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Melancholia

  • 2011
  • R
  • 2h 15m
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
203K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,230
242
Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia (2011)
Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) are celebrating their marriage at a sumptuous party in the home of her sister (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law (Kiefer Sutherland). Meanwhile, the planet, Melancholia, is heading towards Earth...
Play trailer2:14
6 Videos
99+ Photos
Psychological DramaTragedyDramaSci-Fi

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

  • Director
    • Lars von Trier
  • Writer
    • Lars von Trier
  • Stars
    • Kirsten Dunst
    • Charlotte Gainsbourg
    • Kiefer Sutherland
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.1/10
    203K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    1,230
    242
    • Director
      • Lars von Trier
    • Writer
      • Lars von Trier
    • Stars
      • Kirsten Dunst
      • Charlotte Gainsbourg
      • Kiefer Sutherland
    • 784User reviews
    • 422Critic reviews
    • 81Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 36 wins & 95 nominations total

    Videos6

    U.S. Version
    Trailer 2:14
    U.S. Version
    International Trailer #2
    Trailer 1:13
    International Trailer #2
    International Trailer #2
    Trailer 1:13
    International Trailer #2
    Melancholia: International Trailer #1
    Trailer 1:59
    Melancholia: International Trailer #1
    Melancholia
    Clip 1:35
    Melancholia
    "The Earth Is Evil"
    Clip 0:49
    "The Earth Is Evil"
    Kirsten Dunst
    Interview 2:53
    Kirsten Dunst

    Photos139

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
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    + 135
    View Poster

    Top cast24

    Edit
    Kirsten Dunst
    Kirsten Dunst
    • Justine
    Charlotte Gainsbourg
    Charlotte Gainsbourg
    • Claire
    Kiefer Sutherland
    Kiefer Sutherland
    • John
    Alexander Skarsgård
    Alexander Skarsgård
    • Michael
    Brady Corbet
    Brady Corbet
    • Tim
    Cameron Spurr
    • Leo
    Charlotte Rampling
    Charlotte Rampling
    • Gaby
    Jesper Christensen
    Jesper Christensen
    • Little Father
    John Hurt
    John Hurt
    • Dexter
    Stellan Skarsgård
    Stellan Skarsgård
    • Jack
    Udo Kier
    Udo Kier
    • Wedding Planner
    James Cagnard
    • Michael's Father
    Deborah Fronko
    • Michael's Mother
    Charlotta Miller
    • Betty 1
    Claire Miller
    • Betty 2
    Gary Whitaker
    • Limo Driver
    Katrine A. Sahlstrøm
    • Girl with Guitar
    • (as Katrine Acheche Sahlstrøm)
    Christian Geisnæs
    • Wedding Photographer
    • Director
      • Lars von Trier
    • Writer
      • Lars von Trier
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews784

    7.1203.2K
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    Featured reviews

    7orchard6

    Melancholia

    Melancholia is a 2011 film written and directed by the controversial Lars Von Trier and follows two sisters as the end of the world draws near. The film is actually more about the current lives of the two sisters than it is the end of the world; yet the impending doom does heavily influence a series of events. Presently, the film has received mostly positive reviews and was praised for the imagery used throughout the film.

    To truly appreciate all that Melancholia has to offer the film must be analyzed by taking a look at its two separate acts. The feel of the first act is much different than the feel and plot of the second act. The first act is titled "Justine", as it focuses on the character Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and her severe depression on her wedding day. The first act doesn't have much to do with the fact that all life on Earth is going to be wiped out. In fact, it doesn't really focus on the impending planet collision at all; it is simply about Justine as a character and all those around her at the time of the wedding. It is clear the Justine suffers from some type of mental illness but it is not made clear exactly what is wrong with her. She does very odd things throughout her entire wedding day including cheating on her husband. She spends a majority of the time away from her party, hiding out either on the golf course located outside or with her nephew, which seems to be the only things she derives joy from. Justine can be a very annoying character to watch as she seems to want to do nothing but ruin her own party, yet the camera shots of her off on her own either on the golf course or in the backyard are some of the best in the film.

    The second act of the film titled "Claire" focuses mainly on Justine's sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and the impending impact of the planets. The first act can be slightly more interesting because as a viewer it is not really explained why Justine is doing all of the things she does, a lot of mystery surrounds her character. The second act picks up slightly after the events of the first, but follows Claire this time. She is worried about the collision yet her husband assures her it will miss Earth and they will be able to gaze upon it with their telescope. Throughout the second act Claire must deal with her Justine's depression as well as her own husband and child, all while constantly worrying about the collision. The second half of the film is much more intense than the first, and the editing reflects that, especially towards the climax. The use of shaky shots gives the viewer a sense of uneasiness and uncertainty as to how it will end.

    Perhaps Melancholia's greatest achievement is its cinematography and beautiful sequence of unique shots, most notably in the opening sequence. The first opening sequence takes place entirely in slow- motion, showing many of the main characters, and is one of the highlights of the entire film. The camera work and settings used in this film are really something to talk about. The setting of a mansion is both isolating and elegant, and these two things are reflected within the carefully planned camera work.

    My biggest gripe with the film would definitely be its pacing. It will be really engaging one minute and then slow down to a dead halt the next. However, when the film does have its shining moments, they are extremely memorable.
    chaos-rampant

    The sound of void washing itself empty

    No one probably working today can imbue the image of a bride pissing in the middle of a golf course with the afterglow of existential soul-searching like Trier does here - well, there was Peter Greenaway at one point but I haven't kept track. Side by side the romantic, the visceral, the transcendent, each one perversely subverting the others. But, having searched and yearned, eventually with Trier we arrive at nothing. Nothing in the predominantly Western, post-enlightenment worldview that has pushed god to the side and seated the mind in his place. Nothing is too much for Trier then, because nothing satisfies the mind; everything that is touched by humanity is shown to be randomly bubbling up from some cold, infertile void.

    But this is the thing with Trier, why it's so troubling to dismiss him; even though he makes art about a meaningless world - and so why pay attention? - he remains a powerful poet of cinema. So he is an anti-Tarkovsky, which perhaps explains why he opens the film with The Hunters in the Snow - a painting used in Solyaris - burning, and why horses are forced to kneel in the face of petulant violence. Whereas Tarkovsky understood the universe to be centered inside, and used that to sculpt space and metaphor from that center, Trier is grounded nowhere; so he resolves to orbit from one periphery to the next, nicely framing for us anxieties that we can relate to but with no deeper insight of their mechanism.

    But now and then he works from a powerful set of ideas. Here it is the mirrored metaphor; the pain and suffering of life on earth as mirrored on the cosmic level, and our hope that this suffering looming above will just pass us by. It is not sci-fi in any way you may recognize, or anymore than Tree of Life is.

    It does not work like that, of course, that is a given. So we are placed in the shoes of the woman - the bride in her wedding reception, where life is ritually supposed to become orderly, assuring, meaningful - and forced to make our way for the occasion wearing a forced smile, and hoping the pain will just pass us by. Yes, it does not work like that. The mother is haughty and domineering, the father sloppy and indiscreet. Everyone else is busy performing their roles, going through motions, speeches, confrontations which are often funny but always grueling to see. So,with the soul unsupervised, the perfect occasion for happiness inexplicably crumbles from inside.

    The second part is about the sister, who already has the perfectly happy life or is supposed to. But again, of course, it doesn't work. Suffering, uncertainty hangs above that we can't simply brush off. So it is the dawning of acceptance that governs this part of the film; but, properly at least for Trier and in a way that should make sense, we're shown the impossibility of that acceptance. Faces are increasingly bewildered, affections grow distant, motions agitated.

    A lot of my distaste for what Trier does, is exemplified in a scene where the depressed sister confronts the other; instead of reciprocating the nurture and support, however obligatory it may have seemed at the time, she preys on her weakness. Why drink wine in the veranda and pretend none of this is going to happen? Why not?

    But the acceptance is handled with so much nihilism, a sort of comfortable noncommittal, that I want to take a step back. No equanimity flows from Trier's emptiness, and so the vision is useless for me. I want films embedded in a world that matters in some way. Yes, we're all going to face an inscrutable fate, but it's one thing to frame this with compassion, another thing altogether to frame with contempt or cold satisfaction.

    So it is apt to compare with Tree of Life on more than just the cosmic level of wheels whirring life into pattern; there is the sense of emptying out, the search for a true face that restores meaning. Malick goes the extra mile though, he reconciles into the impermanence of all things and from there a deep, loving humanity. Trier is simply left aghast at it. Sex is a vice and the mind is unable to cope; so he merely casts the characters away at the precipice. But not before ironically rendering human faith as a magical cave made from fire sticks.

    Oh, he captures the drab, grueling unlife of depression well, no wonder as he knows from personal experience. And a google search seems to yield a nod at Filippino filmmaker Lav Diaz, that was pretty unexpected.

    There are aesthetically-minded pleasures though that you should see; planets caressing each other like faces below, a bird's eye view of horses galloping. Some of it borders on kitsch when Kirsten Dunst is photographed naked beneath the moonglow, the schadenfreude is so earnestly conceived.

    And there is the parting image; I don't know how much of it was the theater, technology, but it swell up into the most deafening, soul-crushing crescendo. I could feel particles being dislocated inside of me. But considering what comes before, it's not something I wanted to swim into but let wash. It's fitting for Trier though, the wagnerian sound of the void washing life empty.

    It is a powerful work, don't just take it lightly. But I urge you to meditate against it.

    Oh yes, it is all going to end sooner or later. But, as a principle, I urge you to never settle for a destructive void in your life: in the midst of blistering destruction, try to see around you what the Eastern mystics knew as the universe of 10,000 beautiful things trampled by god Shiva in his final dance. Let yourself be filled with a profound sadness that is joy for the 10,000 beautiful things around you.
    hedgehog5

    Lars von Trier's Wagnerian opera of 2011 - the Ragnarok of western capitalism

    Melancholia is LVT's Wagnerian opera. Justine is a mythological creation. She is the white goddess, Diana bathing, la Belle Dame Sans Merci, Cassandra tormented by futurity. It ends in Gottedammerung, the destruction of the world.

    The Cannes jury was right to honour it. In 2, 10 or 100 years this will be manifestly THE film of 2011, capturing as it does this precise historical moment, on the cusp of epochs. More than just an economic crisis, or even the end of Western capitalism, or the American Century, or of Europe - though it is all that - it is the consummation in fire of all we have ever known. Leaders and experts sit mesmerised and powerless, making reassuring noises, or setting aside puny provisions; taking shelter in denial or custom. While Melancholia and Earth act out their dance of death; gravity, the most ineluctable force in the universe, does its work.

    Justine, being incapable of happiness, is therefore incapable of illusion. She has always known. Herself untouched by affect, by human assimilation or persuasion, she writes the killer tag lines which manipulate others. Having a damaged soul, she suffers from a disorder of perception - she sees things as they actually are. She knows precisely how many beans are in the jar -like those who called the top of the Dow Jones index, at 12807 exactly. On one level, she represents the spirit of financialisation, the final, hottest white dwarf phase of capitalism, quantifying, inhumane, ultra-competitive (seen also in Skaarsgard's brutal ad boss, and in the brother-in-law who paid for the wedding - "an arm and a leg, for most people" -he means it literally I think - chilling!) And, like the Sybil, Justine wants to die. She wills the destruction of herself and everything else. 'The Earth is evil.'

    LVT is the holy idiot of European cinema. Much as Justine destroys her stellar career, then hours later, in the garden, consciously and irrevocably obliterates her marriage and future happiness, so LVT - in the most perfect example of parallel process - in his acceptance speech at Cannes compulsively befouls himself, his credibility, future opportunities, his film and all associated with it. (Poor Dunst, beside him. Did she always know? I wonder.)

    Which brings me to Kirsten Dunst.Once the all-American teenage sweetie in some of my favourite films.(The US invented the teenager, much as the English Victorians invented childhood, and its richest and most creative seam of film and TV deal with this stage of life. In a way, America is the world's teenager; and all teenagers are Americans by proxy.) In fact, Dunst is German-American, with all the ancestral baggage that implies. (Read Sylvia Plath's 'Daddy' if you don't know what I mean). Beneath the apple-pie sunny exterior of her teen roles, there was always something remote and uncanny about her beauty. And now, with teen / young adult roles behind her, this strangeness, this well, German-ness, is exposed. In the riveting opening shots of 'Melancholia' she looks like Marlene Dietrich - unheimlich, fascinating. Like la Belle Dame Sans Merci, she takes possession of a man through his unconscious: like the groom in the film, he will follow her, exchanging all that is dear - home, family and hope of happiness - for bitterness and despair.

    In the scene in the limo, the earliest, lightest part of the story, she seems American, in accent, face, body, She becomes less American , more northern European, and ultimately less like a human being at all, as her story unwinds. Those who criticise the inconsistency in her accent are missing the point. The change is about the character, not her nationality, which is purposely vague. (In fact, in what country does the film take place? Would you ask that question of 'the Ring'?)

    I get the impression that just as Lars is working through some issues around his German-ness – hence the Wagnerianism -, so is Dunst, which must have made his Cannes performance doubly excruciating. (I hear she wants to be called 'Keersten' now, pronounced the German way.) For the girl who has been being other people superbly well from her childhood, it seems to me that Dunst the adult truly exposes something painfully real of herself in this film. ('Exposing' is the right word in every way.)

    And she pulls it off. The film is stunning. She is stunning, and thoroughly deserves Best Actress. Bravo, Lars von Trier!
    9Mblodnieks

    Depression Deconstructed

    This movie completely freaked me out. It was SO well done, but if you've ever suffered from serious depression it really gets under your skin.

    People I know who watched this movie thought it was boring and didn't understand it. I understood it very well. I have never seen a better metaphor for depression, and the seductiveness of "giving in."

    If you're very depressed, don't watch this movie alone.
    9infinitesilence6

    I have never wished for a collision with another planet, until I watched this film

    When we think about the end of the world, we usually think about the things we have always wanted to do, but never got the chance to. In whatever way it is that we wish to live our last hours on earth, whether it be by going out with close friends and relatives, or doing the things you never thought you'd do, the feelings of impending doom are the driving force behind our decisions. There have been many films lately that seek a comedic twist to something of this level (which isn't a bad thing), but what Lars Von Trier does with Melancholia is give us a beautifully orchestrated vision about the beauty that comes with the destruction of our planet as well as very realistic and often somber interactions between the characters in this film. One can't help but be mesmerized and terrified by the magnitude of Melancholia and the attention to detail, the science (dear lord!) was easy to understand and though it wasn't the focal point of the film, it was enough to offer the audience an idea as to how something like that was possible. (I would be lying if I said it didn't make me weep.) The film is separated by chapters that focus on the two sisters played by Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg and their lives before and after they found out about Melancholia. I believe that by taking the time to show us how the sisters were before the end of the world even became a possibility, we understand why they react the way they do to the news. Accepting what is to come instead of fearing it is what separates the sisters and the conversations/arguments that transpire speak a lot about the human condition and forces us to ask ourselves: What will I do with the time I have left? I watched this film about a month ago and I still think about it. It's captivating and absolutely worth your time.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The image of Justine floating down the stream with her bouquet was inspired by John Everett Millais' 1852 painting "Ophelia."
    • Goofs
      One cannot view the same constellation (Scorpius) at the same location in the celestial sky from late evening to early morning due to the Earth's rotation.
    • Quotes

      Michael: This could have been a lot different.

      Justine: Yes. But, Michael... what did you expect?

    • Alternate versions
      There are two versions available: the theatrical cut, with a runtime of "2h 15m (135 min)" and a slightly edited one, with a runtime of "2h 10m (130 min)".
    • Connections
      Edited from Journey in Classic Era (2021)
    • Soundtracks
      Excerpts from Tristan und Isolde
      Music by Richard Wagner

      Orchestra by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (as The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra)

      Conducted by Richard Hein

      Recorded by Jan Holzner

      Cello solo by Henrik Dam Thomsen

      Arrangements by Kristian Eidnes Andersen

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    FAQ21

    • How long is Melancholia?Powered by Alexa
    • What is the music used for the opening of the film?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 26, 2011 (Denmark)
    • Countries of origin
      • Denmark
      • Sweden
      • France
      • Germany
      • Italy
    • Official sites
      • Official Facebook
      • Official site (United Kingdom)
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Melancolía
    • Filming locations
      • Tjolöholm Castle, Fjärås, Sweden(Castle exteriors)
    • Production companies
      • Zentropa Entertainments
      • Memfis Film
      • Zentropa International Sweden
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $7,400,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $3,030,848
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $257,174
      • Nov 13, 2011
    • Gross worldwide
      • $17,683,518
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 15 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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