Melancholia

In movies that ask as big questions as Melancholia, we usually see a battle between the ideas of cosmic nihilism and existentialism, which often results in favor of existentialism. I love how Melancholia doesn’t turn into that. I love how it uses the idea of a planet hitting Earth in a brief amount of time to avoid that kind of a discourse, and leaves us with very deep questions with very, very dark (and honest) answers. We see an obvious contrast between Justine and Claire. But Justine’s cosmic nihilism overcomes Claire’s altruism and her desperate attempt to find meaning in a world that literally won’t exist in a day. I really liked how cosmic nihilism is supported with depression in this awesome character portrayal of Justine. It also is a very accurate description of depression. The questions Melancholia makes me ask are questions I’ve been thinking about for a long time. But conceptual reasoning results differently than cinematic experience, so it helped me organize so many thoughts. Melancholia has so many fascinating ideas that deserve far better analysis, much better than I will mumble around in here. So I’m just gonna mention the amazing cinematography and Kirsten Dunst’s remarkable acting (acting of her career, one might say) and leave this here until a rewatch.