Melan Melancholia is an apocalyptic drama revolved around two sisters, Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), during their final days before the end of the world. The planet Melancholia is heading towards Earth. Some think the planet will ‘fly-by’, whilst others worry that the planet will hit Earth, ending all of civilisation. The film is initially inspired by writer and director Lars von Trier’s personal experience with depression, and is based on his insight that depressives remain calm in stressful situations. It is this relationship and contrast in the two sisters that the film focuses on. The film begins with a seven minute sequence of dream-like scenes in slowmotion. Birds are falling from the sky and butterflies to the ground around Justine, a horse falls to its knees, Claire is sinking into the ground whilst tightly clutching onto her son, and a number of images from space show a blue coloured planet getting closer and ultimately colliding into Earth. Lars commented that he showed the planets crash at the beginning of the film so that the audience would not be distracted by the
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suspense of not knowing the resolution, keeping the focus on how the characters react to this situation instead. Melancholia is then split into two halves. The first, titled Justine, is painfully slow and dragged out. The scenes are based around Justine’s marriage to Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) at her sister’s home. Typically, we are then introduced to the main cast, but it is immediately made obvious that there is a profound dislike between most of the characters. The sisters’ mother (Charlotte Rampling) and father (John Hurt) do not get on and often openly fight. More awkward tensions then arise, first between Justine and her boss Jack (Stellan Skarsgård) and then with Claire’s husband John (Kiefer Sutherland), making it apparent that Justine is alienated from her sister too.
We also pick up on Justine’s illness as she falls tired and begins to drift away from the wedding party, becoming more and more sad and desperate over the night’s events. This, alongside tense scene after tense scene at the wedding party, is why the first half