Melancholia (2011 film)

Melancholia
File:Melancholia Poster.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Lars von Trier
Written by	Lars von Trier
Produced by	Meta Louise Foldager Louise Vesth
Starring	Kirsten Dunst Charlotte Gainsbourg Kiefer Sutherland
Cinematography	Manuel Alberto Claro
Edited by	Molly Malene Stensgaard
Production company	Zentropa
Distributed by	Nordisk Film
Release dates	18 May 2011 (2011-05-18) (Cannes Film Festival) 26 May 2011 (2011-05-26) (Denmark)
Running time	130 minutes
Country	Template:Film Denmark
Language	English
Budget	52.5 million kr
Box office	$1,970,588

Melancholia is a 2011 science fiction drama film written and directed by Lars von Trier, starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kiefer Sutherland. The narrative revolves around two sisters in dispute while the life of the planet is threatened as a rogue planet approaches, portending a deadly collision. Trier's main idea for the film was to dramatise how a depressive person reacts more calmly than others in a situation of high stress. The film was a Danish majority production through Zentropa, with international co-producers in Sweden, France, Germany and Italy. Filming took place in Sweden. The film makes references to romantic art and prominently features Richard Wagner's overture from Tristan und Isolde.

The film premiered in May 2011 at the 64th Cannes Film Festival, where its press conference gained notoriety when the director made jokes about Hitler and Nazis, which eventually made the festival declare him "persona non grata". Dunst received the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actress Award for her performance.

Plot

The film begins with an introductory sequence, with a number of stylised images of the main characters as well as images from space. The end of the world is shown in the form of a collision between Earth and a larger planet. Melancholia is thereafter divided into two parts.

In part one, called Justine, the young couple Justine and Michael are getting married at a castle, but the party is far from successful, as Justine's divorced parents, Dexter and Gaby, are openly fighting at the dinner. Justine herself is both alienated from her sister, her new husband, her boss and her parents. She drifts away from the party, and becomes increasingly sad and desperate during the night. At several occasions, she looks at a specific star, which seems to shine brighter than normal. Claire's husband John says it is the star Antares, and later in the film the star disappears. At the end of the party, Michael leaves Justine, implying that their marriage is called off.

In part two, called Claire, Justine has initially become severely depressed. She visits Claire and John, who live in the same castle with their son Leo. To begin with, Justine is unable to do normal everyday things like taking a bath or eat, but becomes more confident over time. It has been revealed that the reason for Antares' disappearance was the rogue planet Melancholia, which had previously been hidden behind the sun, had eclipsed the star. At the same time, Melancholia, a blue telluric planet (or super-earth), has become visible in the sky. John, being very keen on astronomy, is excited about the planet, and looks forward to the so-called "fly-by", as Earth and Melancholia are supposed to pass by each other without collision.

Claire is very fearful about the planet, and believes it is the end of the world. On the night of the fly-by, it seems like John was right, as Melancholia passes by Earth in a near-miss. After the first flyby, background birdsong abruptly ceases, in reference to the falling leaves and dead birds glimpsed behind Justine in the opening frames of the film. At the same time, horses calm down from an earlier state of agitation.

In the following days, however, it turns out that Melancholia is coming back around. As John finds out, he commits suicide by taking pills. His dead body is found by Claire, who decides to keep it a secret. She then talks to her sister, who is extremely cynical about the impending doom. She doesn't believe that life exists elsewhere in the cosmos. While Claire descends into grief and madness, trying futilely to evade the oncoming destruction with Leo in her arms, Justine remains calm and enigmatically silent, seemingly accepting the forthcoming apocalypse. Their interpersonal relationship has become inverted, with Claire now dependent on Justine for emotional and psychological support.

However, later Justine tries to comfort Leo by building a crude shelter out of wooden sticks. The film ends with Justine, Claire and Leo sitting inside the shelter, as Melancholia collides, destroying Earth. Notably, Claire is still grief-stricken and fearful, while Justine and Leo remain calm until the very end.

Cast

• Kirsten Dunst as Justine, a young woman with a promising career and a seemingly perfect life. She experiences depression and becomes more cynical during the second half of the film, but also visibly stronger in response to the impending events.
• Charlotte Gainsbourg as Claire, sister of Justine, mother of Leo and wife of John. Claire is a more vulnerable woman than her sister, being a lot more affected by the coming end of the world.
• Kiefer Sutherland as John, husband of Claire, who appears to have a very optimistic and logical view about the planet Melancholia.
• Alexander Skarsgård as Michael, the newly-wed husband of Justine, who leaves her on their wedding night. Incidently, Alexander Skarsgård is the son of Stellan Skarsgård, whose character (Jack) is a best man to Michael.
• Cameron Spurr as Leo, the young son of Claire and John, who seems to help Justine throughout her depression. She returns his affection and comforts him during the second half of the film, holding his hand during the apocalypse.
• Charlotte Rampling as Gaby, the bitter and cynical ex-wife of Dexter, and mother of Justine and Claire.
• John Hurt as Dexter, the fun-loving father of Justine and Claire, and ex-husband of Gaby.
• Jesper Christensen as Little Father, the house butler.
• Stellan Skarsgård as Jack, the self-centered and manipulative boss of Justine.
• Brady Corbet as Tim, a young trainee for Jack, who follows Justine around on her wedding night. Tim and Justine have a brief sexual encounter during the first half of the film.
• Udo Kier as The Wedding Planner, who, as a comic relief, is disappointed by Justine, not living up to his expectations as a bride.

Production

Development

The idea for the film originated during a therapy session Lars von Trier attended because he suffers from depression. A therapist had told Trier that depressive people tend to act more calmly than others under heavy pressure, because they already expect bad things to happen. Trier then developed the story not primarily as a disaster film, and without any ambition to portray astrophysics realistically, but as a way to examine the human psyche during a disaster.

"In a James Bond movie we expect the hero to survive. It can get exciting nonetheless. And some things may be thrilling precisely because we know what's going to happen, but not how they will happen. In Melancholia it's interesting to see how the characters we follow react as the planet approaches Earth."

Trier on his decision to reveal the ending in the beginning of the film

The idea of a planetary collision was inspired by websites about such potential events. Trier decided from the outset that it would be clear from the beginning that the world actually will end in the film, so the audience would not be distracted by the suspense of not knowing the resolution. The concept of the two sisters as main characters developed via a letter exchange between Trier and the Spanish actress Penélope Cruz. Cruz wrote that she would like to work with Trier, and spoke enthusiastically about the play The Maids by Jean Genet. As Trier subsequently tried to write a role for the actress, the two maids from the play evolved into the sisters Justine and Claire in Melancholia. Much of the personality of the character Justine was based on Trier himself. The name was inspired by the novel Justine by Marquis de Sade.

Melancholia was produced by Denmark's Zentropa, with co-production support from its subsidiary in Germany, Sweden's Memfis Film, France's Slot Machine and Liberator Productions and Italy's Pappagallo Films. The production received 7.9 million Danish kroner from the Danish Film Institute, 600,000 euro from Eurimages and 3 million Swedish kronor from the Swedish Film Institute. Additional funding was provided by Film i Väst, DR, Arte France, CNC, Canal+, BIM Italy, Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Sveriges Television and Nordisk Film- & TV-Fond. The total budget was 52.5 million Danish kroner.

Cruz was initially attached to play the lead role, but dropped out when the filming schedule of another project was changed. Trier then offered the role to Kirsten Dunst, who accepted it. Dunst had been suggested for the role by the American filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson in a discussion about the film between him and Trier.

Filming

Tjolöholm Castle, where exterior scenes were filmed.

Principal photography began 22 July and ended 8 September 2010. Interior scenes were shot at Film i Väst's studios in Trollhättan, Sweden. It was the fourth time Trier made a film in Trollhättan. Exteriors included the area surrounding the Tjolöholm Castle. The film was recorded digitally with Arri Alexa and Phantom cameras. Trier employed his usual directing style with no rehearsals; instead the actors improvised and received instructions between the takes. The camera was initially operated by Trier, and then left to cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro who repeated Trier's movements. Claro said about the method: "[Trier] wants to experience the situations the first time. He finds an energy in the scenes, presence, and makes up with the photographic aesthetics." Trier explained that the visual style he aimed at in Melancholia was "a clash between what is romantic and grand and stylized and then some form of reality", which he hoped to achieve through the hand-held camerawork. He feared however that it would tilt too much toward the romantic, because of the setting at the upscale wedding, and the castle which he called "super kitschy".

Post-production

The overture from Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde is used as the main musical theme of the film. This choice was inspired by a 30-page section of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, where Proust concludes that Wagner's overture is the greatest work of art of all time. Melancholia uses music more than any film by Trier since The Element of Crime from 1984. In some scenes, the film was edited in the same pace as the music. Trier said: "It's kind of like a music video that way. It's supposed to be vulgar." Trier also pointed out parallels between both Wagner and editing to the music and the aesthetics of Nazi Germany.

Visual effects were provided by companies in Poland, Germany and Sweden under special effects supervisor Peter Hjorth. Poland's Platige Image, which previously had worked with Trier on Antichrist, created most of the effects seen in the film's opening sequence; the earliest instructions were provided by Trier in the summer 2010, after which a team of 19 graphic artists worked on the project for three months.

Release

Soon before the film's premiere, Trier published a "director's statement", where he wrote that he had started to regret having made such a polished film, but that he hoped it would contain some flaws which would make it interesting. The director wrote: "I desired to dive headlong into the abyss of German romanticism. ... But is that not just another way of expressing defeat? Defeat to the lowest of cinematic common denominators? Romance is abused in all sorts of endlessly dull ways in mainstream products."

Trier at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival

The premiere took place at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where the Melancholia was screened in competition on 18 May. The press conference after the screening gained considerable publicity. The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Roxborough wrote that "Von Trier has never been very P.C. and his Cannes press conferences always play like a dark stand-up routine, but at the Melancholia press conference he took it to another level, tossing a grenade into any sense of public decorum." Trier first joked about working on a hardcore pornographic film which would star Dunst and Gainsbourg. When he was asked about the relation between the influences of German Romanticism in Melancholia and Trier's own German heritage, the director brought up the fact that he had been raised believing his biological father was a Jew, only to learn as an adult that his actual father was German. He then made jokes about Hitler and Nazis, said he understood Adolf Hitler and admired the work of architect Albert Speer, and jokingly announced that he was a Nazi. The Cannes Film Festival issued an official apology for the remarks the same day and clarified that Trier is not a Nazi or an antisemite, then declared the director "persona non grata" the following day. In practice this meant that he was not allowed to go within 100 meters from the Festival Palace. He did however stay in Cannes and continued to give promotional interviews.

The film was released in Denmark on 26 May 2011 through Nordisk Film. Launched on 57 screens, the film entered the box-office chart as number three. A total of 50,000 tickets were eventually sold in Denmark. Artificial Eye will release the film in the United Kingdom on 30 September the same year. Magnolia Pictures acquired the distribution rights for North America and will release it on 11 November. Madman Entertainment bought the rights for Australia and New Zealand.

Reception

The film has received mostly positive reviews. Kim Skotte of Politiken wrote that "there are images - many images - in Melancholia which underline that Lars von Trier is a unique film storyteller", and "the choice of material and treatment of it underlines Lars von Trier's originality." Skotte also compared it to the director's previous film: "Through its material and look, Melancholia creates rifts, but unlike Antichrist I don't feel that there is a fence pole in the rift which is smashed directly down into the meat. You sit on your seat in the cinema and mildly marveled go along in the end of the world." Berlingske's Ebbe Iversen wrote about the film: "It is big, it is enigmatic, and now and then rather irritating. But it is also a visionary work, which makes a gigantic impression." The critic continued: "From time to time the film moves on the edge of kitsch, but with Kirsten Dunst as Justine and Charlotte Gainsbourg as Claire in front, Melancholia is a bold, uneven, unruly and completely unforgettable film."

Sukhdev Sandhu wrote from Cannes in The Daily Telegraph that the film "at times comes close to being a tragi-comic opera about the end of the world", and that "The apocalypse, when it comes, is so beautifully rendered that the film cements the quality of fairy tale that its palatial setting suggests." About the acting performances, Sandhu wrote: "All of them are excellent here, but Dunst is exceptional, so utterly convincing in the lead role – trouble, serene, a fierce savant – that it feels like a career breakthrough. ... Meanwhile, Gainsbourg, for whom the end of the world must seem positively pastoral after the horrors she went through in Antichrist, locates in Claire a fragility that ensures she's more than a whipping girl for social satire." Sandhu brought up one reservation in the review, in which he gave the film the highest possible rating of five stars: "there is, as always with Von Trier's work, a degree of intellectual determinism that can be off-putting; he illustrates rather than truly explore ideas." Peter Bradshaw, writing for The Guardian, called the film "clunky" and "tiresome", judging it to be "conceived with[out] real passion or imagination", and not "well written or convincingly acted in any way at all", and gave it two stars out of a possible five.

Dunst received the Best Actress Award at the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival.

See also

• 2011 in film
• Cinema of Denmark
• Impact events in popular culture
• List of apocalyptic films

External links

• Official website
• Melancholia at IMDb
• Melancholia at Rotten Tomatoes