Director Lars von Trier calls his new film Melancholia “a beautiful movie about the end of the world”; judging from the trailer released last week and embedded below, he may be quite right. Opening in Denmark next month (and likely to be screened at Cannes as well), Melancholia stars Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, John Hurt and Charlotte Rampling in a story about two sisters who faced with the possible destruction of the planet must come to terms with the end of life as we know it. A recent post at SlashFilm quotes von Trier on the structure of the film: “In Melancholia I start with the end. Because what is interesting is not what happens but how it happens! So we begin by seeing the world being crushed, then we can tell the story afterwards. … In this way you don’t have to sit and form theories about what will happen, but can delve down into some other levels and become interested in the pictures and the universe — that’s what I imagine.”
For me, von Trier’s previous films have run the gamut from the unwatchable (Dancer in the Dark and Breaking the Waves) to the brilliant (Europa, The Idiots and Dogville); the trailer itself, both chilling and beautifully lush, suggests it will likely be the latter. Magnolia Pictures will distribute the film in the U.S.; the official Web page for Melancholia is here. Posted online by von Trier’s Zentropa Films last Friday, the trailer, as I mentioned, is disturbing but sublime:
Well, cool! I didn’t know anything about this — the preview is riveting and operatic. I have mixed feelings about von Trier, too. Sometimes gimmicky? Is that bad? When I was in college I saw Breaking the Waves and was absolutely awed — it was like being smacked really hard in the face — so I was surprised that you found it unwatchable, but maybe it wouldn’t hold up for me now, seven years or so later. As for Dancer in the Dark… okay, I get it. There’s definitely been a shift in his portrayal of woman/women. Different conceptions of the feminine act. Starting with those relentlessly pure souls whose act is to endure and are redeemed or no, through those who discover a more dialectical act beyond mere endurance but at a singular point, to the mutilated, engimatic portrayal of woman in Antichrist… which was a movie that really turned me off to him. I don’t know what to do with that movie. It’s one of those things that leaves you feeling like either you are missing something or that it’s really as bad as it seems, if that makes any sense. Anyway, actually looking forward to this new one. Although clearly very different, the preview reminded me of the preview for Mallick’s upcoming Tree of Life. Some similar cosmic imagery. Wonder what that’s about, hm. Also, for some reason, Fabre’s Prometheus just popped in my mind but that’s neither here nor there. Mallick has never disappointed me, but, based on the preview, this one is almost borderline new-agey. My friend said it was a little bit like an extreme Hallmark advert. But I have a feeling this is just marketing and that the movie will be much better.
Well, I suppose one person’s gimmick is another person’s formal innovation! The only von Trier film I’ve ever been lukewarm about was Manderlay, the follow-up to Dogville, and this shared the same aesthetic as Dogville. It’s been some time since I’ve seen Waves and Dancer, maybe it’s time to look them up again, and I’d like to see Antichrist, too. It’s on my ever-lengthening list.
I’ll have to look up the new Malick film. Thanks, Melvin, for drawing it to my attention.