Post your responses to STARDUST MEMORIES, MELANCHOLIA, and THE LOOK here. Save your tickets to be turned in at the end of the semester before the final exam.
Melancholia follows the final days of two women, Justine and Claire, before a planet named Melancholia crashes and obliterates Earth. The film begins with a slow-shot prologue and is then divided in two parts: Part I chronicles Justine’s marriage night and Part II follows Claire before Earth’s end.
Part I begins in dissonance and ends in disarray. The camerawork is akin to a nauseating home video. This accentuates Justine’s unglamorous reality: She is clinically depressed and cannot enjoy her picture-perfect wedding. Justine and her family – particularly her mother – are morally unaesthetic. In one scene, Justine and her mother are simultaneously showering during the wedding, symbolic of their mutual depression. In contrast, Michael is joyful and truly loves Justine. He gave Justine a token of his love, but Justine was indifferent. In self mutilation, Justine rapes another man to avoid consummating her marriage.
Part II begins with Claire caring for Justine and ends with Melancholia destroying Earth. The characters are emblems: Justine is Death, Claire is life, and John – Claire’s husband – is Science. Justine is seen basking in the light of Melancholia, similar to Girodet’s Sleep of Endymion and symbolic of her consummation with melancholy. Justine looks forward to Earth’s destruction because it is evil; Claire fears the end because she loves life and wants her son to grow. John was confident the planet would not hit, but he miscalculated, and committed suicide – the failure of Science.
Symbolism in the prologue is rampant. Justine is floating along a river like Millais’ Ophelia, a beautiful depiction of death. A picture of Bruegel’s Hunters in the Snow – a depiction of hunter’s aspiring for meaning in life (Dongray) – burns. Justine is entangled by gray roots, symbolic of debilitating depression. Claire and her son run by the 19th hole, even though the golf course only has 18. The earth is destroyed to the tune of wonderful music, depicting the end as beautiful.
Melancholia starts with the ending. The first opening scene describes visually stunning how the planet Melancholia crushes into the Earth and destroys it totally. These slow motion shots of death pave the way for an emotionally affecting journey.
The story begins with joy and love. Justine (Kirsten Dunst) has her perfect wedding celebration in a beautiful estate. However, she is depressed and can’t enjoy the night. She sleeps for hours, takes a bath in the middle of the party, and rapes a man – everything a bride generally shouldn’t do on her wedding day. With the excellent camera work and the right combination of close-ups in dramatic scenes, the viewer feels helpless. Moreover, the complicated mind of Justine and her irrational actions confuse the viewer. One feels empathy towards her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who tries to cheer her up and cure her depression. In this manner, one can describe Claire’s behavior as life, whereas Justine displays death. This contrast is more evident in the second part of the movie. Claire tries to heal Justine’s disease, but as the planet Melancholia shows up, she gets depressed, too. In the end, Justine is calm and accepting death, whereas Claire tries to hold desperately on life. Especially the last scene describes these attitudes perfectly as Justine is closing her eyes without showing any reaction. Claire instead is crying and screaming.
In addition to this great story, the acting of both leading women is impressive, and they deliver the emotions in a convincing way. These outstanding performances are underlined by the visual work. The memorable opening scene, the slow motion shots and play with light and colors are beautifully stunning and are emphasized by breath-taking musical scores. The movie is an unforgettable cinematic journey which is more than worth watching.
Lars von Trier's Melancholia is a stirring meditation on death and depression. The film chronicles the interactions of two sisters, Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and their differing reactions to the impending collision between Earth and the planet Melancholia. The opening sequence features a collection of beautiful images in slow motion, set to a recurring leitmotif from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, which culminates in the planet's destruction, giving a sense of foreboding which lingers for the rest of the film.
Part I: Justine, focuses on Justine's wedding reception. From the beginning, nothing seems to go right as Justine and Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) arrive several hours late to the reception. Once they arrive, we are introduced to Justine's dysfunctional family, including her acidic mother Gaby (a brilliantly bitter Charlotte Rampling), whose words slowly cause Justine's façade of happiness to crumble. The reception is shot with a grainy, home-video like quality, giving the proceedings a strong sense of photorealism, and highlighting Justine's extreme depression. The juxtaposition of a wedding reception, a stereotypically joyful occasion, with Justine's complete apathy further serves to underline the effects of depression. Dunst, an actress whom I've never personally cared for, gave a stunningly authentic portrayal of the realities of depression. However, to give us this fully realized performance, Von Trier sacrifices pacing, and at times, Part I moves achingly slowly.
In Part II: Claire, the plot shifts from Justine's depression to focus on the impending "fly-by", when rogue planet Melancholia will pass by the Earth. Though Claire's husband John (Keifer Sutherland), an amateur astronomer and man of science, assures her that there is no danger, Claire remains certain that a collision is imminent. When Justine returns to Claire and John's home, the contrast between their reactions is stark: Claire, frantic and scared, and Justine, stoic and unperturbed. These parallel emotions build until the film's climax, when - faced with the world's destruction - Justine remains calm, accepting her fate, and Claire screams and struggles to come to terms with the end.
All in all, Melancholia is a masterfully directed film, with compelling performances from Dunst and Gainsbourg and stunning visuals. Although it suffers from a few issues with pacing, all in all, Von Trier delivers a truly singular cinematic experience.
Melancholia is a film that takes risks. From the moment it begins, the audience is captivated by a world that is seemingly stuck in time, a reality that cannot be escaped. This isn’t a film with a happy ending, and I praise it for not conforming to what is expected. While most films leave the protagonists in a post-apocalyptic world after the end has occurred, Melancholia is the end, but the ultimate end.
Quite possibly a hit or miss with most audiences, seeing as people love films with happy endings, or at least endings they can relate to. But the world ends and then there is nothing. Melancholia doesn’t leave you hanging by a thread. It severs all ties with the audience, literally sweeping you off your feet.
The performances are brave. Kirsten Dunst has the role of her life in this film. She plays Justine, a young woman who is simply broken, without any explanation. It is implied she has a mental disorder of some sort, but the ambiguity gives it meaning, heart. The relationship between her and her sister (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is strained, but real. That is the horrifying side to the film, that it is all very real, these young women could be anyone, your neighbors, or friends. Melancholia is a powerful film, one that won’t leave my mind for a long time.
I recently attended a viewing of Melancholia starring Kirsten Dunst, among others, at the Cosford Theatre. Melancholia tells the story of two sisters during and shortly after the wedding party of one of them, while Earth is about to collide with an approaching planet. The music of Richard Wagner’s prelude to his opera Tristan und Isolde is featured prominently throughout the film. Coming into the film I had not read any background information about the production, so I really had no idea what to expect. I found the opening scenes where the two sisters are slowly introduced to be rather ominous and even slightly frightening. The director of the film, Lars Von Trier, really builds tension throughout this movie, much like Alfred Hitchcock used to do in Psycho, The Birds, or Rear Window. This tension helps keep the film interesting and puts the viewer on the edge of his or her seat on several occasions. I also found the fact that the ending of the film is shown at the beginning to be an extremely interesting twist that not many directors are willing to take. I found myself being reminded of the beginning of the Sixth Sense, directed by M. Night Shymalan, where the child psychologist is shot, thus anticipating the revelation that he has actually been dead the entire movie. In a similar way to the Sixth Sense, Lars von Trier set this movie up not to be a disaster film, but as a way to examine the human psyche during a disaster. He states in a number of interviews that a therapist told him that depressive people tend to act more calmly than others under heavy pressure because they already expect bad things to happen. Although I did not think that the movie was the absolute best I have ever seen I do believe that there was a lot of thought and analysis involved in every scene. The psychological impact of the film was very strong and it was obvious that it was crafted very carefully.
To be honest, I didn’t like Melancholia as much as I thought or hoped I would. I had seen the trailer right about when it first came out and wanted to see the film. Starting from the beginning images I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like it - and it didn’t help that the volume (and I don’t know if this is just because the Cosford has a tendency to blast it) as far as the music was concerned had me covering my ears not just at that point, but in anticipation of whenever they were going to play it. Nothing against that score in particular, but not only was it too loud, but looking back on it, that particular piece of music somehow managed to garner an air of pretentiousness along the way, but this could be biased from what articles I have read about Lars Von Trier.
I did however think the performances were EXCELLENT - I love Kiefer Sutherland and I usually like Kirsten Dunst - though lately it’s like I want to like her, but I seem to be having a bit of trouble doing so - kind of like how I ended up feeling about this film.
Don’t get me wrong - the visuals were STUNNING at times - I just thought the movie over all was not only dull/boring but discombobulated as well - like it wasn’t quite sure what it wanted to be. Now whether or not that was meant to coincide with the character(s) mental state(s), I can’t say for sure, just that I typically like more clarity and expanse in a film that what this presented. For example, WHAT EXACTLY WAS WRONG WITH JUSTINE? I have my theories, and yes I realize people can just be messed up, and not revealing if she had a disease or not is annoying but tolerable, but then they throw in that she seems to know things like the number of rice or whatever they were and how we’re alone in the universe which would lend to her being connected somehow with the bigger picture or what’s going on but then they never take that any further - similar to the problem I had with Black Swan - the whole story/movie is happening in the middle - I like a beginning and end with my middle thank you very much. I don’t care you quick or exposition-y you make the beginning or how quickly you wrap up the end, but they should be there in at least some form or another - even if just as flashbacks like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Would I like them to be done well, of course, just don’t give me a story that seems to have already started somewhere else and cut it off without a proper ending. It’s a movie, not real life - it can afford to be explained.
In regards to my comment about the expanse of the film, it kept bugging me how the rest of the world would be reacting to this. I know it was about these people and they did mention that worker named “Father” character going off to potentially be with his family or something, but none of these people possesses a television? I know, the planet Melancholia would eventually cut out the signal - but they’ve got an internet connection for a bit in the film - they couldn’t give me just like a clip of the outside world - to only show these people is not only a bit suffocating but it tends to make me dislike them as well - that b**ch beating the horse didn’t help - SO GLAD SHE DIED.
As an adage to that, movies basically all have a core group of characters that the story is about, but they still manage to show the expanse of the world created on screen - Armageddon for example may have its main cast, but you get shots of how the world is reacting at times as well - just a brief shot is enough to make the world on the screen feel that much more real and believable. Otherwise, I find myself hating the few characters I’m exposed to - with the exception of Claire’s husband John, who I liked, and not just because he was played by Kiefer, but because he was really the only character who felt REAL.
Question - why does Claire have an accent?
I love Fantasy/SciFi, and I was curious to see how it would be done in this type of film. Though being such a lover of the genre I think definitely affected my perceptions going in.
Tomboy can be seen as a coming of age transgender story that revolves around the life of a ten year old and pre pubescent girl named Laure whose family moves to a new neighborhood in the outskirts of Paris. Laure who acts and demonstrates girlish qualities in her new home, shows boyish qualities with her new friends outside of home. She later takes on the identity of “Michael” fooling her friends (of who are mostly boys) in order to possibly fit in. Instead of fitting in, this only singles her out when they realize her true identity. After watching Tomboy, I felt that watching the trailer three times before actually seeing the movie helped in understanding the background of the film and didn’t give away too many of the main scenes.
Many of the shots were filmed using the close up shot where the camera is focused mostly on Laure’s facial expressions. This is not only on Laure but her younger sister as well. This shows the contrast in their different behaviors. With Laure being only ten years old she is still developing and adapting to her new environment. Several scenes show Laure outdoors with nature which becomes a symbol for Laure’s growth and development and revealed the aspect of nature versus nurture which I think played an important role.
The use of color schemes played an important role throughout the film as well. Laure’s room is painted blue which people usually associate as a boy’s color. Later on, Laure is seen wearing a mixture of blue colors and red colors which could symbolize the mixed up identities of boy and girl. Even the letters in the title of the film were shown with every other letter being in red and blue. Once her mother finds out that Laure has pretended to be a boy, she becomes uneasy making Laure put on a blue dress and face her friends by telling them the truth. The fact that the dress is blue is symbolic in that it still carries some boyish attributes. Once everyone including Lisa finds out the truth, Laure sheds her identity by taking off the blue dress, going back to her original tomboy image.
Melancholia This was the first film I have seen by Lars Von Trier. Before seeing this film I had a preconceived notion of Trier’s style as being very art-house and far from the typical filmmaking. The film was visually stunning. The super-slow motion prologue was fascinating to see, but it did feel like it dragged on too long. It seemed a little frustrating. Never the less, I enjoyed the imagery with the contrast of the night sky and the green golf field of the estate. The visual depiction of Kirsten Dunst’s character trudging across the forest being pulled by the grey vines and being dragged across the water was moving. One shot that stood out to me was the view going out into backyard and into the water from the house. In the night sky you could see the juxtaposition of moon with a yellowish tint on the left and the bluish hue of the planet Melancholia on the right. I think that dichotomy is something of a theme throughout the film between the two sisters. Kirsten Dunst did a great job as this depressed woman trudging through life. In the first part she struggles to put up the façade of the marriage and reception, and in the second part she has this dispassionate resignation for the end of humanity. She accepts the fate while her sister struggles with it all the way to the very end. I really thought the final scene with the impact was amazing. It was interesting to see this from both the godly position in outer space when the planet collides with Earth in the beginning of the film and then from the perspective of these three characters on Earth. The planet filled the sky and touched the ground leaving shockwaves of fire that consumed them. The enormity of such an incident was incredibly overwhelming, but the most moving part of that scene for me was Claire’s reaction in the very end. While Justine and Leo were calm, you can tell that Claire most likely opens her eyes and panics. Her reaction was probably the element that made this almost hard to watch. I would have rather have felt comfortable with seeing all of these characters calm with a sense of solemnity as Melancholia crashed into them. It’s probably something I am more used to with other films and characters eventually accepting their demise. It’s more peaceful, but I understand the point of making Claire not react in that way. Overall I really enjoyed the film. The only thing that I may not have liked was the pacing. It seemed slow, and I feel that’s something that sticks out when I watch so-called artisitic films as opposed to mainstay ones. The artistic ones seem to generally play at a slower pace.
Woody Allen's Stardust Memories blends Allen's more serious style of filmmaking with his more playful one, making for an interesting viewing experience. Stardust Memories contains three films layered within one another, that tell the story of Sandy Bates, a director of comedies, attempting to make a widely-accepted serious film. Sandy's struggle mirrors that of Woody Allen, who plays Sandy Bates in the film; people seem to like his comedies and think he should stick to writing those.
While much of the set-up of Stardust Memories is rather humorous, the layers of plot, the fact that Woody Allen is essentially making a movie about himself, the actions of some of the characters, Sandy Bates very much included, the film still maintains some serious aspects. Sandy's struggle is real, and the audience can feel his desire to make serious films, as well as the opposition of others to this prospect. Additionally, we see one of the many women in Sandy Bates' life suffering from depression, and her unstable emotional state serves as a constant constraint on the levity of the movie.
All in all, Stardust Memories was an enjoyable film to watch, and having the chance to view it on 35mm gave the movie more of a nostalgic feel which added significantly to the movie.
I found "The Look" immensely fascinating. To start, the mix of black and white and color imagery with different languages was quite intriguing. Although it is hardly the first documentary to describe the life and thought processes of an actor or actress, it is one of the most intriguing. I read a review of the film that described it as a "self-portrait through others." This reviewer undoubtedly nailed the description. The film follows famous actress Charlotte Rampling and consists of interviews with the actress and including clips from her films over the years. The film also has numerous scenes in which the actress converses with friends and coworkers, giving the audience a good glimpse into the actress in a more natural and uninhibited setting. The actress provides ample insight into what makes her tick, what difficulties she encountered over her career, and how she actually feels about the art of cinema in general. Stylistically, the film has its own unique mode. For one, it breaks up into different sections with specific titles, such as "Age," "Death," and "Love." I personally thought that the film was a little contrived in this regard. Grasping the totality of any person's thought process is very daunting and messy. Neatly trying to organize these thoughts into something coherent and in-depth is a difficult task, but the film does an admirable job at it. I simply wish that the film had picked at her psychology even more deeply. To me, the film seemed a little shallow and, unsurprisingly, pretentious. I feel that the film helped us understand one major woman better but that it has no true ramifications for cinema as a whole, partially because I myself am not a major fan of fawning or self-promoting works. If I were someone else, I would have enjoyed the movie more. Since I am myself, I thought that the film was overall OK.
Comedian sandy took a the new comedy, his producers very not satisfied, that he should keep taking he has built up a good reputation in comedy. Sandy was invited to upstate New York stardust hotel, attend a retrospective of his work, sandy was a group of critics and fans get faint head turned, also of their past works value suspect. In this moment of hesitation, sandy can not help but think of his mistress. And just in the hotel dolly met the female musicians, Daisy. Dolly's is a always for your career anxious actor, she always for no reason to sandy temper, but she is very infatuation and dependent on sandy. Sandy's French lover Isabel with her children also came to the stardust hotel, and declared himself abandoned her husband. When sandy asked her to marry him, but she did so preoccupied with sandy self refused. Sandy and Daisy together in the wild driving pleasure, the car broke down, they met with a group of flying saucers observers at the strange picnic. Alien suddenly appeared and sandy talking about his doubt and fear, at this time, suddenly a worship sandy fans shot and killed him. Sandy was invited to "star dust" hotel on the retrospective published a speech, after the speech all the audience, including the three leading lady, the film's many of the performers leave the theatre side, the side of their role in the comments. Finally, sandy alone out of the hall.
"Stardust memories" For Woody, with the turning point of significance, whether it is the concept of the film to film, or even abandon the practice of firmly grasp the mainstream audience. And the film, Woody itself that the film one can still live, in addition to reflecting the step forward in the technique, perhaps, the film is particularly true sorrow and grief to reveal known how to disrupt and distort a person the this point, push it under the watchful eyes, even though more or less aroused public displeasure.
Sandy weekend review the festival but Nankeyimeng, during which clearly permeated with Woody for celebrities with their followers, the kind you can not write the keen sense of antagonism. On one hand, the reason why followers worship a celebrity, it is precisely because the latter can capture one aspect of their experience, and this feedback to them. On the other hand, they also deeply jealous. "Stardust memories", Woody Sandy encounter everyone portrayed as ridiculous - they ramble nonsense to ask him the things he touched or through reserved commemorate, and even broke into his bedroom to see whether he is in possession of the mistress of life frustrated high school students to test his compassion, accountants and lawyers to bring the bad news of the tax audit, the film company executives asked him to re-edited his the film ... in the frenzy caused by the fame, the darkest side of no more than is the case. Woody in the film to its original appear in front of an audience - neither make-up does not disguise the accent - which takes the audience confused.
Melancholia was an awesome film. It starts off by showing the ending first, which you don’t see in too many movies these days. I thought that was a good choice by the editor because it does not leave the audience wondering whether or not the world is going to end throughout the film. It gets that nagging feeling of “will it happen?” out of the back of your head and leaves the audience to just focus on story and character development of the sisters. Kirstin Dunst did a great job of playing Justine, a depressed woman trying her best to put on a fake smile. You can tell that she has some serious psychological troubles, and I felt that the movie did a great job of trying to portray her condition without blatantly saying what she was going through. Along that line, that’s what I felt Melancholia’s greatest strength was, “show, don’t tell.” While the film did have dialogue, I felt it was put in only when it absolutely had to be, leaving it up to the actors of portraying their characters without the help of the script. Charlotte Gainsburg, who played Claire’s sister, and was the focus of the second half of the movie, also did an excellent job. When it was inevitable that the planet was going to collide with earth, I found it very interesting how the Justine, the one who tended to be emotional, was able to remain calm in the face of destruction, while Claire was shown to be freaking out. I believe this was because of Justine’s depression. She felt that it was her time to go while Claire did not feel the same way. It was an interesting character study, and one that I felt was done very well. The ending of the movie was fantastic, the darkness left on screen really made you feel as though the planet had impacted, and it sent shivers down my spine. This was an excellent movie, and one I highly recommend to anybody.
Stardust Memories It is actually a nice change for Woody Allen, even it took a price of losing some audience, but it is a nice attempt. As far as I am concerned, this film is truly emotional, it is really for art, to many close- up shots were used in this film to show the actors’ emotion, sorrow, and happiness. It is a nice tragedy, led the memories of love of many audience. During the whole film, Woody’s eyes are magic, controlled our tempers, if you do not have a patience, give this movie up, maybe it is not fit for most of people, but there are always some few loyal audiences are able to read this film, I said “ read”.
May be it is so hard to a comedy actor to change his image on screen, even he is crying that is going to make you laugh, like the realized blocks in our daily life, to be successful on one hand means you are a loser on the other hand On one hand. However, this movie is telling us, to break the constrains will surprise you so much, you never know what is waiting for you in the future
It is a hard movie. The speed is not fast or it is real slow to most of audiences that watch commercial movies. And it is not easy to catch his idea in the movie. It is also a trilogy, which is Lars Von Trier’s favor.
The film's story is not complex, a planet called melancholia is flying to the earth. Breaking the calm of life of a pair of sisters. Claire to let the sister stop suffering from depression and merge into daily life but she always failed to achieve this. On the other hand, Justine is finally throwing off all the fetters and used a magnificent way to achieve physical and mental unity. And the end of the story seems give a good end of three people.
This movie reminds me of Freud's life instinct and death instinct theory. It can be said that the sister Claire is mapped life instinct, on behalf of human creativity and the pursuit of happiness feelings; sister Justine mapping is the death instinct, represents life and wish to return nothing to get the ultimate calm aspirations. They are interdependent and mutually exclusive, and always in an endless struggle. Although the film tells the story of two sisters, it reflects the contradictions of human society in an implicitly way.
The movie starts with an eye catching scene and it is about the uneasiness. The melancholia which is approaching earth symbolizes the vague uneasiness that the humanity might be ruined. This movie describes two parts of each worry. The first one is Justin’s and the second one is Clair’s and they are too different in ways of appearances and personalities although they are sibling. The first one, Justin’s unrest is caused by everything that surrounds her. Divorced parents, the company task, her engaged man and so on these things are stimulus to her and drives her to the maximum of unrest. Also, painful wedding was like the night when she couldn’t sleep in. And this shows her drying life. Claire unlike Justin lives in a rich house and takes after her sister. However, she has her unrest too because of the melancholia which is becoming closer to earth but her husband, John enjoys it. But after death of husband, she realized how meaningless run out of melancholia. Finally, melancholia collide with earth and with deaths of two sisters, the unrest of them disappears too. This movie was really difficult to understand its meaning because the psychological state of Justin was hard to grasp and the image was too dark and overwhelming. But I liked the movie’s beautiful and powerful image and unrealistic story which made me obsessed with the movie’s ending.
Melancholia C04997305 Lars von Trier’s Melancholia is not of the traditional end of the world special effects heavy disaster film variety that we have seen over the past decade (The Day After Tomorrow, Knowing, 2012, etc.). Where other films relied on action filled plots carried by special effects, Melancholia takes a different route focusing in on the complex emotions and interactions of one family. Melancholia opens with a dramatic slow motion sequence switching between the collision of Earth and another planet and an artistic embellishment of our characters final moments on earth all set to Richard Wagner’s Prelude to Tristian und Isolde. The intensity and the sheer beauty of the opening sets the tone for the film. Dunst plays the role of Justine (the title of part one), a woman who’s deep depression becomes more evident and profound throughout her own wedding reception. We are introduced to her callous mother, her philandering and distant father, her reserved sister Claire (Gainsbourg), her demanding boss, her controlling and hot tempered brother-in-law John (Sutherland), her optimistic husband Michael (Skarsgard), and Melancholia which Justine is first to notice. Justine’s odd behavior seems attributable to a past history of depression as well as those around her including Melancholia. Part two titled “Claire” focuses on the impending doom of the Earth and how each character deals with it. Justine accepts the end with a calm finality, while normally reserved Claire is stricken with panic, and John ends his own life unable to cope with the reality that the world around him is ending. The end of the film is extremely moving coming to anticipatory crescendo that leaves the audience stunned. Von Trier takes the makings of a typical end of the world snuff film and turns it into a powerful work of art. As beautiful as this film is I feel von Trier lost something an integral part of the film experience in creating his artistic masterpiece. Melancholia is more a beautiful portrait that must be taken in from afar rather than an enchanting film that sucks you in to the world portrayed onscreen.
Melancholia follows the final days of two women, Justine and Claire, before a planet named Melancholia crashes and obliterates Earth. The film begins with a slow-shot prologue and is then divided in two parts: Part I chronicles Justine’s marriage night and Part II follows Claire before Earth’s end.
ReplyDeletePart I begins in dissonance and ends in disarray. The camerawork is akin to a nauseating home video. This accentuates Justine’s unglamorous reality: She is clinically depressed and cannot enjoy her picture-perfect wedding. Justine and her family – particularly her mother – are morally unaesthetic. In one scene, Justine and her mother are simultaneously showering during the wedding, symbolic of their mutual depression. In contrast, Michael is joyful and truly loves Justine. He gave Justine a token of his love, but Justine was indifferent. In self mutilation, Justine rapes another man to avoid consummating her marriage.
Part II begins with Claire caring for Justine and ends with Melancholia destroying Earth. The characters are emblems: Justine is Death, Claire is life, and John – Claire’s husband – is Science. Justine is seen basking in the light of Melancholia, similar to Girodet’s Sleep of Endymion and symbolic of her consummation with melancholy. Justine looks forward to Earth’s destruction because it is evil; Claire fears the end because she loves life and wants her son to grow. John was confident the planet would not hit, but he miscalculated, and committed suicide – the failure of Science.
Symbolism in the prologue is rampant. Justine is floating along a river like Millais’ Ophelia, a beautiful depiction of death. A picture of Bruegel’s Hunters in the Snow – a depiction of hunter’s aspiring for meaning in life (Dongray) – burns. Justine is entangled by gray roots, symbolic of debilitating depression. Claire and her son run by the 19th hole, even though the golf course only has 18. The earth is destroyed to the tune of wonderful music, depicting the end as beautiful.
http://www.jessieevans-dongray.com/essays/essay083.html
Melancholia starts with the ending. The first opening scene describes visually stunning how the planet Melancholia crushes into the Earth and destroys it totally. These slow motion shots of death pave the way for an emotionally affecting journey.
ReplyDeleteThe story begins with joy and love. Justine (Kirsten Dunst) has her perfect wedding celebration in a beautiful estate. However, she is depressed and can’t enjoy the night. She sleeps for hours, takes a bath in the middle of the party, and rapes a man – everything a bride generally shouldn’t do on her wedding day. With the excellent camera work and the right combination of close-ups in dramatic scenes, the viewer feels helpless. Moreover, the complicated mind of Justine and her irrational actions confuse the viewer. One feels empathy towards her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who tries to cheer her up and cure her depression. In this manner, one can describe Claire’s behavior as life, whereas Justine displays death. This contrast is more evident in the second part of the movie. Claire tries to heal Justine’s disease, but as the planet Melancholia shows up, she gets depressed, too. In the end, Justine is calm and accepting death, whereas Claire tries to hold desperately on life. Especially the last scene describes these attitudes perfectly as Justine is closing her eyes without showing any reaction. Claire instead is crying and screaming.
In addition to this great story, the acting of both leading women is impressive, and they deliver the emotions in a convincing way. These outstanding performances are underlined by the visual work. The memorable opening scene, the slow motion shots and play with light and colors are beautifully stunning and are emphasized by breath-taking musical scores. The movie is an unforgettable cinematic journey which is more than worth watching.
Lars von Trier's Melancholia is a stirring meditation on death and depression. The film chronicles the interactions of two sisters, Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and their differing reactions to the impending collision between Earth and the planet Melancholia. The opening sequence features a collection of beautiful images in slow motion, set to a recurring leitmotif from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, which culminates in the planet's destruction, giving a sense of foreboding which lingers for the rest of the film.
ReplyDeletePart I: Justine, focuses on Justine's wedding reception. From the beginning, nothing seems to go right as Justine and Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) arrive several hours late to the reception. Once they arrive, we are introduced to Justine's dysfunctional family, including her acidic mother Gaby (a brilliantly bitter Charlotte Rampling), whose words slowly cause Justine's façade of happiness to crumble. The reception is shot with a grainy, home-video like quality, giving the proceedings a strong sense of photorealism, and highlighting Justine's extreme depression. The juxtaposition of a wedding reception, a stereotypically joyful occasion, with Justine's complete apathy further serves to underline the effects of depression. Dunst, an actress whom I've never personally cared for, gave a stunningly authentic portrayal of the realities of depression. However, to give us this fully realized performance, Von Trier sacrifices pacing, and at times, Part I moves achingly slowly.
In Part II: Claire, the plot shifts from Justine's depression to focus on the impending "fly-by", when rogue planet Melancholia will pass by the Earth. Though Claire's husband John (Keifer Sutherland), an amateur astronomer and man of science, assures her that there is no danger, Claire remains certain that a collision is imminent. When Justine returns to Claire and John's home, the contrast between their reactions is stark: Claire, frantic and scared, and Justine, stoic and unperturbed. These parallel emotions build until the film's climax, when - faced with the world's destruction - Justine remains calm, accepting her fate, and Claire screams and struggles to come to terms with the end.
All in all, Melancholia is a masterfully directed film, with compelling performances from Dunst and Gainsbourg and stunning visuals. Although it suffers from a few issues with pacing, all in all, Von Trier delivers a truly singular cinematic experience.
5 Cultural Events - Event #1
ReplyDeleteMelancholia (Lars Von Trier)
Melancholia is a film that takes risks. From the moment it begins, the audience is captivated by a world that is seemingly stuck in time, a reality that cannot be escaped. This isn’t a film with a happy ending, and I praise it for not conforming to what is expected. While most films leave the protagonists in a post-apocalyptic world after the end has occurred, Melancholia is the end, but the ultimate end.
Quite possibly a hit or miss with most audiences, seeing as people love films with happy endings, or at least endings they can relate to. But the world ends and then there is nothing. Melancholia doesn’t leave you hanging by a thread. It severs all ties with the audience, literally sweeping you off your feet.
The performances are brave. Kirsten Dunst has the role of her life in this film. She plays Justine, a young woman who is simply broken, without any explanation. It is implied she has a mental disorder of some sort, but the ambiguity gives it meaning, heart. The relationship between her and her sister (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is strained, but real. That is the horrifying side to the film, that it is all very real, these young women could be anyone, your neighbors, or friends. Melancholia is a powerful film, one that won’t leave my mind for a long time.
I recently attended a viewing of Melancholia starring Kirsten Dunst, among others, at the Cosford Theatre. Melancholia tells the story of two sisters during and shortly after the wedding party of one of them, while Earth is about to collide with an approaching planet. The music of Richard Wagner’s prelude to his opera Tristan und Isolde is featured prominently throughout the film. Coming into the film I had not read any background information about the production, so I really had no idea what to expect. I found the opening scenes where the two sisters are slowly introduced to be rather ominous and even slightly frightening. The director of the film, Lars Von Trier, really builds tension throughout this movie, much like Alfred Hitchcock used to do in Psycho, The Birds, or Rear Window. This tension helps keep the film interesting and puts the viewer on the edge of his or her seat on several occasions. I also found the fact that the ending of the film is shown at the beginning to be an extremely interesting twist that not many directors are willing to take. I found myself being reminded of the beginning of the Sixth Sense, directed by M. Night Shymalan, where the child psychologist is shot, thus anticipating the revelation that he has actually been dead the entire movie. In a similar way to the Sixth Sense, Lars von Trier set this movie up not to be a disaster film, but as a way to examine the human psyche during a disaster. He states in a number of interviews that a therapist told him that depressive people tend to act more calmly than others under heavy pressure because they already expect bad things to happen. Although I did not think that the movie was the absolute best I have ever seen I do believe that there was a lot of thought and analysis involved in every scene. The psychological impact of the film was very strong and it was obvious that it was crafted very carefully.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I didn’t like Melancholia as much as I thought or hoped I would. I had seen the trailer right about when it first came out and wanted to see the film. Starting from the beginning images I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like it - and it didn’t help that the volume (and I don’t know if this is just because the Cosford has a tendency to blast it) as far as the music was concerned had me covering my ears not just at that point, but in anticipation of whenever they were going to play it. Nothing against that score in particular, but not only was it too loud, but looking back on it, that particular piece of music somehow managed to garner an air of pretentiousness along the way, but this could be biased from what articles I have read about Lars Von Trier.
ReplyDeleteI did however think the performances were EXCELLENT - I love Kiefer Sutherland and I usually like Kirsten Dunst - though lately it’s like I want to like her, but I seem to be having a bit of trouble doing so - kind of like how I ended up feeling about this film.
Don’t get me wrong - the visuals were STUNNING at times - I just thought the movie over all was not only dull/boring but discombobulated as well - like it wasn’t quite sure what it wanted to be. Now whether or not that was meant to coincide with the character(s) mental state(s), I can’t say for sure, just that I typically like more clarity and expanse in a film that what this presented. For example, WHAT EXACTLY WAS WRONG WITH JUSTINE? I have my theories, and yes I realize people can just be messed up, and not revealing if she had a disease or not is annoying but tolerable, but then they throw in that she seems to know things like the number of rice or whatever they were and how we’re alone in the universe which would lend to her being connected somehow with the bigger picture or what’s going on but then they never take that any further - similar to the problem I had with Black Swan - the whole story/movie is happening in the middle - I like a beginning and end with my middle thank you very much. I don’t care you quick or exposition-y you make the beginning or how quickly you wrap up the end, but they should be there in at least some form or another - even if just as flashbacks like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Would I like them to be done well, of course, just don’t give me a story that seems to have already started somewhere else and cut it off without a proper ending. It’s a movie, not real life - it can afford to be explained.
In regards to my comment about the expanse of the film, it kept bugging me how the rest of the world would be reacting to this. I know it was about these people and they did mention that worker named “Father” character going off to potentially be with his family or something, but none of these people possesses a television? I know, the planet Melancholia would eventually cut out the signal - but they’ve got an internet connection for a bit in the film - they couldn’t give me just like a clip of the outside world - to only show these people is not only a bit suffocating but it tends to make me dislike them as well - that b**ch beating the horse didn’t help - SO GLAD SHE DIED.
As an adage to that, movies basically all have a core group of characters that the story is about, but they still manage to show the expanse of the world created on screen - Armageddon for example may have its main cast, but you get shots of how the world is reacting at times as well - just a brief shot is enough to make the world on the screen feel that much more real and believable. Otherwise, I find myself hating the few characters I’m exposed to - with the exception of Claire’s husband John, who I liked, and not just because he was played by Kiefer, but because he was really the only character who felt REAL.
Question - why does Claire have an accent?
I love Fantasy/SciFi, and I was curious to see how it would be done in this type of film. Though being such a lover of the genre I think definitely affected my perceptions going in.
Tomboy can be seen as a coming of age transgender story that revolves around the life of a ten year old and pre pubescent girl named Laure whose family moves to a new neighborhood in the outskirts of Paris. Laure who acts and demonstrates girlish qualities in her new home, shows boyish qualities with her new friends outside of home. She later takes on the identity of “Michael” fooling her friends (of who are mostly boys) in order to possibly fit in. Instead of fitting in, this only singles her out when they realize her true identity. After watching Tomboy, I felt that watching the trailer three times before actually seeing the movie helped in understanding the background of the film and didn’t give away too many of the main scenes.
ReplyDeleteMany of the shots were filmed using the close up shot where the camera is focused mostly on Laure’s facial expressions. This is not only on Laure but her younger sister as well. This shows the contrast in their different behaviors. With Laure being only ten years old she is still developing and adapting to her new environment. Several scenes show Laure outdoors with nature which becomes a symbol for Laure’s growth and development and revealed the aspect of nature versus nurture which I think played an important role.
The use of color schemes played an important role throughout the film as well. Laure’s room is painted blue which people usually associate as a boy’s color. Later on, Laure is seen wearing a mixture of blue colors and red colors which could symbolize the mixed up identities of boy and girl. Even the letters in the title of the film were shown with every other letter being in red and blue. Once her mother finds out that Laure has pretended to be a boy, she becomes uneasy making Laure put on a blue dress and face her friends by telling them the truth. The fact that the dress is blue is symbolic in that it still carries some boyish attributes. Once everyone including Lisa finds out the truth, Laure sheds her identity by taking off the blue dress, going back to her original tomboy image.
Melancholia
ReplyDeleteThis was the first film I have seen by Lars Von Trier. Before seeing this film I had a preconceived notion of Trier’s style as being very art-house and far from the typical filmmaking. The film was visually stunning. The super-slow motion prologue was fascinating to see, but it did feel like it dragged on too long. It seemed a little frustrating. Never the less, I enjoyed the imagery with the contrast of the night sky and the green golf field of the estate. The visual depiction of Kirsten Dunst’s character trudging across the forest being pulled by the grey vines and being dragged across the water was moving. One shot that stood out to me was the view going out into backyard and into the water from the house. In the night sky you could see the juxtaposition of moon with a yellowish tint on the left and the bluish hue of the planet Melancholia on the right. I think that dichotomy is something of a theme throughout the film between the two sisters. Kirsten Dunst did a great job as this depressed woman trudging through life. In the first part she struggles to put up the façade of the marriage and reception, and in the second part she has this dispassionate resignation for the end of humanity. She accepts the fate while her sister struggles with it all the way to the very end. I really thought the final scene with the impact was amazing. It was interesting to see this from both the godly position in outer space when the planet collides with Earth in the beginning of the film and then from the perspective of these three characters on Earth. The planet filled the sky and touched the ground leaving shockwaves of fire that consumed them. The enormity of such an incident was incredibly overwhelming, but the most moving part of that scene for me was Claire’s reaction in the very end. While Justine and Leo were calm, you can tell that Claire most likely opens her eyes and panics. Her reaction was probably the element that made this almost hard to watch. I would have rather have felt comfortable with seeing all of these characters calm with a sense of solemnity as Melancholia crashed into them. It’s probably something I am more used to with other films and characters eventually accepting their demise. It’s more peaceful, but I understand the point of making Claire not react in that way. Overall I really enjoyed the film. The only thing that I may not have liked was the pacing. It seemed slow, and I feel that’s something that sticks out when I watch so-called artisitic films as opposed to mainstay ones. The artistic ones seem to generally play at a slower pace.
Woody Allen's Stardust Memories blends Allen's more serious style of filmmaking with his more playful one, making for an interesting viewing experience. Stardust Memories contains three films layered within one another, that tell the story of Sandy Bates, a director of comedies, attempting to make a widely-accepted serious film. Sandy's struggle mirrors that of Woody Allen, who plays Sandy Bates in the film; people seem to like his comedies and think he should stick to writing those.
ReplyDeleteWhile much of the set-up of Stardust Memories is rather humorous, the layers of plot, the fact that Woody Allen is essentially making a movie about himself, the actions of some of the characters, Sandy Bates very much included, the film still maintains some serious aspects. Sandy's struggle is real, and the audience can feel his desire to make serious films, as well as the opposition of others to this prospect. Additionally, we see one of the many women in Sandy Bates' life suffering from depression, and her unstable emotional state serves as a constant constraint on the levity of the movie.
All in all, Stardust Memories was an enjoyable film to watch, and having the chance to view it on 35mm gave the movie more of a nostalgic feel which added significantly to the movie.
The Look
DeleteGaurav Dhiman
I found "The Look" immensely fascinating. To start, the mix of black and white and color imagery with different languages was quite intriguing. Although it is hardly the first documentary to describe the life and thought processes of an actor or actress, it is one of the most intriguing. I read a review of the film that described it as a "self-portrait through others." This reviewer undoubtedly nailed the description. The film follows famous actress Charlotte Rampling and consists of interviews with the actress and including clips from her films over the years. The film also has numerous scenes in which the actress converses with friends and coworkers, giving the audience a good glimpse into the actress in a more natural and uninhibited setting. The actress provides ample insight into what makes her tick, what difficulties she encountered over her career, and how she actually feels about the art of cinema in general. Stylistically, the film has its own unique mode. For one, it breaks up into different sections with specific titles, such as "Age," "Death," and "Love." I personally thought that the film was a little contrived in this regard. Grasping the totality of any person's thought process is very daunting and messy. Neatly trying to organize these thoughts into something coherent and in-depth is a difficult task, but the film does an admirable job at it. I simply wish that the film had picked at her psychology even more deeply. To me, the film seemed a little shallow and, unsurprisingly, pretentious. I feel that the film helped us understand one major woman better but that it has no true ramifications for cinema as a whole, partially because I myself am not a major fan of fawning or self-promoting works. If I were someone else, I would have enjoyed the movie more. Since I am myself, I thought that the film was overall OK.
Stardust Memories
ReplyDeleteComedian sandy took a the new comedy, his producers very not satisfied, that he should keep taking he has built up a good reputation in comedy.
Sandy was invited to upstate New York stardust hotel, attend a retrospective of his work, sandy was a group of critics and fans get faint head turned, also of their past works value suspect. In this moment of hesitation, sandy can not help but think of his mistress. And just in the hotel dolly met the female musicians, Daisy. Dolly's is a always for your career anxious actor, she always for no reason to sandy temper, but she is very infatuation and dependent on sandy.
Sandy's French lover Isabel with her children also came to the stardust hotel, and declared himself abandoned her husband. When sandy asked her to marry him, but she did so preoccupied with sandy self refused.
Sandy and Daisy together in the wild driving pleasure, the car broke down, they met with a group of flying saucers observers at the strange picnic. Alien suddenly appeared and sandy talking about his doubt and fear, at this time, suddenly a worship sandy fans shot and killed him.
Sandy was invited to "star dust" hotel on the retrospective published a speech, after the speech all the audience, including the three leading lady, the film's many of the performers leave the theatre side, the side of their role in the comments. Finally, sandy alone out of the hall.
"Stardust memories" For Woody, with the turning point of significance, whether it is the concept of the film to film, or even abandon the practice of firmly grasp the mainstream audience. And the film, Woody itself that the film one can still live, in addition to reflecting the step forward in the technique, perhaps, the film is particularly true sorrow and grief to reveal known how to disrupt and distort a person the this point, push it under the watchful eyes, even though more or less aroused public displeasure.
ReplyDeleteSandy weekend review the festival but Nankeyimeng, during which clearly permeated with Woody for celebrities with their followers, the kind you can not write the keen sense of antagonism. On one hand, the reason why followers worship a celebrity, it is precisely because the latter can capture one aspect of their experience, and this feedback to them. On the other hand, they also deeply jealous. "Stardust memories", Woody Sandy encounter everyone portrayed as ridiculous - they ramble nonsense to ask him the things he touched or through reserved commemorate, and even broke into his bedroom to see whether he is in possession of the mistress of life frustrated high school students to test his compassion, accountants and lawyers to bring the bad news of the tax audit, the film company executives asked him to re-edited his the film ... in the frenzy caused by the fame, the darkest side of no more than is the case. Woody in the film to its original appear in front of an audience - neither make-up does not disguise the accent - which takes the audience confused.
Melancholia was an awesome film. It starts off by showing the ending first, which you don’t see in too many movies these days. I thought that was a good choice by the editor because it does not leave the audience wondering whether or not the world is going to end throughout the film. It gets that nagging feeling of “will it happen?” out of the back of your head and leaves the audience to just focus on story and character development of the sisters. Kirstin Dunst did a great job of playing Justine, a depressed woman trying her best to put on a fake smile. You can tell that she has some serious psychological troubles, and I felt that the movie did a great job of trying to portray her condition without blatantly saying what she was going through. Along that line, that’s what I felt Melancholia’s greatest strength was, “show, don’t tell.” While the film did have dialogue, I felt it was put in only when it absolutely had to be, leaving it up to the actors of portraying their characters without the help of the script.
ReplyDeleteCharlotte Gainsburg, who played Claire’s sister, and was the focus of the second half of the movie, also did an excellent job. When it was inevitable that the planet was going to collide with earth, I found it very interesting how the Justine, the one who tended to be emotional, was able to remain calm in the face of destruction, while Claire was shown to be freaking out. I believe this was because of Justine’s depression. She felt that it was her time to go while Claire did not feel the same way. It was an interesting character study, and one that I felt was done very well. The ending of the movie was fantastic, the darkness left on screen really made you feel as though the planet had impacted, and it sent shivers down my spine. This was an excellent movie, and one I highly recommend to anybody.
Stardust Memories
ReplyDeleteIt is actually a nice change for Woody Allen, even it took a price of losing some audience, but it is a nice attempt. As far as I am concerned, this film is truly emotional, it is really for art, to many close- up shots were used in this film to show the actors’ emotion, sorrow, and happiness. It is a nice tragedy, led the memories of love of many audience. During the whole film, Woody’s eyes are magic, controlled our tempers, if you do not have a patience, give this movie up, maybe it is not fit for most of people, but there are always some few loyal audiences are able to read this film, I said “ read”.
May be it is so hard to a comedy actor to change his image on screen, even he is crying that is going to make you laugh, like the realized blocks in our daily life, to be successful on one hand means you are a loser on the other hand On one hand. However, this movie is telling us, to break the constrains will surprise you so much, you never know what is waiting for you in the future
It is a hard movie. The speed is not fast or it is real slow to most of audiences that watch commercial movies. And it is not easy to catch his idea in the movie. It is also a trilogy, which is Lars Von Trier’s favor.
ReplyDeleteThe film's story is not complex, a planet called melancholia is flying to the earth. Breaking the calm of life of a pair of sisters. Claire to let the sister stop suffering from depression and merge into daily life but she always failed to achieve this. On the other hand, Justine is finally throwing off all the fetters and used a magnificent way to achieve physical and mental unity. And the end of the story seems give a good end of three people.
This movie reminds me of Freud's life instinct and death instinct theory. It can be said that the sister Claire is mapped life instinct, on behalf of human creativity and the pursuit of happiness feelings; sister Justine mapping is the death instinct, represents life and wish to return nothing to get the ultimate calm aspirations. They are interdependent and mutually exclusive, and always in an endless struggle. Although the film tells the story of two sisters, it reflects the contradictions of human society in an implicitly way.
melancholia
ReplyDeleteThe movie starts with an eye catching scene and it is about the uneasiness. The melancholia which is approaching earth symbolizes the vague uneasiness that the humanity might be ruined.
This movie describes two parts of each worry. The first one is Justin’s and the second one is Clair’s and they are too different in ways of appearances and personalities although they are sibling. The first one, Justin’s unrest is caused by everything that surrounds her. Divorced parents, the company task, her engaged man and so on these things are stimulus to her and drives her to the maximum of unrest. Also, painful wedding was like the night when she couldn’t sleep in. And this shows her drying life.
Claire unlike Justin lives in a rich house and takes after her sister. However, she has her unrest too because of the melancholia which is becoming closer to earth but her husband, John enjoys it. But after death of husband, she realized how meaningless run out of melancholia. Finally, melancholia collide with earth and with deaths of two sisters, the unrest of them disappears too.
This movie was really difficult to understand its meaning because the psychological state of Justin was hard to grasp and the image was too dark and overwhelming. But I liked the movie’s beautiful and powerful image and unrealistic story which made me obsessed with the movie’s ending.
Melancholia
ReplyDeleteC04997305
Lars von Trier’s Melancholia is not of the traditional end of the world special effects heavy disaster film variety that we have seen over the past decade (The Day After Tomorrow, Knowing, 2012, etc.). Where other films relied on action filled plots carried by special effects, Melancholia takes a different route focusing in on the complex emotions and interactions of one family. Melancholia opens with a dramatic slow motion sequence switching between the collision of Earth and another planet and an artistic embellishment of our characters final moments on earth all set to Richard Wagner’s Prelude to Tristian und Isolde. The intensity and the sheer beauty of the opening sets the tone for the film.
Dunst plays the role of Justine (the title of part one), a woman who’s deep depression becomes more evident and profound throughout her own wedding reception. We are introduced to her callous mother, her philandering and distant father, her reserved sister Claire (Gainsbourg), her demanding boss, her controlling and hot tempered brother-in-law John (Sutherland), her optimistic husband Michael (Skarsgard), and Melancholia which Justine is first to notice. Justine’s odd behavior seems attributable to a past history of depression as well as those around her including Melancholia. Part two titled “Claire” focuses on the impending doom of the Earth and how each character deals with it. Justine accepts the end with a calm finality, while normally reserved Claire is stricken with panic, and John ends his own life unable to cope with the reality that the world around him is ending.
The end of the film is extremely moving coming to anticipatory crescendo that leaves the audience stunned. Von Trier takes the makings of a typical end of the world snuff film and turns it into a powerful work of art. As beautiful as this film is I feel von Trier lost something an integral part of the film experience in creating his artistic masterpiece. Melancholia is more a beautiful portrait that must be taken in from afar rather than an enchanting film that sucks you in to the world portrayed onscreen.