„Moody, poetic and incredibly affecting.” -Paper Magazine

I’m literally struggling with writing about this movie because for two days I’ve been sitting (well not only sitting, I’ve been doing other things too) and thinking about this movie. I’m not sure if I should even call it a movie or if other movies are movies compared to this. Because this is pure art and everything else just is and nothing more. I’m thinking of any other movie that expressed as much as this one. The one that comes to mind right now is „Across the universe” because it also was very artistic.

I have to confess that this movie is not the kind of movie I watch usually, so don’t judge me very harshly. But I can honestly say that when something like this comes my way I appreciate it very much because everything else, every other movie that you can usually see in a mall’s cinema, seems dull and empty in comparison. When I, rarely, see movies like this I find myself thinking why do others even bother making other kind of movies really. So you can see that this movie really made an impression on me.

The plot isn’t very complex. The movie wants you to focus more on the characters and how they deal with the world coming to an end. It also focuses a lot on the visuals and in this case a picture really does say a thounsand words, maybe even more. „Melancholia” starts with a series of images, which look very painting like, that sum up the plot. The director, Lars von Trier, said that he wanted to say from the beginning where the action was heading to, so that the movie wouldn’t be so much about the end of the world, but more about how its characters deal with the world coming to an end. The classical music by Richard Wagner, used as soundtrack only adds more to the drama and makes the movie more intense.

The movie is divided in two parts each focusing on a specific character. The two characters are sisters. One fighting with depression and the other is just normal, as the director said. The first part is about Justine, a woman who tries to fight with her depression by trying to stick to some normal things happening in life. The one thing depicted in the movie is marriage. But she fails in doing it, because she finds no meaning in it. Her sister Claire is the rational one who tries to keep her on track but also fails doing it. Because in the second part, Justine is the one who’s falling down by trying to cope with knowing that the world will end. This is when she gets weak and Justine is the strong one, the roles being reversed in this second part. Claire is falling apart because of the desperation and because she is worrying about her son. Through all this, Justine is the one who is holding up and being strong. This is supposed to be part of her condition, specifically because depressive people tend to hold their ground better when they are under pressure because they expect the worst, Lars von Trier says. (There are some lines in the movie that depict exactly what Justine feels towards the end of the world. I’ll post them when I’ll find them)

Many of you may not have the patience to see it entirely, I too had a hard time paying attention till the end, but I can assure you it will be worth it. This is the kind of movie I’m pleased to watch because it’s so challenging and because it makes me insightfull and puts my mind to work harder. It’s a shame we are being fed every weekend with mainstream movies which in the end have very little to say, their only goal being to entertain and make money. Very few of them have something worth learning.

Melancholia is really an amazing movie artistically, visually because many images are like very expressive paintings, emotionally because the two sisters’s playing is very authentic and also because of the music which combined with the story really has its way of moving you if you are receptive to it.