Film "Melancholia": reviews, plot, director and actors

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

With reviews of the film "Melancholia" it will be interesting to get acquainted with all fans of the work of the cult Danish director Lars von Trier. This is a fantasy drama that was released in 2011. The tape took part in the main program of the Cannes Film Festival. This article presents the plot of the picture, the actors and the director who participated in its creation.

Shooting

In reviews of the film "Melancholia" many viewers talk with interest about the symbols and hidden meanings for which Lars von Trier made this movie.

As the director himself admitted, the idea came to him during a psychotherapy session when he was struggling with depression. The doctor told him an amazing thing that people with this disease in a stressful situation act more calmly and rationally, since they initially expect and previously expected only bad things. Trier began to develop this idea into a full-fledged film.

And initially he had no ideabelievable from an astronomical point of view to portray the apocalypse. First of all, he was interested in studying how the human psyche behaves against the backdrop of an impending disaster.

Developing this idea, the director became interested in planetary collisions. I began to study sites and theories dedicated to such incidents. Interestingly, initially he decided to remove any uncertainty about the final picture, so that the viewer would not be distracted from studying the irrational behavior of the characters. This was the main point of the film "Melancholia".

Trier started filming with his own script, which was written under Penelope Cruz. The actress has long dreamed of working with a Dane. The concept of the relationship between the two sisters was developed just in the course of their correspondence. But in the end, Cruz refused the role, preferring the fourth part of "Pirates of the Caribbean".

It is believed that the image of Justin is mainly based on the personality of Trier himself. The director took her name from the Marquis de Sade's novel "Justine", which he thought about for a long time.

The picture was filmed for about two months in Sweden. It was decided that the estate, in which the main events will develop, should resemble the setting of the famous drama by Alain Resnais "Last year in Marienbad".

Narrative

The film "Melancholia" consists of two narrative parts, as well as an 8-minute prologue, referring the viewer to Stanley Kubrick's "Space Odyssey". In the latter, viewers watch the death of the planetAn Earth that occurs as a result of a collision with the mythical planet Melancholia.

In this prologue, critics saw many references to other important works of culture. Including the paintings by Pieter Brueghel the Elder "Hunters in the Snow" and John Everett Millais "Ophelia". During the prologue, an overture from the opera "Tristan und Isolde" by Richard Wagner plays behind the scenes.

What is the picture about?

According to the plot of the film "Melancholia" events unfold in the days that precede the catastrophe itself. The painting consists of two parts.

The first showcases Justine's wedding. One of the main characters quickly becomes indifferent to the celebration, which causes misunderstanding between her and numerous guests.

In the second part, Sister Justine, whose name is Claire, appears. She begins to care for a woman who is in a state of clinical depression. At the same time, she is terrified by all the new reports of the mysterious planet Melancholia approaching the Earth.

As the story progresses, the sisters switch roles. Now Claire is depressed and begins to panic, and Justin takes care of her, supports her in everything. Claire is desperate at the end of the film as she prepares to face the inevitable with her sister and her son.

Premier

The film was shown for the first time at the Cannes Film Festival. However, on the forum itself, the content of the film "Melancholia" was forgotten when they began to discuss the behavior of director Lars von Trier after the premiere.

He eclipsed his feed by saying at a press conference that he understood Hitler's motives. He moved on to this topic when he began to talk about the necessity and patterns of the destruction of life on Earth. Moreover, von Trier jokingly called himself a Nazi.

There was a big scandal. The Dane was officially declared persona non grata at the Cannes Film Festival. Still, the picture was given credit. It was received positively.

Awards and nominations

At the Cannes Film Festival, the film was nominated for the Palme d'Or, but the award went to Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life. But actress Kirsten Dunst won the Best Actress award.

The tape was awarded six nominations at once at the annual continental award of the European Film Academy. The jury awarded her the prize for best film. Also receiving awards were production designer Molly Malen Stensgaard and cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro.

Kirsten Dunst

The work of the actors in the film "Melancholia" was highly appreciated by many. The role of the main character Justine was played by an American actress of German origin Kirsten Dunst.

She was born in New Jersey in 1982. She made her film debut at the age of 7, playing a cameo role in the comedy melodrama New York Stories (she appears in a novel directed by Woody Allen).

Already at the age of 12, the actress gained popularity. This happened after appearing as Claudia in Neil Jordan's dramatic fantasy Interview with the Vampire. For thisShe was nominated for a Golden Globe and received a Saturn Award for her work. She also became famous for her role as Mary Jane Watson in the Spider-Man series.

Among other well-known projects in which Dunst took part, Joe Johnston's fantastic comedy "Jumanji", Sofia Coppola's melodrama "The Virgin Suicides", Cameron Crowe's comedy "Elizabethtown".

Kiefer Sutherland

Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland appears as John, Justine's husband. Their wedding is dedicated to the first part of the film. It was his first collaboration with von Trier in a rich career.

The actor was born in London in 1952. On television, he began to appear regularly in the late 1970s in the popular US musical comedy program "Saturday Night Live", which is still on air.

In the 1980s, he began acting in obscure films. These were "The Return of Max Dagan", "Guy from the Bay", "Caught in Silence". The greatest popularity brought him the role of Jack Bauer in the drama series "24", dedicated to the activities of a fictional intelligence agency. For this work, the actor was awarded the Emmy and Golden Globe awards.

Charlotte Gainsbourg

Few people were surprised when Gainsbourg appeared in the list of actors of the film "Melancholia". She is one of Trier's favorite actresses and has appeared in most of his films.

She was born in London in 1971. She made her film debut in 1984 in Eli Shuraki's musical melodrama Words and Music. The international success of the actress was brought by the family drama of her uncle Andrew Birkin "The Cement Garden".

Von Trier Gainsbourg first starred in the 2009 horror film Antichrist, playing the title role. For this work, she received a prize at the Cannes Film Festival for Best Actress. This was followed by "Melancholia" and "Nymphomaniac".

Alexander Skarsgard

Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård appears as Michael in Melancholia. For him, this role has become one of the most successful works: he was recognized as the best actor at the Hampton International Film Festival.

Skarsgard was born in Stockholm in 1976. His film debut took place in the mid-1980s. For the first time in Hollywood, he played in Ben Stiller's comedy "Zoolander" in 2001

In recent years, many starred in TV series: "Revelations", "True Blood", "Generation Killers". A big success for him was the image of Perry Wright, created in the TV series "Big Little Lies". For him, he was awarded the Golden Globe, Emmy, US Screen Actors Guild Award.

Lars von Trier

The director of the film "Melancholia" is a modern cult Danish director. He was born in Copenhagen in 1956. He is considered one of the founders of the Dogma 95 manifesto. He wasformulated by him while working on the series "Kingdom", when the director came to the conclusion that the characters and the plot are more important for the audience than the style and shooting technique. He shot most of the film with a handheld camera, neglecting professional lighting, achieving grainy shots and smeared colors. The painting brought him his first commercial success.

After that, Trier began filming the trilogy "Heart of Gold", which consisted of the psychological melodrama "Breaking the Waves", the tragicomedy "The Idiots" and the psychological musical "Dancer in the Dark". For the last picture, he received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

It was followed by the trilogy "USA - Land of Opportunities", which was never realized to the end. Only the dramatic thriller "Dogville" and the tape "Manderlay" were released.

The film "Antichrist" became the main triumphant of the Danish film festival "Bodil". The director's latest work so far is the psychological thriller The House That Jack Built.

Impressions

Reviews of the film "Melancholia" from critics were mostly positive. The picture paid off at the box office, collecting about $ 15 million, despite the fact that its budget was about half that.

In the description of the film "Melancholia" critics often noted that this is a life-affirming film about the end of the world. Von Trier managed to shoot a disaster film in which the death of the planet becomes only the scenery of a family drama. This is what Melancholia is really about.

In addition, this is a very beautiful and multifaceted work of art that celebrates life in a concise and clear way, even though it tells about her death.

In reviews of the film "Melancholia" critics noted that this time the author is not interested in the very theme of the Apocalypse. He immediately warns the audience that the end is inevitable: everyone will die. As a result, the mysterious and mysterious planet Melancholia becomes a kind of allegory of death, before which everyone, without exception, is equal.

As a result, the film itself turned out to be about true human values: about love, about life, about relationships between the closest people. The director purposefully leads the viewer to the idea that the future after death does not matter, casually exposing the meaninglessness of human fuss, ostentatious well-being and secular rituals. The most important, in his opinion, are communication between people and sincere human emotions.

The picture of the Dane this time turned out to be surprisingly concise and simple. But you need to watch it as carefully as possible, paying attention to details that are always not accidental, using the clues that the director generously scattered throughout the film.

Similar works

Of course, there are many films similar to Melancholia. However, as a rule, they have the same plot (the Earth is threatened with destruction due to some kind of cosmic threat), but rarely achieve such philosophical and semantic overtones.

FromOne of the most outstanding films on this subject is Darren Aronofsky's fantasy drama The Fountain, in which the protagonist Thomas Creo is in search of the Tree of Life. According to legend, its juice is able to give a person eternal life. It is essential for Thomas to find this tree, as his beloved wife is mortally ill.

It is noteworthy that Terrence Malick's drama "The Tree of Life" turned out to be similar in style, which, together with "Melancholia", fought for the Palme d'Or, but, unlike von Trier's film, was able to win. The plot of this picture is built around an 11-year-old child who looks at the world around him with his characteristic childlike immediacy. Soon, reality is darkened as he must face suffering, pain, and death.