Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Melancholia (2011) - Trier's heightened reality doomsday reflections

6/08/2015

Melancholia (2011) - Trier's heightened reality doomsday reflections

♥♥♥♥

2 Time Film Excess Nominee:

Best Actress: Kirsten Dunst (lost to Bérénice Bejo for The Artist)
Best Cinematography: Manuel Alberto Claro (lost to Phedon Papamichael for The Descendants)

+ Best Apocalyptic Movie of the Year

Kirsten Dunst in what might be 2011's most beautiful poster, for Lars Von Trier's Melancholia

QUICK REVIEW:

An awkward wedding in a large country estate SPOILER ends tragically, as the groom leaves his mentally unbalanced bride, Justine. She remains in a state of deep depression, while guilt and hate bounces off the walls, and a distant planet moves towards Earth.

Danish master filmmaker Lars Von Trier's (Breaking the Waves (1996)) melodrama disaster movie, possibly a little bit better than his preceding Antichrist (2009), is a pictorially generous experience, shot in Trollhättan, Sweden. - Particularly the ultra-slow shots in the beginning of the film are poignant. Striking cinematography by Chilean Manuel Alberto Claro (Reconstruction (2003)).
The film is well-acted, with a strong Kirsten Dunst (On the Road (2012)) leading the ensemble, intense and affecting.
The film's style mix of the meticulously designed and the randomly untidy, and the hopeless characters that don't inspire much real sympathy, who populate Von Trier's script, make the film a somewhat stiff and whimsical work in his oevre, however, although there are some others who actualy think this is his best film to date. I strongly disagree.

Related reviews:

Lars Von Trier: Nymphomaniac (2013) short version, vol. 1 & vol. 2, or, Lars Von Trier's Suck It
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Antichrist (2009) - Trier's cabin-in-the-woods psycho-horror
Dear Wendy (2005) - Vinterberg and Von Trier's unpopular, gun-themed megaflop (writer)
Dancer in the Dark (2000) or, Selma the Immigrant

A wonderful Melancholia production still of Lars Von Trier surrounded by cinematographer Claro and stars Kiefer Sutherland, Kirsten Dunst, Alexander Skarsgård and Charlotte Gainsbourg

Watch the trailer for Melancholia here

Cost: 9.4 mil. $
Box office: 15.9 mil. $
= Big flop
[Melancholia debuted at Cannes, where Dunst won the Best Actress award, and Von Trier was excommunicated as 'persona non grata', because he stirred up the festival by talking about Hitler at the Melancholia press conference. The case later led to a police questioning of him in Denmark and two years of self-enforced public silence from Von Trier, who was very shocked and affected by the whole, stupid affair. Melancholia went on to win Best Film, Cinematographer and Designer at the European Film Awards as well as Best Film - International, Best Director - International, Best Screenplay - International and Best Actress - International from the US National Society of Film Critics, as well as other awards. Melancholia made 3 mil. $ (19 % of the total gross) in the US, and in Denmark, 60,156 paid admission.]

What do you think of Melancholia?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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6/08/2015

Melancholia (2011) - Trier's heightened reality doomsday reflections

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