tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7047872200068694467.post328126156286747627..comments2024-02-10T06:19:58.016-05:00Comments on Petrified Fountain of Thought: Review: MelancholiaStephenMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16588260639227694557noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7047872200068694467.post-50192954183805776732012-03-22T22:40:13.865-04:002012-03-22T22:40:13.865-04:00Thanks, esco, that's a great comment, and doub...Thanks, esco, that's a great comment, and doubly thanks on becoming a follower! <br /><br />I don't want to come off quite as mocking as Quinn does in that review, because I know there are a lot of people I respect who think von Trier is a genius and Melancholia is one of his greatest films, but I can't help what I feel: The film is a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing. (And his point about tin-ear for dialogue is definitely spot-on!)StephenMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16588260639227694557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7047872200068694467.post-35086888117841779282012-03-20T01:13:40.453-04:002012-03-20T01:13:40.453-04:00A very passionate piece of writing. I had the feel...A very passionate piece of writing. I had the feeling you wanted to like Melancholia and were doubly disapointed by the movie as a result. I especially liked your comparisons to Tarkovsky and to McCarthy,one of my favorite writers.<br />9i can't say the same about Tarkovsky, but I definitely plan on giving him another try, but I will drink a couple of cups of black coffee first) You capture the anguished cry of pain you get from reading him, again, with feeling. <br /><br />The best review I have read on Melancholia, and that best reflects my feelings on it and on Von Trier (Could that be why I like it so?) is from one Anthony Quinn, who reviews for the British paper, The Indepenedent:<br /><br />Anthony Quinn Friday 30 September 2011 The Independent:<br /><br />If Lars von Trier put as much effort into making sense as he does into teasing and offending he would be a film-maker of world-class talent. His most recent act of provocation, you will recall, was to offer an apologia of Hitler (which he later said was a joke) that duly got him thrown out of the Cannes festival. Probably the most interesting thing he could do at this point in his career would be to say nothing at all, but that's not going to happen anytime soon.<br />The film he was promoting at the festival, Melancholia, turns out to have something even bigger than Hitler in its sights. It's Lars counting down to – deep breath – the end of the world as we know it, and he does so with his signature mix of visual bravura and head-in-the-clouds silliness. At times it's close to a Malick-esque fugue of transcendence, pumped up by thunderously loud bursts of Wagner. But where Malick says, Behold these wonders and rejoice, Von Trier is more ominous, more Ozymandian: look upon them and despair.<br /><br />Justine, who seems at first merely vague, turns out to be the full Von Trier fruitcake – tearful, skittish, self-destructive, maddening. That much is clear once she snubs her gentle uncomprehending husband and sneaks off for al fresco sex with a stranger (Brady Corbet). "The earth is evil," she says, "there's no need to grieve for it". You might find this attitude just as infuriating as her earlier dead-eyed neurasthenia, yet Kirsten Dunst somehow works against the chilling grip of her director to make herself watchable, if not quite bearable. She joins a parade of leading ladies whom Von Trier has tested to the very edges of humiliation and despair – Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves, Björk in Dancer in the Dark, Nicole Kidman in Dogville and, spectacularly, Charlotte Gainsbourg in Antichrist. But there must be a great persuasive energy in Von Trier, because all of those performances, with the exception of the hopeless Björk, have been vivid and unsettling.<br /><br />Von Trier's [latest film displays as so many of his previous films did, his] thick ear for the way people talk to one another; it's either school-play banality (Hurt's stupid jokes, Rampling's charmless barbs) or high-falutin philosophical blather, with nothing in between. At times one is tempted to echo the famous objection Harrison Ford made on reading George Lucas's script for Star Wars: "You can type this shit, Lars, but you sure as hell can't say it."<br /><br />Best to you, I've become a followeresco20https://www.blogger.com/profile/12070679386960655912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7047872200068694467.post-12799629956994959802012-01-11T12:02:43.515-05:002012-01-11T12:02:43.515-05:00Stephen, I fully understand everything you are say...Stephen, I fully understand everything you are saying, and I want to say that I may have come off much more strongly than I actually intended to. I have a few goods friends who feel exactly as you did about the film and Von Trier in general. Thanks very much for responding, and I apologize for coming off much too pointed there.Sam Julianonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7047872200068694467.post-43168901710228651452012-01-11T11:25:31.823-05:002012-01-11T11:25:31.823-05:00Sorry if I came off contentious there, Sam. My ob...Sorry if I came off contentious there, Sam. My objections were meant to be more affectionate than they perhaps sounded. I am very grateful for your praise and patronage of the blog.<br /><br />I do understand that when one looks at all the critics groups and top tens, Melancholia is the second or third most acclaimed of the year, and I definitely understand how you found the whole thing rapturous. That doesn't change my opinion. As for the music, I was just tossing off movies off the top of my head, but as I found very very little pleasure or profundity in the music in Melancholia, I do think they all use classical pieces to better effect. Your remarks about greatest ever just seemed a little over-the-top to me, and my reaction was more of a chuckle than outrage.<br /><br />Thanks for the comments!StephenMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16588260639227694557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7047872200068694467.post-77360933036727231172012-01-11T09:16:05.614-05:002012-01-11T09:16:05.614-05:00Stephen, as I generally state on other issues of d...Stephen, as I generally state on other issues of disagreement it always comes down to taste. Just a few days ago the most prestigious of all the critics' groups, the National Society of Film critics, chose MELANCHOLIA as the Best Film of 2011, edging out THE TREE OF LIFE by a single point. The membership includes what we can deem as the finest intellectual critics in the professional ranks. So much for your contention that the film is "intellectually vapid." It's all a matter of perception, and from where I am sitting I don't see the issues you are complaining about at all. This was as unified, cerebral and artistic experience as I've seen in a theatre in years. I knew exactly what I was saying there about the best use of classical music. I know all those film you mention, and I feel that Von Trier directly integrated Wagner's 'Tristan' into the thematic fabric of the film, much as Lean and Kubrick did.<br /><br />AMADEUS is really a record, not a singular instance where the music informed the subject. The music IS the record. DISTANT VOICES applies, the Tarkovskys, Malicks and RAGING BULL less so, though yes, in each instance music is important and ravishing.<br /><br />I seriously thought you penned an excellent piece here, more comprehensive than any I have seen at the site. I issued praise I though was warranted, even if I am diametrically opposed to your numerous disclaimers and final position.<br /><br />MELANCHOLIA is one of the best films of 2011.Sam Julianonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7047872200068694467.post-55022232222287386072012-01-11T01:02:10.258-05:002012-01-11T01:02:10.258-05:00Well, thanks, Sam, but I think we both know you...Well, thanks, Sam, but I think we both know you're being a little over-generous there. Personally I think it could use more editing.<br /><br />Yeah, I know a lot of people loved it, and I can definitely understand how you could get caught up in the beauty and emotions of the thing, though I did not. I think the overall message of the movie--at least the one I saw--would always keep me from ever truly liking it, though.<br /><br />But "the most profound employment of classical music in a movie of all-time"? Really? Come now, that's just silly. You're putting this over every Malick film, every Kubrick, every Tarkovsky, Raging Bull, Brief Encounter, Amadeus, Distant Voices, Still Lives, etc??StephenMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16588260639227694557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7047872200068694467.post-27942008451780595742012-01-10T20:40:12.891-05:002012-01-10T20:40:12.891-05:00"Melancholia opens with a series of dreamlike..."Melancholia opens with a series of dreamlike tableaux, images in super-slow motion of birds falling from the sky, women running in desperation, and finally the Earth crashing into another planet and exploding. Right there the film lost me. I had been told that these images were astonishingly beautiful, that they were the best part of the film, that I would be in awe."<br /><br /><br />God, this is really your magnum opus here Stephen! Congratulations on this utterly stupendous review, which frankly deserves to be read by any blogger worth a salt. This is really spectacular stuff. Alas, I did buy into the film lock, stock and barrel and just named it among the top ten films of 2011 on a post at my site. I used the above noted quote from you to point to the difference, as I would allign myself with those who told you that you'd be in awe. Even the prestigious National Society of Film Critics this week named the film the Best of 2011 in a tight vote over THE TREE OF LIFE (my own #1) by a score of 39 to 38. They did give Malick the Best Director prize though, handily. But to be honest I know quite a few people who share your disdain, including two of my site colleagues, Tony d'Ambra and Maurizio Roca.<br /><br />As to my own reading of the film: The first eight minutes of Melancholia must surely rank among the most rapturous ever filmed. Taking his cue from the opening of his last film, Antichrist, Von Trier brought together imagery of ethereal beauty and Wagner’s musically cathartic Prelude to ‘Tristan und Isolde’ to electrifying effect. Existential dread has rarely if ever resulted in such a ravishing and transportive experience in a film that showcases the sensibilities of Bergman, Strindberg and the Scandinavian world view. The film is a psycodrama played out in a metaphorical scenario that most compellingly recalls Persona and The Passion of Anna. Von Trier’s sublime use of the aforementioned Wagner composition may be the most profound employment of classical music in a movie of all-time, and it fully supports the indellible images that bring it to visual maturation. Both Kirsten Dunst as a true force of nature and Charlotte Gainsbourg are transformative and the film bears more than a striking comparison to Tomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration at least by way of brooding anger and melancholic sensibilities. A beautiful nightmare tinged with strife and regret and dark humor the film reaches into the inner recesses of the imagination with full Von Trier flowering, destroying the world to reach ultimate artistic expression.<br /><br />Anyway, your discussion of solipism and your breakdown of the film's meaning and your intricate issue with it made for one stunning and fascinating read!Sam Julianonoreply@blogger.com