Melancholia is the newest film by danish auteur filmmaker Lars von Trier. Starring are Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Keifer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgard (Eric from True Blood), Charlotte Rampling and John Hurt.
The story evolves around Justine (Dunst) who is getting married to Michael (Skarsgard), in a larger-than-life wedding paid by her wealthy brother-in-law John (Sutherland), who is married to Justine's sister Claire (Gainsbourg). Justine's relationship with Claire is not the best. Also their parents, Gaby (Rampling) and Dexter (Hurt), hate each other. After several events during wedding day, Justine ends up living at her sister's mansion. They wait there for Melancholia, a strange planet about to collide with Earth, and everything will change forever.
Lars von Trier tells the story in two different parts. 1st part is Justine's wedding day and 2nd part is Claire's family life at the mansion. Both of them are part of the end of the world story of Melancholia hitting planet Earth.
The camera shots are very reminiscent of his Dogme 95 days. They follow the characters with no apparent purpose as the actors wander through the gorgeous and iconic settings. As the story comes to an end, all the shots made perfect sense. The photography and editing are very interesting as well as strange, but serve the purpose of telling the unconventional story, just as prior's von Trier films.
Dunst performance is her best seen so far. She won the Best Actress Award at the 64th Cannes Film Festival. She also sounds for at least, an Oscar nomination. This isn't for baring all her clothes but for the dramatic scenes that compose her interpretation of a depressed and confused Justine.
During Cannes last edition, von Trier made some politically incorrect comments about sympathizing with Hitler, something that made him "persona non grata" at the prestigious festival and banned him from competition.
All in all, its very good storytelling about the end of the world told by the best Scandinavian filmmaker of the last 20 years. Entertaining, unique and somewhat controversial. 8/10 stars.
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