Melancholia (film)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Melancholia
Original title Melancholia
Melancholia.svg
Country of production Denmark
Sweden
France
Germany
original language English
Publishing year 2011
length 135 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Lars from Trier
script Lars from Trier
production Meta Louise Foldager
Louise Vesth
camera Manuel Alberto Claro
cut Molly Malene Stensgaard
occupation

Melancholia is an end- of -time film by director Lars von Trier from 2011. The main roles are played by Kirsten Dunst , Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kiefer Sutherland . The film premiered in May 2011 during the 64th Cannes Film Festival .

Melancholia tells of a depressed young woman who foresees the end of the world when it collides with another planet.

action

The eight-minute opening sequence of the film mainly shows slow motion shots of the main characters, a collapsing horse, falling birds as well as images of the earth and a wandering planet . The sequence culminates in a shot in which the earth collides with it. These pictures come from a dream of the main character Justine, which she later reproduced in words.

After this overture , the action, divided into two acts , begins . The first act, entitled "Justine", describes the wedding of Michael and Justine, which is held in the castle of her brother-in-law John and her sister Claire. The bride and groom are late for the celebrations because their stretch limousine is making slow progress on the narrow paths. Upon arrival, Claire blames Justine for being late. But Justine sees a star in the sky that shines particularly brightly. Her brother-in-law, John, who is enthusiastic about astronomy , explains to her that this is the star Antares . The festivities are not very harmonious. The divorced bride parents Gaby and Dexter verbally abuse each other in front of all the guests, and Justine, to the annoyance of Claire and John, keeps withdrawing and sleeps in between. Her employer Jack, who announces Justine's promotion to art director , expects her to write an advertising slogan for a new campaign during the celebration. Justine sees herself once again pushed into a role that others have chosen for her and falls back into the depression from which she has been suffering for a long time. Towards the end of the party, which lasts until the early hours of the morning, she quits her job in an argument and is left by her husband, whom she cheated on one night with a young colleague who was supposed to coax the slogan from her.

The assumed trajectory of the planet "Melancholia", referred to in the film as "Dance of Death"
The Swedish Tjolöholm Castle , which in the film is the country residence of Claire's husband

In the second act, titled "Claire", Justine is brought back to the country estate by Claire. She helps Justine overcome her breakdown. While riding out with her sister, Justine notices that Antares can no longer be seen; according to John, the star is obscured by the vagabonding planet "Melancholia". The planet appears behind the sun and passes in front of Antares. John announces that according to the scientists' calculations, Melancholia will pass the earth in close proximity without any contact. Claire looks anxiously at the path of Melancholia on Internet sites, according to which there is supposed to be a collision with the earth. John tries to calm her down, but secretly manages to get food and gasoline supplies. In view of the approaching planet, Claire increasingly loses her composure, while Justine longs for the end of the world and "sunbathes" naked in the glow of the planet at night.

In the days that followed, strange omens accumulated. The electricity in the villa goes out, the servant no longer appears, the horses in the stable are restless, the weather changes repeatedly in a flash. The planet initially flies past the earth. It seems like John was right. But “Melancholia” crosses the earth's orbit a second time and this time moves directly towards the earth. When John finds out, he takes his life with pills. Claire hides his death from the others. She wants to flee with her son Leo, but no cars start anymore. Justine refuses Claire's request to say goodbye together on the terrace by candlelight and wine. However, Leo calms her down by building a “magical cave” with him out of branches to protect her. Shortly before the collision, Justine, Claire and Leo sit down in the dugout and hold hands. “Melancholia” collides with the earth, which is drowning in a sea of ​​flames.

background

Richard Wagner: Tristan and Isolde , prelude (11:09 minutes; 13.9 MB)

The shooting took place from July 22nd to September 8th 2010 in Sweden. The interior shots were taken in the Trollhättan film studios . Tjolöholm Castle near Kungsbacka was used for the exterior shots .

At the press conference for the premiere during the Cannes Film Festival, a scandal broke out when Lars von Trier provoked with the statement that he could empathize with Adolf Hitler and understand the inner logic of his actions. As a result, Lars von Trier was excluded from the festival, but the film remained in the competition.

Melancholia opened in Danish cinemas on May 26, 2011 and in German cinemas on October 6 of the same year.

Like other Triers films, Melancholia also contains references to the director Andrei Tarkowski , whom he admires , including the use of Pieter Bruegel's painting The Hunters in the Snow , which can be seen briefly in Justine's Dream and plays a central role in Tarkowski's Solaris (1972).

The Tristan chord or the prelude to the opera Tristan und Isolde (1865) by Richard Wagner serves as the musical leitmotif .

The two-fold approach of Melancholia to the earth, referred to in the film as "Dance of Death" and the above diagram above, are incorrect in that Melancholia has a multiple of the mass of the earth, as it is at the beginning of the film when it hits the earth can recognize him. A relatively close flyby of a much larger vagabond planet , as depicted in the movie, would likely throw the earth out of its orbit around the sun, but would have little effect on the trajectory of Melancholia.

Reviews

This section consists only of a cunning collection of quotes from movie reviews. Instead, a summary of the reception of the film should be provided as continuous text, which can also include striking quotations, see also the explanations in the film format .

“Trier almost completely dispenses with crude punchlines and images of being overwhelmed. Even his weird humor can only be found in hints, for example when a 19th hole appears on a golf course. […] Trier and his cameraman Manuel Alberto Claro only show a series of breathtaking tableaus at the beginning , underlaid with the prelude from Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde'. Here you can see the sky for the first time, in which two moons shine at the same time, and the image of Justine, as she is bound by dense, gray woolen threads and cannot move, is unforgettable. But like Justine, the film erases itself in the process. The images become more fleeting, the scenes more elliptical, the threat of the end of the world is transmitted more and more acoustically, because from the last third you can constantly hear a nervous horse rustling in the background. In the end, you don't know what else in this world should be saved. And when Melancholia finally takes up the whole of heaven, like Justine you can feel one thing above all: redemption. A film cannot achieve anything more powerful. "

- Hannah Pilarczyk - The mirror

“From the cosmic distance, this end of the world looks pretty good and also has an irritating sexual component: It's great how the earth disappears here, in a super orgasm! Von Trier recently demonstrated his tendency to break radical taboos in Cannes with the ominous 'Okay, I am a Nazi' remark. […] 'Melancholia' is more catchy, which means that the less philanthropic message - world disgust and lust for Destruction of all life - like a snake creeps into consciousness. It is easy to seduce the eye. And with 'Melancholia' Lars von Trier also offers a really great opera - as they say when a performance is very virtuoso, very pathetic and artificial and in the end leaves the audience shaken and perplexed. "

- Martina Knoben - Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Between Roland Emmerich's Hollywood and Andrej Tarkowski's auteur cinema: the filmmaker Lars von Trier lets the world go under in“ Melancholia ”. With pleasure. […] Thankfully, von Triers' sometimes difficult to bear misanthropy in Melancholia has almost taken on caring features. Of all the Trier characters, Justine in act two is undoubtedly the one to whom he feels most connected. Also because she realized early on that man has always been alone in the universe. The film has nothing but contempt for Claire's sentimental impulses. [...] Lars von Trier proves himself to be an excellent apocalyptic with Melancholia . The end of the world obviously gives him pleasure. "

- Andreas Busche - Friday

“With abstract reduction, of all things, the film tells of existential emptiness and despair, based on a wedding celebration, without giving any hope of transcendence or redemption. The art-conscious, enigmatic reflection on death only gains a certain tenderness from the view of the characters with the apocalyptic turn. "

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

Melancholia was nominated for more than 70 international film awards, of which Lars von Trier's directorial work won over 30. A selection of the prizes won:

In 2016, Melancholia ranked 43rd in a BBC survey of the 100 most important films of the 21st century .

literature

  • Robert Vosloo: Coping with the end? A look at Lars von Trier's Melancholia, in: H. Lesch u. a. (Ed.), Heaven as a transcultural ethical space. Heavenly constellations in the field of tension between literature and knowledge. Göttingen 2016.
  • Ulrich Wilker: love death without redemption. Richard Wagner's Tristan prelude in Lars von Trier's film Melancholia , in: St. Börnchen / G. My. Strowick (Ed.), Beyond Bayreuth. Richard Wagner Today: New Cultural Studies Readings. Paderborn 2014, pp. 263-273.

Web links

Commons : Melancholia  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Melancholia . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2011 (PDF; test number: 129 653 K).
  2. ↑ Jörg Albrecht: The end of the world as personal redemption , Deutschlandfunk from October 5, 2011, accessed on November 10, 2012.
  3. ↑ Pham, Annika: From Trier's Melancholia kicks in on Cineuropa.org from July 28, 2010, accessed on May 20, 2012.
  4. ^ Von Trier scandal in Cannes on Spiegel.de of May 18, 2011, accessed on October 16, 2012.
  5. ↑ Golden Palm for "The Tree of Life" on Taz.de from May 23, 2011, accessed on October 16, 2012.
  6. ^ Melancholia in the Internet Movie Database .
  7. ↑ a b Melancholia in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used .
  8. ↑ Audio commentary by Lars von Trier on the Blu-ray publication by Melancholia , Concorde Home Entertainment 2012.
  9. ^ Moulton, Forest Ray, Ph.D .: Introduction to Celestial Mechanics . Springer Vieweg 1927, ISBN 978-3-663-16048-9 , Chapter 4: The potential and attraction of bodies, pages 93-133.
  10. ↑ Film review Trier masterpiece "Melancholia": Apocalypse. Wow! on Spiegel.de on October 5, 2011, accessed on October 16, 2012.
  11. ↑ Film review Geil, the end of the world is here! on Sueddeutsche.de on October 5, 2011, accessed on October 16, 2012.
  12. ↑ Film review Doesn't look good on Freitag.de from October 5, 2011, accessed on October 16, 2012.