Lars Von Trier is the fucking mack-daddy of misanthropes, especially when it comes to filmmakers. This is an idea he, more or less, admits to in interviews and explores in full depth with the bulk of his movies. Plastered like rancid, gummy flesh across the conceptual walls of his mind is Lars' obsession with the dark impulses of humanity. He seems to find fear and delight equally in all the corruption and stupidity that people have wrought in our time on the Earth. And so his films are all about punishment, consequence and inevitability - I feel he wishes to see humans suffer for their hypocrisy, their ignorance, their malice, and what better way to exercise those demons than through the medium of film?
Von Trier's latest turn, Melancholia, may largely follow suit with the rest of his filmography but this time he puts his deep-seated frustration, fear and humility on the grandest scale possible - the end of the world. Melancholia takes places at a remote golf course/mansion, where two sisters attempt to keep their lives together amidst the impending collision between Earth and a traveling planet. The film is broken up arbitrarily into two parts, one focuses on the younger sister, Justine, and the second focuses on the older sister, Claire. I say it's arbitrary because the story merely continues chronologically and each sister plays an equally important part in the others storyline.
Kirsten Dunst pulls off an excellent performance as the deeply troubled, inconsolable Justine. Yes, you read that sentence right, Kirsten Dunst actually has some chops. It's proof that there are many actors out there (just think of Mark Ruffalo in Zodiac as another example) waiting to unleash themselves but are relegated into generic and listless movie roles for the bulk of their careers. Dunst's Justine is the dour, black heart of the movie. Dunst highlights a mixture of extreme anxiety and desperation during the wedding party sequence, in which Justine is bombarded by the expectations of her family and her employer. In the second part of the film, Justine gradually transforms into a sort of doomsayer sage. She's calm, collected and ready for the end, traits which Claire, who is normally composed and rational, is forced to take shelter in as Melancholia approaches.
Von Trier uses the two sisters as sort of yin-and-yang harbingers of imminent doom. They both know it's coming, but they each deal with it in different ways, at different times. They each interact with Claire's son, Leo, in different ways, as well. At times, you get the sense that Claire and Justine are just one personality trapped in a perpetual somersault of schizophrenic opposites. There's many scenes of Claire coddling and caring for Justine, bathing her, feeding her, but the dynamic changes. In a scene where both sisters are sitting at the table, Claire speaks to Justine with deep uncertainty, saying how it'd be nice to have wine and play music before the end comes. Justine snarls back at her that none of that matters, it's the end. The stability has shifted to Justine, who is seen as a pillar of support when the void is embraced.
It's not to say Von Trier's end of things is all doom and gloom, though. The film is at first a mix of sharp black and yellow contrast, then a dream-cloud of gorgeous light blue and green - haunting colors that permeate the scenes leading to Melancholia's arrival. Music from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde bellows in on sparse occasions, hinting at and eventually heralding the end of days. The film also takes place on a golf course. It's an unlikely setting which has to be the director's ultimate tongue-in-cheek slight at a sport that literally defines the corruption and complacency of the privileged. Perhaps it is the upper class that Von Trier seeks to punish in the film. Maybe Melancholia is an answer to their collective sins.
Even with that idea in mind, I have to admit that Melancholia plays it too close to the chin at times, especially when Justine flat out says the line "The Earth is evil", when Claire asks her why this is all happening. Alright, Lars, thanks. Because that gargantuan cataclysm in space wasn't an obvious enough metaphor. There's also the question of the necessity of the wedding party to the story. It's an interesting sequence of events, but some of the subplots, such as Justine's relationship with her husband, father and mother are never recalled or spoken about after they fade out of the story. It's as if Lars couldn't figure out how to successfully marry the social observations in a world denying it's fate and the eventual solidarity of the apocalypse.
It took me a good two weeks to figure out if I actually liked Melancholia, and I think on the whole I really do like it. There's a specific seepage and gravity that Von Trier tends to achieve with his films, usually making you like (or hate) his work only after a due period of reflection. This happened to me after I watched some of his other films like Europa and The Element of Crime. The best thing I can say about Melancholia is that, in true Lars fashion, it's a movie that doesn't pull any punches. There's nothing to soften the blows and no places to turn for comfort. It's a genuine lightening bolt to the gut, and although it isn't my favorite Von Trier film, I'm glad he made it.
