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Amy Racecar wrote:Melancholia

I will definitely be seeing that, thank you.

Amy Racecar wrote:Melancholia

It looks so beautiful! And I don't just say that because of the Kirsten Dunst nudity. Does it have a U.S. release date yet?

I've recently watched (and rather enjoyed - what other film features Fred Astaire beaming with beatific joy as he gasses himself to death inside his garage whilst sitting in the driving seat of his prize-winning racing car?) On The Beach to put me in what I'm assuming will be the correct mindset for this film!

As with Antichrist, this looks gorgeous.

This looks amazing, and I love this line from the Wikipedia entry on the film:

Trier has said that he considers all of his previous films to end happily, and that this will be the first with an unhappy ending.

You disagree with that? Admittedly I am a far way off from having seen all of his movies, but I can't think of one that ends unhappily.

I guess now we know how Lars really feels about Selma.

lol at fierias. Just wanna concur on the point that it's a BEAUTIFUL trailer. Considering how much Trier says one thing and means another so often, I think it's safe to assume that this may be the first Von Trier film with a happy ending. He may really have a shot at the Palme. If you take the incredible aesthetics of Antichrist and merge them with a more dynamic story you could have something that leaves peoples jaws on the floor(or does so in a good way. I'm a big supporter of Antichrist so don't take that the wrong way.) If Von Trier believes that all of his films had happy endings and this one has an unhappy ending I'm guessing it feels like a happy ending on the surface and unhappy one when you dig down. I don't know, I'm babbling I guess, I'm just thrilled by this.

knives wrote:You disagree with that? Admittedly I am a far way off from having seen all of his movies, but I can't think of one that ends unhappily.

I was so happy at the last hanging I attended that I went and kicked the first kid I saw who wore glasses. SHEESH!

While the ending to that movie was somber and more than a little sad I feel it wasn't unhappy. It was the most positive ending possible and even if she wanted it to be a better ending she at least succeeded. So it's not the happiest ending ever, but I found it to be not unhappy if that makes sense.

I find it hilarious he considers Dogville to have a happy ending, I don't necessarily disagree but it makes me chuckle to compare his perception of the happy ending against, say, whatever rom-com.

Has Lars lost his edge? Looks like Shyamalan meets Festen to me... ie. his Palme d'Or chances just seem to have increased, yes!

The ending certainly must be tragic (if not unhappy) considering Wagner's Tristan on the soundtrack.

Didn't Von Trier say something in early interviews to the effect that the film actually begins with the end of the world, just to get the suspense element out of the way? Which would seem to rule a Shyamalan 'twist' ending out (and led me to think about rewatching On The Beach)! I'm personally hoping for it to be sort of 'Festen meets Poliakoff' piece but with the gathering being initiated by the end of the world (in an "if it's the end let's go out with a big party" manner getting ironically contrasted with what should be the beginning of a long term committed relationship in the form of the new marriage) rather than just a group of over-privileged people bickering before returning relatively unchanged back to their normal lives.

And I assume that Charlotte Rampling and John Hurt are going to be in similar roles to those played by Vanessa Redgrave and Maximillian Schell in Deep Impact?

The sense of operatic tragedy noted above from the score also feels compounded by there appearing to be an allusion to the John Everett Millais painting of Ophelia in one shot (and that same composition also occurs both in Element of Crime and Epidemic):

A friend suggested to me that family crisis in the face of an apocalypse sounds like Von Trier channeling Tarkovsky.

I love how everything about this sounds like a parody of a von Trier film, and I don't neccesarily mean that to sound critical.

Also: I kinda hope that he subtitles it "the Infinite Sadness."

Even when I first heard the title of this film, it reminded me of Nostalghia. Then again, his affinity for Tarkovsky can be seen in some of his other work (The Element of Crime, Antichrist). Along with Tarkovsky, Bergman, Dreyer, Fassbinder, and Pasolini are major influences...

The Tarkovsky channeling was last time round. This time it's Lav Diaz.

aox wrote:As with Antichrist, this looks gorgeous.

Agreed. To me, Antichrist is the quintessential Red One film in terms of showcasing its capabilities if utilized optimally.

I love how everything about this sounds like a parody of a von Trier film, and I don't neccesarily mean that to sound critical.

I always took Antichrist to be just that, but I've seldom seen it discussed on those terms.

As for Melancholia, that trailer is beautiful and I can't wait to see the film. I'll probably have to go it alone, though; I'm not sure my friends will accompany me after the Antichrist incident.

karmajuice wrote:

I love how everything about this sounds like a parody of a von Trier film, and I don't neccesarily mean that to sound critical.

I always took Antichrist to be just that, but I've seldom seen it discussed on those terms.

In all honesty that's the only way I've been able to view the film as competent. Certain aspects (my favorite being the crow bitch stuff) simply wouldn't be acceptable otherwise.

I started laughing when von Trier gave us the hardcore close-up in the shower, filmed in luminous B/W and operatic slow motion, and I spent the rest of the film straddling the line between laughter and anticipation -- anticipation of what new level of absurdity the film would scale to next.

That's not to say that the film doesn't achieve any real resonance, because I think it does. It's like Black Swan, in the way they both achieve an emotional power through sheer, blind conviction, even if things do get pretty ridiculous.

How could any human take the movie after that close-up. What really clinched the deal for my was the cutting between that and the kid setting the plot in motion. You can't find that sort of operatic trash even in a Bruno Mattei film.