So how does one follow-up a film as grand and grotesque, praised and despised as Antichrist? If you are Lars Von Trier, you think bigger: world annihilation, and that’s just the prologue.
With his next project, Melancholia, Von Trier is taking a stab at hard sci-fi (if Antichrist was his ode to Tarkovsky, Melancholia may very well be his Solaris). Few details are known about the story aside from Von Trier’s announcement that there will be “no more happy endings!” Cheating the audience of any apocalyptic suspense to the proceedings, Melancholia reportedly starts with the destruction of the world only to work backwards and show characters on the eve of their inevitable demise. Said to be a cold war fears revision of the filmmakers’ own childhood anxieties, this bleak entry into the doomsday canon is sure to be as uncompromising as his previous film. Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg (seriously, how much agony can one woman endure?!) and Kirsten Dunst (huh?) as sisters, and Kiefer Sutherland, John Hurt, Alexander Skarsgard and Stellan Skarsgard as whomever else.
After Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life and Todd Field’s Blood Meridian this is easily one of my most anticipated films in the coming years.
Lars Von Trier and world annihilation.
Sweeter words have I have not heard this year.
Agreed Marina, I can hardly wait! What a fascinating cast.
You’re so insanely late to the party…
Anyway, you should put this up there in the post instead of that antiquated Antichrist pic. It’s the picture that released the original press release which otherwise only contained the title and the tagline:
I prefer to accentuate the fact that Charlotte and Lars are working together again.
and hey, its news somewhere in the world
Saw it. Loved it. Penelope Cruz was supposed to play the role of Justine, but backed out and Kirsten Dunst took the role. It was both beautiful and chilling.