Melancholia
Review by Anthony Morris
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Melancholia
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The first ten minutes or so of Lars von Trier's latest film Melancholia
are amongst the most gorgeous film-making you'll see this year, as the
cast move in ultra-slow motion through a variety of settings that hint
at a catastrophe to come. And come it does, as the Earth is crushed by a much large planet. With
close to two hours left to run you’d be right to worry about where
things were heading, so when Kristen Dunst turns up laughing in a
wedding dress it's a palatable relief… until her wedding reception
turns out to be just as big a disaster as she alienated pretty much
everyone with her increasingly erratic behaviour. Then we
jump ahead six months to a time where everyone (well, her sister and
her sister's husband, who the now clinically depressed Dunst is staying
with) are obsessed with the new planet Melancholia, which is supposed
to just miss Earth. This is basically three different takes
on the titular condition of despair and depression – the first told
purely in images, the second playing out in a real world, the third a
"real" world where the metaphor of crushing depression has become real
– and it's never less than engaging thanks to an astounding performance
from Dunst and a string of beautiful imagery from von Trier.
Melancholia is hardly light viewing, but it's a film that repays the effort again and again.
4 out
of 5
Melancholia
Australian release: 15th December,
2011
Official
Site: Melancholia
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander Skarsgård, Brady Corbet, Cameron Spurr, Charlotte Rampling
Director: Lars von Trier
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