Notice how Jack, the ad man, continues to place importance on his ad slogan. And how Gaby lashes out at the very notion of a wedding or a party. There is displacement here that is frightening. In any film involving the destruction of the globe, we know that, if it is not to be saved, there must be a "money shot" depicting the actual cataclysm.
I doubt any could do better than von Trier does here. There are no tidal waves. No animals fleeing through burning forests. No skyscrapers falling. None of that easy stuff. No, there is simply a character standing on a hill and staring straight at the impending doom, as von Trier shows it happening in what logically must be slow motion, with a fearsome preliminary merging of planetary atmospheres.
Violent death is often a shabby business in the movies. It happens in depressing bedrooms, bloody bathtubs, shattered cars, bleak alleys.
Its victims are cast down empty of life. Here is a character who says, I see it coming, I will face it, I will not turn away, I will observe it as long as my eyes and my mind still function. Is it fair of me to speculate that von Trier himself regards death in that way? He tends to be grandiose, but if one cannot be grandiose in imagining one's own death, then when is grandiosity justified? Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from until his death in In , he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.
Rated R for some graphic nudity, sexual content and language. John Hurt JH : Boy, you want a long story already! My father was a clergyman, and they loved the theater. He went to British Honduras [now Belize] and left me on my own to do what I wanted.
The world was a much bigger place back then. But I got in on a small scholarship that allowed me to go through. JH: I do, yes. What criteria do you use in selecting a role? JH: My basic criteria with any film is that it should stand the chance of succeeding on the level that it is intended to succeed on. This simple approach keeps my life varied, which I enjoy. The problem with allowing actors to have too much say in what they play is that they would only do the parts that they would see themselves doing.
But somebody else did. The film came about because I had done the narration for Dogville and Manderlay , which are exceptional films. But I had never worked in front of the camera with him.
MM: Lars has been seen as both an artistic trailblazer and a provocateur. What was your experience like working with him? And what do you admire about him as a director? JH: Apart from his extraordinary understanding of what film means, the image on screen, etc. You start and you shoot.
Then you shoot some more. Then you shoot around that. And set up and shoot some more. Trier are full of showing our real problems on earth, One more time to think about how misery we are, how lost we are with our jobs and family life….
I think not. That might be the eternal sin Justine was referring to. Kids are innocent. Noticed how Justine rather spends time with tugging in her little nephew than spending time with her husband on the evening of the wedding and wants to be bathed like a little child herself?
Hence, nomen est omen. Justine stands for justice, Claire stands for making things clear. Two sides of the same medal. Thank you all for your very interesting analysis of this remarkable film, they have certainly enriched the experience of watching it. I consider myself a melancholic person so the connection and empathy was total from the title to the very end.
Part of my melancholic state comes from the fact that I am unfit for social life as it is underrstood by the so callled normal people or neurotypicals. Being differently wired makes me wish for one catastrophical end of this world that is so full of suffering, misunderstanding and illusion. A planetary collision is far more poetical, natural and fair than starving, having cancer, breathing polluted air.
The collision is merciful compared to watching helplessly all life slowly disappearing from the planet. In this sense, the film represents a rather optimistic vision through the eyes of a melancholic disillusioned person. If you are so bold to carry this statement further, at the very beginning of the DVD or stream press play on the title track of the album.
No, really, just do it. And if you are really bold let the rest of the album play out. I guarantee you will find a worthwhile new dimension to the film. Hi, this was beautifully written. Can you help? Pingback: Are You a Claire? Or a Justine? Like this: Like Loading David Ehrenstein says. Jan says.
In Part Two, in another bath scene, Claire tries to coax a naked Justine to step over the porcelain rim into the water. But she can't make it and just sags in Claire's arms.
And I've never seen that in another film. It's so soul-sapping and overwhelming and all-consuming. It's not just that you're feeling down mentally or glum. It affects your whole body, so that you can barely move. Justine [has a line where she] says she feels she's walking with grey wool attached to her and dragging her back. I used to get into work and if I had like, six emails to answer, it seemed an insurmountable mountain.
It's such a basic thing when you're feeling fine; you fire off replies in one minute. But it felt like 'six emails, I can't cope with this, I just want to go home. If the film is remarkable in depicting Justine's mental turmoil, then it is equally strong in depicting the lack of understanding those with depression often must contend with — an attitude that is given a mouthpiece in the form of John, Justine's brother-in-law.
As he aggressively impresses upon her how much money has been spent on the wedding, his brute logic feels like psychological violence in the face of her helpless vulnerability. For Graham, such a cold attitude was mirrored in real life by some reactions to the film he encountered, coming out of the Cannes screening. You've got a lovely wedding put on, you obviously come from a nice family, what have you got to be miserable about?
In the final estimation, what is so remarkable about Melancholia's portrayal of depression is not only the details but its entire worldview. It's a film that, like many of Von Trier's works, offers a provocation: the depressed outlook, it dares to suggest, is the correct one.
The world is ending. Resistance is futile. All you can do is accept this state of catastrophe and relax into the beauty of this final spectacle. Justine's brother-in-law John Kiefer Sutherland is a mouthpiece for the kind of unsympathetic attitudes those with mental illness can face Credit: Alamy. Julie and Graham are both now feeling mentally healthier, so how is it to go back and watch the film?
To Julie, it still offers an unusual form of comfort. And I revisit it often, basking in the knowledge I am not an anomaly. And I am certain I will go back to it time and time again. The way Von Trier depicts the end of a world, when they're sitting around and the planet is getting closer, you can really feel the terror.
In the 10 years since Melancholia was made, the conversation around mental health has seemingly moved on, with more individuals using their platforms to confide experiences of mental illness in the hope of doing their bit to destigmatise and educate.
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