Melancholia is a 2011 Speculative Fiction film written and directed by Lars Von Trier. It mainly focuses on the relationship between the two sisters Justine and Claire, played by Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The movie is divided into two parts, the first about Justine's wedding, the second about the upcoming fly-by of the rogue planet Melancholia that's drifting through the solar system. The focus lies on how the characters relate to the events surrounding them, from the mundane event of a wedding to the possibility of a planetary collision.Like Von Trier's previous movie, Melancholia was surrounded by some consternation at the Cannes Film Festival. Von Trier's jokes about Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany resulted in him being declared a persona non grata. Dunst's performance was praised, however, and she walked away with the Best Actress Award.
This film provides examples of:
Abusive Parents: Gaby has nothing nice to say about Justine. She wants Justine to be more like Claire.
Alien Sky: Once Melancholia appears in the sky, things turn eerie.
Art Shift: The opening montage is shot in extreme slow motion, with extremely stylized imagery. The rest of the film is photographed normally.
Artistic Licence - Astronomy: Von Trier has mentioned he was never interested in depicting the astronomical events accurately. In a nutsell: Melancholia couldn't have hidden behind the sun without being visible for very long, it couldn't have concealed Antares for more than a few moments, and even a flyby could potentially be disastrous.note It might "slingshot" the Earth out of orbit, and the tidal forces could also wreak havoc, depending on Melancholia's mass.
Better to Die than Be Killed: Claire stashes away a bottle of pills should the worst come to pass. Her husband scoffs at her for this. He ends up up using them first.
Despair Event Horizon: Justine has hers during her wedding, where she completely breaks down. Claire has hers when she realizes the Earth is doomed. John as well.
Dirty Old Man: Justine and Claire's father, played by John Hurt, shamelessly hits on two younger women for the entire wedding. His note implies that he ditched his daughter to go sleep with one of them.
Disability Superpower: The clinically depressed main character is apparently omniscient.
Doomed Protagonist: Don't bother getting attached to anyone or rooting for them to make it. From the beginning, you know they'll be dead before the movie ends.
Downer Ending: Trier himself taglined the film with "No more happy endings!" That's saying something!
Fan Disservice: Given what her character's going through and also the tone of the film, Kirsten Dunst's nude scenes are not supposed to be sexy. You have to give credit for Kirsten going further than she's ever been in her career, though.
Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Claire is the normal, straight-laced one, while Justine is a manic-depressive and often cannot take care of herself.
Foregone Conclusion: Melancholia hits Earth. Von Trier deliberately showed this right away because he didn't want suspense to be the point of the audience's experience.
Freudian Excuse: Justine may have inherited mental illness from her parents. Her mother is a bitter woman and her father is a lech who might be going senile.
From Bad to Worse: In both parts of the movie: the wedding and the fly-by of Melancholia.
Foreshadowing: The star Antares is no longer visible in the sky.
How We Got Here: The ending is shown in the opening montage so that the audience won't be distracted by whether or not Melancholia will hit the Earth.
I'm a Man, I Can't Help It: It doesn't seem to occur to Tim that having sex with his coworker, whom he has just met, at her wedding reception might not be a good idea. She wants it, so he obliges.
Jerkass: John, though whether he has a Heart of Gold or a Heart of Jerk is tough to say. He gripes about money a lot and is pretty impatient with Justine and unsympathetic toward her illness. But he lets Claire take care of her and occasionally has a kind word to say. His intellect shields him from fear of Melancholia, and he does his best to keep his wife and child from being afraid, too... but when that gets flipped around and he becomes certain that the rogue planet will indeed strike the Earth, he commits a supreme act of selfishness and cowardice by killing himself, leaving Claire to deal with that, their child, and their impending doom alone.
Gaby. She's the reason why Justine is depressed. See Abusive Parent.
Justine's boss, Jack, who keeps pestering her to give him the tagline for the company, rather than feeling happy that one of his employees is getting married. He only came to the wedding to get that tagline.
Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Everyone in the film uses their natural accent, so it's not clear where the film takes place. Claire and Justine are sisters with British parents, but Dunst as Justine uses her American accent. She works for a Swedish man who has a nephew with an American accent. The resort's butler is Danish and the wedding has a German planner. Claire is married to an American man and their child has an American accent.
Oh Crap: Claire's realisation that Melancholia is coming back around after its fly-by.
Shout Out: The whole movie is basically a shout-out to When Worlds Collide set in the 2000s, only told from the perspective of ordinary people. There's a flyby, a Hope Spot, then the realization that the collision will happen after all and Earth (and they) are finished.
Tall, Dark and Snarky: Justine and Claire's mom. She thinks everything about the wedding (including the guests, her family, and the very tradition of weddings) is stupid, and when she sneaks off to take a bath in the middle of the reception (coincidentally at the same time as Justine) she notes that (paraphrased) "I wasn't there for her first execration, I wasn't there for her first intercourse, and I don't need to be here for this". At one point Claire quietly wonders why she even came.
World Limited to the Plot: Unusually for a disaster film; the film focuses solely on Justine, her family, and guests, and shows none of the outside world's reactions to Melancholia.
Write What You Know: Von Trier got the idea for the movie while being treated for depression. Kirsten Dunst had also suffered from depression prior to the movie.
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