Melancholia

[MarkGrace]

Odd movie.

[Green Lantern]

Odd movie.

MG, did you get to see this in the theater? I know it's available on demand, but I'm holding out to see it when it hits theaters in Salt Lake. Lars von Trier, love him or hate him (and I've been on both sides) definitely knows how to shoot a movie.

Also, I'm hoping SU sees this one since arguing with him about Antichrist was some of most fun film discussion I've had in a long time.

[MarkGrace]

MG, did you get to see this in the theater? I know it's available on demand, but I'm holding out to see it when it hits theaters in Salt Lake. Lars von Trier, love him or hate him (and I've been on both sides) definitely knows how to shoot a movie.

Also, I'm hoping SU sees this one since arguing with him about Antichrist was some of most fun film discussion I've had in a long time.

No, I didn't. I'm trying to decide if I should now go see it in theaters. The visual element is pretty spectacular -- that opening sequence in particular -- and it would be nice to see it on the big screen. I'm not sure, however, that I loved the story itself enough to really want to see it again.

[jay santos]

I didn't get it.

[Green Lantern]

I didn't get it.

Spoiler:

Spoiler for In case you didn't get it:

Earth dies at the end.

[jay santos]

Spoiler:

Spoiler for In case you didn't get it:

Earth dies at the end.

I did get that.

I read up on the analysis after watching.

Apparently one of the things he was trying to show was that depressed or psychotic people are sometimes calm during a stressful time.

my comment on that:
1. not a very compelling idea to base a 2 hour+ movie on
2. execution fail. She said the Earth was evil and seemed to want to die. It's not interesting that someone psychotically depressed would be calm when the world's ending when they already hate life and want to die.

The first half and second half were completely disjointed and made no sense pieced together. The first half storyline might have been an interesting movie, had they explored why she was so depressed, how her relationship got started, how her career got started, and then also showed how the events at the wedding affected all that and how it turned out. The second half storyline might have been interesting had they focused on that and fleshed out all the subplots surrounding Melancholia. Put together, they made no sense and left the audience unsatisfied and wondering what the hell the director was trying to accomplish.

[Green Lantern]

I did get that.

I read up on the analysis after watching.

Apparently one of the things he was trying to show was that depressed or psychotic people are sometimes calm during a stressful time.

my comment on that:
1. not a very compelling idea to base a 2 hour+ movie on
2. execution fail. She said the Earth was evil and seemed to want to die. It's not interesting that someone psychotically depressed would be calm when the world's ending when they already hate life and want to die.

The first half and second half were completely disjointed and made no sense pieced together. The first half storyline might have been an interesting movie, had they explored why she was so depressed, how her relationship got started, how her career got started, and then also showed how the events at the wedding affected all that and how it turned out. The second half storyline might have been interesting had they focused on that and fleshed out all the subplots surrounding Melancholia. Put together, they made no sense and left the audience unsatisfied and wondering what the hell the director was trying to accomplish.

I think you may be missing the point of what the movie was saying about depression. My interpretation was that the film was trying to explain that clinical depression doesn't have to have a root cause. It's a sickness. We see this character on what is stereotypically referred to as the happiest day of one's life and she is miserable. Later we see her surrounded in luxury, amidst gorgeous natural backdrops with people all around her trying to help her and we see that she is still suffering. The point seemed to be that this is a mental illness and it's a mistake to think we can just try to make someone suffering from clinical depression happy by putting them in what we think of as a happy setting.

When the world comes crashing down, my interpretation is that the reason Dunst is so calm is because she has already been feeling like the world is ending for quite some time so this can't possibly make her feel any worse.

I found the film fascinating and an effective examination of what it must feel like to suffer from depression.