Trailer: Lars von Trier's 'Melancholia,' Starring Kirsten Dunst and Alexander Skarsgard
by Scott Nye
"Melancholia" was one of the most acclaimed films at the international festival, garnering tremendous reviews and even landing Kirsten Dunst the Best Actress Award (and you thought she couldn't act!).
I'm trying to remain relatively spoiler-free on the film, but the basic set-up is a wedding set against the end of the world, and my understanding is that it gets even nuttier from there.
It might be a little too outlandish for Academy Award consideration, but there's no doubt that distributor Magnolia is hoping that at least Dunst will get some recognition. They even played the film for a week at one theater in a Los Angeles suburb to ensure the film qualified, as they will be releasing it on Video on Demand in advance of its theatrical run, and the Academy doesn't take too kindly to TV movies.
The just-released trailer plays up the film's astounding imagery, only giving a hint at the plot but promising "a spectacle impossible to turn away from," in the words of quoted critic J. Hoberman.
It speaks to the unending reservoir of talent within true visionaries like von Trier that, in an age of pure spectacle, some people can still wow us. I'm not in von Trier's corner no matter what - he's made me shrug as often as he's blown my mind - but his films are always worth seeing, and this one looks like it'll play especially well on a massive screen.
The film's considerable cast boasts Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgard (whattup, "True Blood" fans?), his dad Stellan Skarsgard, and John Hurt, among others.
Check out the trailer below. "Melancholia" hits Magnolia's OnDemand service on October 7th before rolling across U.S. screens beginning November 11th.