Melancholia 🪐

Happy Monday! Like we all have sometimes, I had a bit of a down weekend. So, let’s feel our feelings today.

Today’s movie is Lars von Trier’s drama Melancholia (2011)—streaming on Hulu. The film is the second in the Danish director’s depression trilogy—along with Antichrist and Nymphomaniac—which deals with characters grappling with the illness. Kirsten Dunst won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her performance, though she was somewhat egregiously snubbed at the Oscars. Review below and here’s the trailer.

Melancholia is about two sisters, Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), who's already strained relationship is further complicated by the forthcoming end of the world when another planet threatens to collide with the Earth. It is 135 minutes.

What I love about Melancholia is its incredible grasp of depression and anxiety and how they relate to each other. Justine’s half of the film represents depression, how we try so desperately to hide, and how the people we care for (even the people that don’t know we care for them) can both cause and abet it.

Claire’s half represents anxiety. As the prospect of the apocalypse becomes more real, she lets the fear drive her into a tailspin that she doesn’t understand that just feeds into that anxiety. Without being dogmatic, Melancholia breaks down the all too relatable cycle of anxiety and depression by asking us, “how would you feel when the world is going to end?” It’s a feel-bad movie, but sometimes you need to feel bad to feel good again.

Melancholia is available to buy or rent on Prime Video, Apple TV, and YouTube.

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Additional reading (or watching) 📚

Make it a double feature: High Life
Monte (Robert Pattinson) and his infant daughter are the sole survivors of a voyage into deep space that went awry. Told in a non-linear narrative, High Life unravels what led to the mission’s demise and Monte’s struggle to keep him and his daughter alive.[Where to watch]

Capturing depression on film
Nerdwriter1 explains how von Trier uses the juxtaposition between depression and cinematic beauty to tell the story of Melancholia. Watch here.

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One trailer you should watch: The Batman 🦇

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I hope you have a great week.

See you Thursday —
Karl (@karl_delo)

📽 P.S. You can see every movie I’ve ever recommended right here.

🍅 I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic on Rotten Tomatoes! You can find all my reviews here.