Amazon Insant's visually sumptuous category brings us today's flick...
You do realize that part of the reason I run this blog is to stave off depression, right? Like, if I don't have something structured going on, I kinda fall into a rut and have a hard time getting out of it and alternatively consider killing myself and verbally lashing out at people, so I need something to do to occupy my time. So I sit down, watch a movie, and then bang out my opinion on it to keep myself writing something and stave off the problems of my mental state until I can find a more permanent solution. It's working out intermittently, but I think it's working. All of this is a nice way of saying:
I DON'T NEED YOUR SHIT, LARS VON TRIER.
Backing up a bit. From what I've read about him since I had reason to care about him as anything beyond the guy jokingly credited as the pie in Too Many Cooks, Lars von Trier is a bit of an eccentric film director who tends towards a minimalist style for his movies (so much so that he created Dogme 95, an entire movement dedicated to making movies with the barest of possible bones), and a really, really dark streak. We're not talking super dark and edgy dark, we're talking "humanity is a blight on this planet and it'll be better off the second we're gone" dark. I mean, emo kid grew up and refined his poetry into something compelling and meaningful without losing any of the original intention, downright, straight up bleak. He also apparently makes jokes about Hitler that get him blacklisted at Cannes.
And boy howdy does that dark streak show in Melancholia. I was a little bit worried going into this review, because I didn't pay the movie as much attention as I feel it deserved. I had other stuff distracting me at the time, and the slow pace and quiet audio put me out of it for a little while. What's more, I've actually known about this movie and been interested in seeing it ever since I caught a review in the paper back when it came out. So I was feeling as if I'd just wasted a solid two and a quarter hours and wouldn't be able to say anything intelligent about the film without binging on Wikipedia and imdb in order to put together a half-coherent synopsis and a few small opinions.
But then something happened. While walking to and from class today, I took some time to think about the film, reflect on what I remembered and piece it together that way. And in doing so, I came to a conclusion, one that justifies the all-caps boldly italicized statement up there - I feel like I totally get this movie.
The set up this time around involves the wedding of Justine and Michael, two young lovers whose idyllic life isn't quite as idyllic as it seems. Justine's parents have long since split apart, and her mother doesn't approve of her marriage in the slightest. Her sister Claire and husband John act supportive, but John's liable to snap and give up on Claire's side of the family at the drop of a hat. And worst of all, Justine suffers from clinical depression, which strikes her on the night of her reception. These factors, along with a whole host of other mitigating conditions brought on by the other guests, causes the night to splinter apart - never quite breaking, but definitely destroying any illusion of a happy life.
The film's second half shifts to pay more attention to Justine and Clair's relationship, as well as up the focus on the oncoming collision with the giant planet Melancholia. It's still as character oriented as the first act, but draws the characters in broader strokes and introduces a somewhat mystical element as the planet draws closer and closer.
Before I get into any of my analysis, I'd like to get a few things out of the way, including the one thing I think pretty much everyone who's reviewed this movie has gotten at - the opening sequence looks great. Melancholia opens with a series of slow-motion, almost completely still images depicting key events from the movie in both literal and metaphorical terms. At times I thought it WAS just a still image, until a planet blotted out a star's light, or someone's foot sank a solid six inches into the ground. It's all very, VERY well shot, and culminates in an image of Melancholia impacting Earth, effectively setting up the movie's tone of depression-born inevitability.
It also serves as a good contrast to the movie afterwards. In contrast to the opening sequence, largely made up of well-composed, slow moving stills, the rest of the film pulls in much closer and focuses in on characters with a slightly shaky camera. None of it ever stops looking good (this was in the Visually Sumptuous category, after all), but it highlights Justine's uncomfortableness with the situation, likely born out of her depression. As those of us who suffer from it and related mental disorders, it's not easy dealing with social situations, and von Trier uses the camerawork as an effective way of demonstrating this. I'm sure it says something that the method is still employed in the second part, when the cast is cut down to just four people.
And speaking of the cast, they all do great jobs. Seeing Kiefer Sutherland here makes me want to get through Peace Walker faster so I can hear him do Big Boss in Ground Zeroes and the Phantom Pain, and seeing John Hurt here reminds me that I made a good decision in liking John Hurt. I really don't have much to say about the rest of them, just that they did a good job and I figured the acting worthy of praise. Sometimes I don't have much to say about something I want to work into the main review. I'm not about to push central credited performances into the assorted thoughts section.
But anyways, that analysis I promised earlier. As I said at the start, despite not strictly paying attention to every tiny bit of the movie, I still feel like I completely understand what von Trier was going for here. Wikipedia's plot summary includes a whole bunch of stuff about characters standing in for the sins of mankind, and given some of the elements in the movie I can definitely see that. Yet for the way my reading of the film works, it really only requires the characters who stick around for part 2.
See, the way I see it, Melancholia's central question is, "Does normal, run of the mill depression work any differently that completely apocalyptic depression?" And over the course of the film, I think it comes to the conclusion that no, there is no central difference. Justine never gets better throughout the course of the movie. The inbound armageddon doesn't do anything to shake her out of her thought patterns, or convince her to rebuild ties with her family, or do anything but silently accept her oncoming death as she bathes naked in the planetlight.
In fact, Melancholia seems to argue that depression is the most logical, rational mindset one can take when faced with the inevitable. Part two focuses more on Claire and how she deals with the inbound impact, believing whatever she's told for as long as possible before finding irrefutable proof that she, along with everything and everyone she's ever known, is doomed. As the supposedly more rational sister, one would expect her to figure out some means of dealing with the situation. But instead, she breaks down, completely out of places to hide, unable to accept that there's nothing she can do to stop it.
Central to all of this is a character I've neglected to mention until now, Claire's son. Throughout the second half of the film, he's aware of Melancholia's approach, but never seems to fully comprehend its meaning. Even when his father reassures him of their 100% assured survival, he doesn't seem to quite GET it. By the time the ending rolls around (if I may indulge in spoilers for a moment) and his mother has placed herself and Justine in a magic cave to protect them from the planet, he seems to finally figure it out... and take Justine's side. He's completely silent and acceptant of the inbound destruction, as if he's adopted her mindset and accepted what his mother cannot. Maybe he has depression too or something.
You can probably see why I was reluctant to review this movie, even beyond my lack of attention given to it. "Hey, extreme, pervasive depression is totally a valid thing for you to feel because the whole world's small and insignificant and you're going to die anyways, so why bother?" isn't exactly the sort of thing I want the movies I watch here telling me.
It is entirely possible that I've misread Melancholia entirely. There's some crucial shots of Earth as small and dark and insignificant against Melancholia's grand blue magnificence, so it could just as easily be a call to rise beyond petty emotional strife and work to appreciate the beauty of the universe, with the depression aspect driving the difficulty of the task. I'm not entirely certain. What I am certain of is that this is a really good movie; thought provoking, well acted, VERY well shot, and an interesting introduction to Lars von Trier's work, Melancholia is a film I can heartily recommend to those of you who have Amazon Instant and think you can make it through the bleak runtime.
I'm just hoping Friday's movie is a mite bit less depressing.
(Assorted thoughts:
- Wikipedia's article on Dogme 95. It's a pretty interesting concept, and I've occasionally wondered how one would go about making a movie under these restrictions. Never really associated von Trier with it until now though, despite him founding the damn movement.
- It's another one of those movies where I know a bunch of people from superhero films and genre fiction. Kirsten Dunst from Spider-Man, Stellan Skarsgård from the Thor movies, I know a bunch of John Hurt stuff but I know him best from Doctor Who, Kiefer Sutherland from Metal Gear...
- Is it weird that I was at a wedding on a golf course last week? I know it doesn't mean anything, but it just feels odd that I go to one of those and then roll up this movie.
- "The brother-in-law who is an astronomer committing suicide rather than live to see the most awesome astronomical event ever, even if it was the last thing he would ever see. Makes no sense to me. You'd think that he would want to at least see it." Why do I go on TV Tropes. Why.
- This movie is apparently part of a thematic depression trilogy von Trier was working on, starting with Antichrist and ending with the recent Nymphomaniac. Antichrist is one of the Certified Weird movies over at 366WeirdMovies, so maybe I'll track down a way to see that at some point.
Anyways, small announcement here. Elena has decided that the stresses of daily life are too much for her to be able to find the time to contribute articles, and will be leaving us. I'm sad that she never got around to publishing a review, but I respect her decision to go, and wish her the best. Not sure who's going to fill the Tuesday/Thursday slot, especially given the blog's small readerbase, but I'll manage.
No comments:
Post a Comment