Melancholia 3/13/12 - Review

[HyperRealist]

Melancholia Blu-ray

Melancholia Blu-ray Review

Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide into the Earth.

Director: Lars von Trier
Writer: Lars von Trier
Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kiefer Sutherland

[kevin87]

it LOOKED fantastic, but the first half of the film was a complete waste of time and had nothing to do with the 2nd half, aka what the film is actually about

i'll get this eventually when it's under $10, it'll probably look great on Blu-ray

[Yankees0222]

Originally Posted by kevin87

it LOOKED fantastic, but the first half of the film was a complete waste of time and had nothing to do with the 2nd half, aka what the film is actually about

i'll get this eventually when it's under $10, it'll probably look great on Blu-ray

Really? I thought the first half introduced us to the characters and their personality types. It showed the relationships that they have with one another. It also gives us a baseline of where they are emotionally and it allows for the characters to change as the event draws near.... It's also when Justine first notices Melancholia..... So I wouldn't call that a waste of time.

But I thought the entire movie was a beautiful masterpiece (the best movie of the year) so there you go... Everyone is entitled to their own opinion

[Veronica Mars]

Definitely a masterpiece. Both lead actresses were great (Kiefer was terrific in a supporting role as well), but this should get Dunst an Oscar nomination, which I'm happy for because I think she's been unfairly piled on as a poor actress. I don't agree and her most recent body of work supports that.

Good to get a date, but wish it wasn't in the middle of March. I think the UK gets it in January, so I was hoping to get it sooner.

I loved the entire film, but certainly would agree the 2nd part felt more powerful, but it probably wouldn't have without the 1st setting things up as on Von Trier can.

[blujazz]

My best film of 2011.

The ensemble cast's acting is great in its first half, and the intimate brooding drama in the second half is wonderful.

I look at this film as an expose of the advantages and disadvantages of deep clinical depression: the sad reality of being unable to create emotional connections (granted, the family depicted in the film is a family in its most dysfunctional) and the advantage of being cold and apathetic in the face of adversity. Depends on who you ask, it has a happy ending.

Wonderfully depressing stuff.

And the music video of the Tristan and Isolde prologue is just wonderful!

[Hawkguy]

Pre-ordered it.... loved the film and was looking forward to this announcement. That list price is lower than I thought it would be.

[lemonski]

Originally Posted by Yankees0222

Really? I thought the first half introduced us to the characters and their personality types. It showed the relationships that they have with one another.

LOL! What about all the half baked characters that disappear altogether for no rhyme or reason? Justine's husband (their relationship was the most interesting thing about the first half, and beautifully acted), John Hurt and Charlotte Ramplings characters (embarassing over-acting from her, not helped by the risible dialog), Skarsgaard and his son (a subplot to nowhere). You could almost cut the whole first half of the film out. You could certainly cut a lot out of the second half, it drags badly. I almost screamed every time Charlotte Gainsbourg looked through that wire thing, when it was blindingly obvious where the plot was headed...but...every...thing....was...done.......v ery.....very....slow...ly.....and...repetitively.. .....and....it...got....very...very...irritating.. ..I suspect LVT was being paid per minute of screen time.

Originally Posted by Yankees0222

But I thought the entire movie was a beautiful masterpiece (the best movie of the year) so there you go... Everyone is entitled to their own opinion

Yep, fair enough. I thought it had the odd moment, but too poorly constructed IMO

[blujazz]

I don't think it's about the plot. It's about the chemistry and the atmosphere. Not everything is spelled out and it's good because family issues don't usually surface literally and obviously, they're usually sublimated to other things.

[Yankees0222]

Originally Posted by lemonski

LOL! What about all the half baked characters that disappear altogether for no rhyme or reason? Justine's husband (their relationship was the most interesting thing about the first half, and beautifully acted), John Hurt and Charlotte Ramplings characters (embarassing over-acting from her, not helped by the risible dialog), Skarsgaard and his son (a subplot to nowhere). You could almost cut the whole first half of the film out. You could certainly cut a lot out of the second half, it drags badly. I almost screamed every time Charlotte Gainsbourg looked through that wire thing, when it was blindingly obvious where the plot was headed...but...every...thing....was...done.......v ery.....very....slow...ly.....and...repetitively.. .....and....it...got....very...very...irritating.. ..I suspect LVT was being paid per minute of screen time.



Yep, fair enough. I thought it had the odd moment, but too poorly constructed IMO

Regarding the wire thing, I thought that was such a simple yet effective suspense technique. Even though I knew exactly what was going to happen,

[Show spoiler]everytime she used it and she saw Melancholia getting closer, it made me cringe out of fear and sympathy. For me, it's similar to watching a movie like Titanic and hoping the ending comes out different even though you know it wont.

I know this is a very divisive film (like all Trier films) but everything in this movie worked for me....

[Show spoiler]From the beautiful prologue, to the heartbreaking yet inevitable ending

[blujazz]

^Your spoiler tags ain't working.

And yeah, he emphasized that in the prologue, he wants his audience to know what was going to happen, so that it would sort of remove the suspense a bit and the audience would focus on the reaction to the event rather than the event itself... much like Bardem releasing his made-up image for Mar Adentro so that people would notice his performance, and not the make-up.

[lemonski]

Originally Posted by blujazz

I don't think it's about the plot. It's about the chemistry and the atmosphere. Not everything is spelled out and it's good because family issues don't usually surface literally and obviously, they're usually sublimated to other things.

I don't mind a thin plot, it's just if you do have characters with incomplete plotlines, then I'd expect their relationships with the leading characters to play a part in the film. The husband/Hurt/Rampling/Skarsgard/son characters were largely irrelevant in the whole second half of the movie. Even Keifer Sutherland's character was just a pseudo narrator for the audience, so they knew what the hell was going on.

Don't get me wrong, there were some things I did like about it - the Justine/husband relationship, and the stunning opening sequence.

But it just felt like two separate movies bolted together, neither of them particularly effective or interesting.

[lemonski]

Originally Posted by Yankees0222

Regarding the wire thing, I thought that was such a simple yet effective suspense technique. Even though I knew exactly what was going to happen,

[Show spoiler]everytime she used it and she saw Melancholia getting closer, it made me cringe out of fear and sympathy. For me, it's similar to watching a movie like Titanic and hoping the ending comes out different even though you know it wont.

As I said in another post, my reaction was mainly irritation - firstly for the excruciatingly slow pace of those scenes, secondly because I knew not only the outcome, but exactly how LVT would work his way up to that outcome, and thirdly I felt no sympathy for her character at all - someone who wouldn't accept the inevitable. Even I had accepted the inevitable - I knew how this movie was going to end (there was only one way it could have ended, even if the prologue wasn't there) - yet I felt like I had to suffer through all her useless handwringing.

[TJS_Blu]

With a $29.99 msrp, gotta wonder if this isn't a bare bones release. No specs as yet, but I gotta believe the UK Artificial Eye release will have some extras.

[s2mikey]

Originally Posted by blujazz

I don't think it's about the plot. It's about the chemistry and the atmosphere. Not everything is spelled out and it's good because family issues don't usually surface literally and obviously, they're usually sublimated to other things.

Yeah but a plot is an intricate part of any film that's going to entertain people. Or so I thought. I'll wait for this to show up on Netflix streaming or something to try it but from the reviews I've read I think my time is spent better elsewhere.

[LuFeng]

agree with this cant wait for the blu and to watch it again....you always notice more stuff on a second watch so i want!!!! hope it comes with a slipcover

Originally Posted by Yankees0222

Really? I thought the first half introduced us to the characters and their personality types. It showed the relationships that they have with one another. It also gives us a baseline of where they are emotionally and it allows for the characters to change as the event draws near.... It's also when Justine first notices Melancholia..... So I wouldn't call that a waste of time.

But I thought the entire movie was a beautiful masterpiece (the best movie of the year) so there you go... Everyone is entitled to their own opinion

[toddly6666]

and of course it's totally dissed by the Golden Globes.

[jacobsever]

Guess we won't see a Criterion release.

[RYJAPE21]

I thought this was a beautiful and interesting film; definitely one of the best this year. Can't wait for this release

[blujazz]

Originally Posted by s2mikey

Yeah but a plot is an intricate part of any film that's going to entertain people.

I think it really depends on the film, or the text. For example: Novels by Jane Austen. Plot wise, they stem from fairly generic romantic fluff, but what make her works really timeless is due to her well written prose. For me, it goes to this film as well.

[Show spoiler]It has slow moments, but I would say it mirrors Justine's feeling of walking through the forest with vines tugging on her legs (as one of the opening images in the montage suggests).

I would also have wanted a more fleshed out supporting cast... but at the end of the day, their real function is really to support the main player's narratives: Justine and Claire. They show their function and practically disappear. It shows the environment where they are brought up and how they both react to it differently.

And besides, the whole film is nihilistic anyway... everything is pointless... even humor. It's like Funny Games, without being too obvious. :P

Or that's just me putting my own reading into it.

The film is subversive in so many levels that it becomes very provocative. It's billed as a disaster movie but it subverts the essence of the disaster movie: mankind against all odds.

[Show spoiler]If this was a different director, it would have focused on the supporting players more, or even the village people. LVT comments that people perform, or adhere, to the expected decorum of rituals: rituals of marriage and wedding speeches. And he clearly hates that, as it is rooted in phoniness.

Here, there is absolutely no sense of redemption, but to accept it and be protected by a useless cave of sticks. Focalizing from a depressed individual changes everything,

and that's what I like about it.

[Cvalda]

Here's the cover art, via Amazon:


Still no word on extras, though. Either way, quite excited as this was my #2 film of 2011 AND the Blu-ray is released two days before my birthday