I have seen Lars Von Trier's "Melancholia" twice now, the first time about a month ago and then again just last night. It deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible with the fewest possible distractions, though that is not to suggest that the emotional weight or existential subtext are somehow diminished on a living room TV set. But the images that comprise "Melancholia," many of which depict the impending collision of Earth with a planet that had been "hiding behind the sun" until just recently, are spectacular. It is surely the year's most gorgeous production, despite the fundamentally hideous subject matter of an utterly consuming depression and the lack of all hope for brighter days ahead.
Kirsten Dunst has never been better, not even close, and for the actress "Melancholia" represents a major breakthrough not just in terms of performance art but also as an act of internal psychological warfare that must have been nothing short of full-press reductive emotional therapy. Dunst plays Justine, the bride to whom Von Trier's film dedicates its first of two parts. Charlotte Gainsbourg, who thankfully retains both her own clitoris and the psychosexual dignity she so graphically sacrificed for the Danish director's last film, "Antichrist," plays Dunst's sister Claire, to whom "Melancholia" devotes its second half (literally, as in "Part Two: Claire").
Part One takes place entirely at Justine's wedding reception, to which she arrives late and frequently vanishes from, tiptoeing off wordlessly whenever she can get away from the generic well-wishers and a typically Danish depiction of family dysfunction. Claire, meanwhile, is stuck keeping up appearances and adhering inexplicably to the event's rigidly scheduled agenda, even as the bride herself is nowhere to be found (until she is, usually whispering upstairs in various states of tearful undress) and the dumbfounded groom (Alexander Skarsgaard, miles away from his ruthlessly sexy badass vampire Eric on "True Blood") hasn't got the words to be of much assistance. Keifer Sutherland plays Claire's husband, the filthy rich owner of the stunning
John Hurt and Charlotte Rampling are deliciously awful as the sisters' long-divorced, infinitely resentful parents, who represent equally sad ends of the shitty, insidiously fucked-up parent spectrum. Dad calls every woman "Betty" and never stops chuckling at the joke, and he repeatedly asks the waiter for new spoons for his table after blatantly stowing them in his shirt pocket for show. Mom, meanwhile, announces in her wedding toast that she hates marriage almost as much as her pathetic, ambition-less ex-husband, finally advising an increasingly glazed-eyed Justine to "enjoy it while it lasts." Even as Justine sinks farther and farther into a visible malaise, going through the ceremonial motions with evident disinterest and a deep hurt behind her eyes, the party goes on, with guests behaving as if this is the best party of their lives.
Part Two ("Claire") switches focus to the subservient Gainsbourg character, who is stuck caring for the literally incompetent zombie Justine has now become in the time after the wedding. Claire does her best, despite Kiefer's vocalized disapproval of the life-sucking depressive leech of a houseguest who sleeps all day, cannot bathe herself, and refuses to eat a damn thing. When Claire prepares Justine's favorite meal, meatloaf, finally luring her despondent sister from bed to the dinner table for the first time, Justine takes one bite, begins sobbing, and spits it out onto her plate, blubbering through tears that "it tastes like ashes."
The unlikely cure for Justine's depression comes in the form of literal Melancholia, the name of the planet that is on a collision course with Earth. As Justine begins to awaken from her paralytic depression, coming back to life with the news of a probable apocalypse to end all humanity, the sisters effectively switch places, with Claire becoming increasingly anxious and unglued in turn with Justine's return to form as a functional person. Kiefer is a know-it-all science type who Claire trusts implicitly because "he studies things" and because he announces his authority with every declaration about the planetary spectacle that is about to happen.
Kiefer insists that every scientist worth his beakers has already declared the planet a "fly-by," assuring Claire that Melancholia will merely pass by Earth and not collide at all, providing not just that humanity survives a near-miss but more importantly, the biggest and most beautiful experience of our lives. With a young son asking sweetly curious questions, and the approaching planet becoming more and more visible, causing weather and animals and electric mechanisms to behave erratically, Claire's formerly collected self disappears into the same black hole that sucked Justine into the depths of despair.
The whole picture is mesmerizing, from the wordless eight-minute opening sequence depicting the end of the world in slow motion and the film's central characters going through the (slow) motions of the plot to come, to the dazzling spectacle in the final act of Melancholia entering Earth's atmosphere and causing shit to hit the fan. Dunst won the Best Actress prize at Cannes this year, a real testament to the strength of her work here considering the notorious Nazi talk that got Von Trier, European cinema's favorite enfant terrible, declared persona non grata by festival authorities, a fancy way of saying Von Trier was booted from the rest of Cannes' proceedings for being a tasteless asshole. I don't care much about his misguided attempt at humor, but I do care about the serious masterpiece he's made here.
"Melancholia" might just be Von Trier's best film yet, a real achievement considering "Dancer in the Dark," "Breaking the Waves" and "Dogville" are unanimously stunning and equally challenging works of high art. It opens in theaters here in the U.S. on November 11, and should roll out slowly nationwide over the holidays. BUT you can apparently watch it (rent? buy? Not sure) on iTunes in advance of theatrical release as part of distributor Magnolia Films' new V.O.D. (video on demand) distribution infrastructure...like I said before, just make sure you watch it on the biggest screen you can find and give it your full attention. Beyond that, see if however you can.
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