into a film just doesn't work for me.
helpful•3531
- t_maly
- Oct 31, 2011
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Melancolía
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $7,400,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $3,030,848
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $257,174
- Nov 13, 2011
- Gross worldwide
- $17,039,814
- Runtime
- 2h 15min
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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