Melancholia

[Lordmandeep]

Its a movie for people who like to be sad imo.

[Jack Nevada]

Eh. The movie goes downhill fast after the (brilliant) first hour. Good performances from Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg, though. 

[JohnnY]

Its a movie for people who like to be sad imo.

 

First time I saw Melancholia was almost 4 years ago and I really liked. Rewatched yesterday and I finally realized this, it's a film about being suicidal.

 

 

 

If Lars Von Trier despised human nature in Dogville, now he managed to despise the whole world. Justine doesn't only hates her life, she hates the fact that life exists, death for her is a relief. Do we get a spark of hope in the end? Nope. Does she realize that we can try to overcome our suffering? Nope. In the end life just ends, because it has no meaning, no purpose and is just a source of distress.

 

 

The actors are great, so are the visuals, and that's why this film is quite appealing at first glance, but this is actually a bleak movie that dignifies hopelessness. Lars Von Trier is a sick person who loves to showcase his depression, never in a life-affirming way, but in a suicidal way.

[Jake Gittes]

That seems unnecessarily reductive. Yes, LVT has said that he's been suffering from anxiety and depression throughout his life, but I don't see how he "loves" to showcase that or, at least, why that's supposed to be a bad thing. He's simply working through his issues via his characters, and Justine in Melancholia is a pretty accurate portrayal of a person who simply doesn't feel hope and doesn't see how she can overcome her suffering. Sometimes depression *is* that serious, and it's only fair to really show that without tacking on anything "life-affirming", because for Justine that's bullshit. (LVT isn't immune to that, though - I'd say the ending of Breaking the Waves is life-affirming in its own way).

[bartonfink]

It may sound astounding, but Lars von Trier sees Antichrist as a part of therapy which cured his own severe depression at that time. And Charlotte Gainsbourg once said, Lars told Melancholia was most optimistic film he's ever made. And I don't think it's just cynical joke. Of course his film looks terribly bleak and stinging. But I guess he regards, when the unavoidably horrific moment comes in your life, it's much better to openly face the vulnerable nature of life and mutually be sincere supports among beloved ones than obsess about vain hope. In this respect, the ending of film is tragic yet also peculiarly moving and beautiful. I think the film is his bitter yet meaningful method which consoles the people who have to encounter their own inevitable disaster.

[JohnnY]

Well, my ideas about LVT as a person may be wrong, but that's the feeling I get when I watch his films.

 

I don't see how Melacholia is optimistic and I don't think it reinforces the importance of supporting your beloved ones. Justine never tries to get along with her sister when the world is ending, this is her reaction to Claire's attemp to have the last family bonding moment in her life:

 

 

 

For me it's pretty clear that Justine is only getting better because the world is ending, it's not only her life that is coming to an end, but everyone's life, she sees the end of the world as a blessing.

 

 

 

LVT could creat endings full of hope that would contrast with the bleakness of his narratives, but he doesn't.

 

In Dogville

everyone is killed because apparently people are just selfish, no matter how much you try

.

 

In Nymphomaniac Part II

the most pure virgin man is a perv insensible to a woman's feeling, ever after she gives a speech about how women are unfairly judged because of their sexual behaviour

 

And in Melancholia, the only cure for depression is the end of the world. None of these films have hope, it's like sadness for the sake of sadness. I'll still take a look at Antichrist and Dancer in the Dark, but I'm not expecting anything different.

 

 

[bartonfink]

I don't think Justine sees collapse of the world as blessing. She just takes it as deserving & inevitable consequence then becomes calm and undisturbed. She's getting better, unlike her sister Claire, but it's not because Lars has misanthropic bad taste but he got the idea from real life. According to a theory of his therapist, in contrast ordinary people easily panic, depression patients are more apt to composedly react to out of hand stress. They already knew their inner world has been dying, so it's no wonder nothing feels critical to them. Lars said he doesn't consider the film to be about the end of the world and the human race but about humans acting and reacting under pressure. And he's right. 

 

You know in the part one, Justine suffers from her nearest and dearest's various pressures and heartless treats. No wonder she loses affection for human. But when the apocalypse is coming and there's no hope at all, the sole person who stays with Claire & Leo down to the wire at the extensive mansion is Justine. Neither Claire's self-assertive husband John who offered her false hope but when the thing went wrong instantly killed himself and leaved the family behind, nor her cynical mother and dissipated father, nor her butlers. Only "the nuisance" Justine silently stands by them. As her nephew Leo called her Auntie Steelbreaker, she's indeed strong existence and consoles her discouraged family. Spending the last moment together is pretty heartening bonding to me. 

 

You don't have to agree with Lars von Trier's view of the world. But while I understand your opinion on his works, I don't think his films only indulge in merciless and endless pessimism. Besides Melancholia, The endings of Breaking The Waves, Dancer In The Dark, Idioterne hauntingly allude to the tinge of rest and redemption in the even harshest reality. These films arouse some genuine emotions and I don't believe they're made by the hands of thoroughly gloomy & heartless misanthrope. 

[JohnnY]

Well, the only emotion I got from Melancholia was sadness and hopelessness, I really dislike when people love a movie because it made them feel bad and I've read many people saying it was amazing how Melancholia managed to do that. There were a million ways Melancholia could be optimistic about fighting depression, and it never is. If he tried to show what depression is and how depressed people deal with their nothingness, without ever making viewers feel hopeful, I can't say he didn't succeeded. The thing is, I didn't disliked the movie because the writing is bad, or because the acting is poor, it really is a good movie in those aspects, it's exactly the director's view of the world that I don't like.