Leisure
Lars von Trier is no stranger to the grotesque. His 2009 film Antichrist, an antidote to his debilitating period of depression, featured talking animals, the self-mutilation of body parts you’d rather not know, and, quite unexpectedly, gorgeous cinematography. In Melancholia, the director introduces a lavish wedding party-gone-wrong in the context of the imminent destruction of the earth in his typically provocative fashion. Yet to lead actress Kirsten Dunst’s credit, the film is able to explore unsettling themes without gratuitous gore in its presentation of picturesque, slow-motion imagery, Wagnerian opera, and genuinely erratic characters.
By
Mark James
November 17, 2011