What is it about Melancholia? I keep thinking about it. I think maybe it is my favorite movie of the year (easily possible since I’m not really sure what I’ve seen and nothing has really “stuck” that much). But I resist Lars von Trier. So maybe I won’t give into it.
But …. I loved it. It won me over first of all because it was funny. When do you expect to laugh out loud in one of his movies? You’d have to be a fool to hope for that, but Melancholia was more genuinely funny than many of the “comedies” I’ve seen. (Seriously, more laughs than “Bridesmaids.”)
I’m thinking about it so much though – and I think I love it so much – precisely because of the director’s and the movie’s own ambivalent relationship to pleasure. I read his director’s statement – it is almost as if he hates himself for making a gorgeous movie. He’s afraid of being misunderstood.
Here’s an excerpt:
It was like waking from a dream: my producer showed me a suggestion for a poster. “What is that?” I ask. ”It’s a film you’ve made!” she replies. ”I hope not,” I stammer. Trailers are shown … stills … it looks like shit. I’m shaken.
Don’t get me wrong … I’ve worked on the film for two years. With great pleasure. But perhaps I’ve deceived myself. Let myself be tempted. Not that anyone has done anything wrong … on the contrary, everybody has worked loyally and with talent toward the goal defined by me alone. But when my producer presents me with the cold facts, a shiver runs down my spine.
This is cream on cream. A woman’s film! I feel ready to reject the film like a wrongly transplanted organ.
But what was it I wanted? With a state of mind as my starting point, I desired to dive headlong into the abyss of German romanticism. Wagner in spades. That much I know. But is that not just another way of expressing defeat? Defeat to the lowest of cinematic common denominators? Romance is abused in all sorts of endlessly dull ways in mainstream products.
And then, I must admit, I have had happy love relationships with romantic cinema … to name the obvious: Visconti!
German romance that leaves you breathless. But in Visconti, there was always something to elevate matters beyond the trivial … elevate it to masterpieces!
Cream on cream. A woman’s film! (Don’t you just hate him?!) I mean, is that why the planet must crash into Earth? Because a woman’s film must not be allowed? Is it the bride in a wedding dress that makes it a woman’s film? (And then this fear is so interesting, because I would say, who is he kidding, without women LVT would have no subject!)
Well, no worries, LVT has not made a chick flick. The movie is lovely, the people are monied and good looking. But the romance is with a world-ending planet. And really, even in the first half, when this threat is not even known, all the absurdities of convention are exposed. He has, reliably, elevated matters beyond the trivial. I can’t wait to see it again.
