Monday 10 October 2011

Melancholia - Lars Von Trier

Contains spoilers

Justine suffers from depression. She is detached. She is sad. She is mournful. She feels things both deeper and not at all. She is a foreign body weighed down by the world. Her emptiness has such mass, this black bile.


At first things simply happen to her: a wedding she cannot delight in, a job that follows her all the way to the reception. As the night draws in she withdraws from the festivities and, through apathetic bitterness, takes control. Her active disinterest makes her husband see that their marriage is already null ("What did you expect?"). She erupts in a vicious parting shot at her selfish boss. She doesn't want the rituals, the constraints of position. She doesn't want the company. These are the death throes of social niceties. This is the casting off of artifice.

The next day, with the reception over, she falls deeper into depression, unable to eat or wash or even get out of bed. She seems defeated.

As night turns to day and as our focus moves from the disastrous wedding to the threat of looming planetary catastrophe, Justine moves (slowly, as if across the night sky) from mourning...to acceptance...to complicity.

Somehow knowing her fate, she succumbs to it. Nay, welcomes it. Her and it are magnetised and in unison. Melancholia has destroyed her life and now it will end it. She, suffering for too long, believes that the world is "evil" and that "no-one will miss it". Before Justine's depression appeared like mourning. Now she stands in a sublime and calm detachment. There is nothing to lose.

Her sister Claire, meanwhile, seeing the end coming, trembles from her very soul. The film's power comes from these two opposing forces - halting panic and the dark eye of peacefulness.

*            *            * 

It is wrenching to see Justine suffer. It is painful to see her tangled in the grey roots of melancholy and to see Claire's passionate love for her sister disguised in passionate loathing : "sometimes I hate you so much". Cynicism and nothingness show the opposite. It is amusing and triumphant to hear her scorn her sister's tasteful plans to celebrate annihilation with a glass of wine on the patio ("I think it's a piece of shit").

And it is overwhelming, all of it. Moving, battering and crushing. Wagner's Tristan and Isolde prelude (the only non-diegetic music in the film) swells aloofly, comforting, teasing, epic, romantic and tender. It is played in its entirety to begin the film and from then on dipped into; parts are introduced, played and replayed, the canvas repainted with an echo of those first images.

The key to a brilliant film can often be the spectacle of something strange, new and extraordinary witnessed by characters whose every movement, decision, and every uttered syllable makes perfect sense. Even though no reason is given for Justine's state of mind, we understand. It all becomes terribly clear.

Top: Melancholia, Albrecht Durer
Above : Melancholy, Paul Gauguin

24 comments:

  1. Wonderful stuff, Stephen, and mirrors very much my own broad initial feelings. I find von Trier's films - or his latest two at any rate - to be some of the most difficult to discuss in modern cinema; it seems that they either hit you in a very raw and tangled personal space, in which case they become entirely urgent, fascinating works, or else they don't, and then we're dealing with Lars "surgically removing his bloated, depressed tumors and slapping them onscreen" or whatever nonsense is being written lately. There seems to not be a lot of room in between in much of the discourse I've stumbled across so far, which is too bad, but also entirely understandable in a way. I think you find the same thing to varying degrees anytime you deal with cinema this personal.

    You can count me in the former group, and if I still slightly prefer Antichrist, I did think Melancholia to be a rather extraordinary and moving accomplishment. The two films are clearly a diptych, and meant to play/feed off of each other in various aesthetic and thematic ways. I have a feeling that the more time that passes, the more these two films will seem inextricable from one another whenever this period of Lars' is discussed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wonderful writing Stephen, on my favorite movie of the year so far. While I don't love Lars von Trier (and I don't think I actually despise any of his films, maybe it's that he is so harsh that I can't fully accept that he's one of my favorite directors), and I don't consider myself a fan boy, this one is a grand achievement for him, in relation to the different genres of cinema he has tackled, and with this one he has mastered them all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like this movie as with all of LvT's stuff, but I'm not sure I'd put it up there with my favorites of his work. I do enjoy looking at it less as a literal depiction of the end of the world, but rather a depressive woman's dream of it, her fantasy that helps put her petty problems into context, or at the very least her perspective of the event as it happens. There's too much beauty and pageantry with how the planet's approach is handled in the film for me to take it absolutely seriously-- it's all as meticulously choreographed and designed as Justine's wedding itself (I wonder if Udo Kier's wedding planner went about his day as the planet bore down on earth, averting his eyes to it as though it were a troublesome bride). Pair that with Charlotte Rampling's pale-blue spiral dress of a mother from hell, and it all feels as though the details of Justine's life are wrapping up in the descent of Melancholia, as though she were going on a pilgrimage through the land of Oz.

    One thing is sure-- compared to the way this movie ends, I can see why you can find hope in "End of Evangelion" and its final moments. As I said over at Wonders, Shinji and Asuka have no idea how lucky they are.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Drew.

    "...it seems that they either hit you in a very raw and tangled personal space, in which case they become entirely urgent, fascinating works, or else they don't, and then we're dealing with Lars "surgically removing his bloated, depressed tumors and slapping them onscreen" or whatever nonsense is being written lately."

    Haha. Yes, I agree.

    I agree too on Melancholia and Antichrist, if not quite of a piece, share much visual, intellectual and emotional.

    For me Melancholia is the slightly better film. It is more immediate and believable. I'm not saying that Antichrist's relative obscurity of ideas and images would automatically make it inferior / less appealing but in this case I think it has something to do with my preference for Melancholia.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jaime,

    I knew how much you liked the film and I'm glad, despite the noises off surrounding it and Von Trier, that many people are praising it. I don't watch that many films but it's the best I've seen this year too.

    Thank you very much for the kind comment.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bob,

    That's an interesting angle: a less literal end of the world. I didn't see it that way myself.

    "...her fantasy that helps put her petty problems into context"

    We aren't told if the 'reasons' for Justine's depression (family problems, work and social pressures possibly, but probably not) if indeed there are reasons. Her malaise, like many depressions, comes unannounced from within so I don't think it's a matter of pulling herself together or putting anything into context.

    "There's too much beauty and pageantry with how the planet's approach is handled in the film for me to take it absolutely seriously"

    I would agree in terms of the prologue, which was the least powerful part for me. For me the last part of the film loses the choreographed feel of the party, loses it as Claire and John do.

    "I wonder if Udo Kier's wedding planner went about his day as the planet bore down on earth, averting his eyes to it as though it were a troublesome bride"

    Haha. That might be the way to do it. After all, as soon as it comes it's over.

    "Pair that with Charlotte Rampling's pale-blue spiral dress of a mother from hell, and it all feels as though the details of Justine's life are wrapping up in the descent of Melancholia, as though she were going on a pilgrimage through the land of Oz."

    Very nicely put. I don't see it as a spiral because I never saw the planet colliding with Earth as a given. There are peaks and troughs and various stages and not just a going down: Justine is taken hostage by her own day; Justine assumes control; Justine falls...it is only here when the story of the planet takes over. Of course if you assume or know that this is how the story will end then it is more clearly moving in one direction down the plughole.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bob,

    What are your favourites of Von Trier's films then? Mine are Melancholia followed closely by Antichrist and The Kingdom.

    ReplyDelete
  8. "We aren't told if the 'reasons' for Justine's depression (family problems, work and social pressures possibly, but probably not) if indeed there are reasons. Her malaise, like many depressions, comes unannounced from within so I don't think it's a matter of pulling herself together or putting anything into context."

    Perhaps her depression is astrological in nature, or rather, astronomical. For all we know, the planet Melancholia was in the house of her sign during her birth, adventing an emotional connection with the doomed world. The alien source of her depression would make about as much sense as the notion put forth in the film, towards the end, that as a tentative kind of psychic, he always knew when the end would come, but could do nothing about it. She's a Cassandra who doesn't even bother to tell anyone her premonitions, a Chicken Little who lets the world find out for itself that the sky is falling.

    "I would agree in terms of the prologue, which was the least powerful part for me. For me the last part of the film loses the choreographed feel of the party, loses it as Claire and John do."

    There's something artificial about the prologue here that I didn't feel in "Antichrist", to which it's recieved a lot of comparisons. There's no narrative infomration, really, other than a very cursory summary of the apocalypse to come, yet in terms that make what we watch ambiguous at best (mixed in with the prologue are scenes from her dreams, like the sight of her marching through the swamp in her wedding dress with mud clinging to her). And I have to be blunt-- that damn Wagner just got on my nerves after a while.

    "Very nicely put. I don't see it as a spiral because I never saw the planet colliding with Earth as a given. There are peaks and troughs and various stages and not just a going down: Justine is taken hostage by her own day; Justine assumes control; Justine falls...it is only here when the story of the planet takes over. Of course if you assume or know that this is how the story will end then it is more clearly moving in one direction down the plughole."

    There seem to be little details like that strewn through the first portion that look forwrd to the end. The blue dress and spiral pattern recalls, for me, the blue planet and the spiral orbit with which it crashes into the earth. The fog that Justine and her sister ride through made me think of the gassy blue planet as it swallows the earth whole (it is a gas giant, right? or am I mistaken?). Maybe all these details are part of Justine's subtle premonitions of the coming planet, a representation of her psychic talent through an onscreen series of synchronicity, in the Jungian sense. But at the same time, that just makes it feel as though we're being filtered through her psyche, her unconscious, and not necessarily the collective unconscious. I don't know, it's just hard for me to read this film as a literal apocalypse. It reaches back to his earlier hypnosis movies (the whole Europe trilogy, especially), where what we're seeing is almost encouraged to be read as a subjective view of the world. That's what I think we have here-- Justine enthralled by the self-induced trance of her own depression.

    ReplyDelete
  9. My ranking of LvT's films...

    (1) The Element of Crime
    (2) Dogville
    (3) Medea
    (4) The Kingdom
    (5) Dancer in the Dark
    (6) Breaking the Waves
    (7) Europa
    (8) Epidemic
    (9) Melancholia
    (10) Manderlay
    (11) Antichrist
    (12) The Idiots

    The top three sometimes shift about, but they're more or less settled. I haven't seen "The Boss of It All", but that sounds interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  10. "Perhaps her depression is astrological in nature, or rather, astronomical. For all we know, the planet Melancholia was in the house of her sign during her birth, adventing an emotional connection with the doomed world."

    Possibly. This is more likely in light of her 'angel of death' premonitions, which, while giving a little "Oh!" twinge, seemed tacked on to give added weight to the impending disaster.

    "There's something artificial about the prologue here that I didn't feel in "Antichrist", to which it's recieved a lot of comparisons."

    Yes, it is artificial. As stills they look impressive. In slow motion movement, with the Wagner on top, it is too self-conscious. It doesn't have the punch it wants to have.

    "And I have to be blunt-- that damn Wagner just got on my nerves after a while."

    It worked for me. It only, as far as I could tell, played it through once. The rest are fragments. It worked much like the incessant playing of 'California Dreamin'' did in Chungking Express.

    "There seem to be little details like that strewn through the first portion that look forwrd to the end."

    Perhaps. In hindsight, certainly! It's a good spot. As I've said before I didn't know the world would definitely end and I don't think we are guaranteed that by the film.

    "(it is a gas giant, right? or am I mistaken?)"

    I don't know. Probably.

    "Maybe all these details are part of Justine's subtle premonitions of the coming planet, a representation of her psychic talent through an onscreen series of synchronicity, in the Jungian sense."

    Fair enough. I feel the planet at least is a representation of her depression. As for the fog and the bridge and other details, they can be either a drawing out of her subconscious or the usual dramatic foreboding.

    Just because something can be a representation or a symbol or a pathetic fallacy doesn't mean it can't have literal and tangible truth to. For me it is very real.

    It is a film that has a strong focus on and through Justine and Claire but the film puts great stock on how they react to doom. Justine's attitude and mood would have been more consistent if it was just a sort of illusion or fantasy.

    ReplyDelete
  11. So Melancholia and Antichrist are 'minor' (I hate that word in film criticism!) Von Trier.

    Here is my full list then:

    1) Melancholia
    2) Antichrist
    3) The Kingdom
    4) The Boss of it All
    5) Medea
    6) Dogville
    7) Europa
    8) Dancer in the Dark
    9) The Idiots

    The top 2 are excellent, 3 very good, 4 and 5 good and the rest OK or bad. I haven't seen Breaking The Waves, Epidemic, Manderlay (I wasn't a fan of Dogville so I've avoided it) or your number one, Element of Crime.

    ReplyDelete
  12. His latest movies, I'd say beginning with "Dogville" but evident even moreso from "Antichrist" on, are an attempt to meld the craft and perfectionist style of his early stuff with the Dogme improv of his 90's output. There's long been a shifting sense in tone from him, the rawer stuff with the more immaculately composed, and as time goes on he's been able to balance the two disciplines together and even turn them into a fully formed aesthetic sensibility of their own. Still, as time goes on, his subject matters interest me less. Not to the extent that I find his stuff without any fascination, but just that so much of his earlier stuff impresses me, especially his collaborations with Niels Vorsel.

    I wonder what his work would look like now if he'd gotten a chance to finish "The Kingdom" with that final, third season...

    ReplyDelete
  13. I haven't seen a few of his earliest films but they do seem "immaculately composed" in a way that can cut away real energy and sense of life. The strong colour filters, the styles of acting, and the feeling that each shot is meant to be something to marvel at is claustrophobic and is definitely recalled in the prologues of Antichrist and Melancholia and the urine-yellow wash over the reception in the latter.

    I suppose one could see these last two films as a (sort of) mix of the styles he has worked through hitherto.

    People do jump to these conclusions too easily though and tend to see earlier films as practice for and the first step to the emergence of a fully formed style at the end of the career - a "culmination", an "encapsulation" or a "perfection". They talk this way about many film-makers. It doesn't make sense to me. Each film is a new step but not (necessarily) upwards towards a final goal or the honing of one's craft. Hindsight is a terrible thing.

    "I wonder what his work would look like now if he'd gotten a chance to finish "The Kingdom" with that final, third season..."

    I can't even remember how The Kingdom ended.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Let's see if I can remember correctly-- the old woman and her son discovered the hot nurse is actually a Satan worshiper, the mean old doctor is being blackmailed into marrying his Swedish girlfriend, the freakish Udo Kier baby died and his mother is calling for help/deal-with-the-devil from his ghost father (also Udo Kier), and the sad-sack medical student is driving the ambulance to impress the girl who's hooked up with the asshole son of the cancer doctor. Also, Death himself shows up in the ambulance and says he's going to be busy that night.

    Basically, it's a giant clusterfuck, even bigger than the ending of "Twin Peaks" (both shows gone after their second season).

    LvT's earlier movies are rather self-conscious, I'll give you that. But there's an excitement about them that I like, especially in "Element". It screams the enthusiasm of a crazy director overjoyed at the chance to make a feature-length movie for the very first time. Debut films are like that, sometimes, overflowing with creative happiness.

    ReplyDelete
  15. My Von Trier list:

    1. Europa
    2. The Kingdom
    3. Dogville
    4. Melancholia
    5. Dancer in the Dark

    Yet, he has made just one masterpiece, but the rest are really good.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Bob,

    "the old woman and her son discovered the hot nurse is actually a Satan worshiper, the mean old doctor is being blackmailed into marrying his Swedish girlfriend, the freakish Udo Kier baby died... Also, Death himself shows up in the ambulance and says he's going to be busy that night."

    Ah yes! It all comes flooding back.

    "Debut films are like that, sometimes, overflowing with creative happiness."

    Yes. There's no reference point too. With your second film you've got your first. With your first film everything must seem open to you.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Jaime,

    I'm surprised Melancholia isn't top of your list after praising it so highly. I've seen Europa once and I didn't enjoy it. Maybe I should watch it again along with Element of Crime which Bob recommends.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Stephen, if you can get your hands on all of them, Element, Epidemic and Europa are actually perfect to view in sequence. They all share basic themes of Europe in decline, hypnotism and other such things. They feel like his most fully formed trilogy, at least as far as completed ones go.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Aha. Ok. I remember them being packaged on one DVD set.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Correction - the above sounds wrong:

    I remember seeing them together on one DVD set. I wasn't there at the factory.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Dogville and Dancer in the Dark are my two top Von Triers, both masterpieces. I have thus far Stephen, resisted watching the screener I have sitting here of MELANCHOLIA, as the film is opening in theatres on November 4th. I feel to do it full justice I need to avail myself of this opportunity. This is a great review that I will return to again, when I am fully prepared. I enjoyed the great writing and the inspired comment section, complete with the individual rankings.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Sam,

    "This is a great review that I will return to again, when I am fully prepared. I enjoyed the great writing and the inspired comment section..."

    Thank you. It's always good to get comments, to see things from new angles, to try to improve as a writer and as a viewer. I'm always glad if people get something from what I've written.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Stephen -

    I just saw MELANCHOLIA last night. Your post here is a beautfiully written summation that rings absolutely true for me. I'm not sure this is the best VonTrier film or my favorite of his (another viewing would sort that out, and next time it needs to be on the big screen - OnDemand home viewing just doeesn't do this film justice.) But I was deeply affected by its quiet, escalating sense of dread, and I found the visuals to be devastatingly beautiful and terrifying all at once.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Thank you very much Pat.

    "...I found the visuals to be devastatingly beautiful and terrifying all at once."

    Yes, absolutely.

    ReplyDelete