LARS VON TRIER'S masterpiece, MELANCHOLIA (2011), which debuted in competition at Cannes this year, screened as part of the CINEDAYS indie movie madness of 70 films in 10 days in Skopje, Macedonia. 

MY MELANCHOLIA: A REVIEW

‘Melancholia’, dictionary description… “a mental condition and especially a manic-depressive condition characterized by extreme depression, bodily complaints, and often hallucinations and delusions”.

Smash ceremony to pieces. Hype, ego, pomp, sensationalism, formality, persona, ceremony… Blow it to smithereens and what is left? A whole new way of looking at the world around us, whether real or imaginary, an altered perspective. Well, we’ve all seen that Lars von Trier is a fan of smashing ceremonies. He does it in public frequently and it is often the main action that takes place in his films. In his latest work, MELANCHOLIA (2011), the character Justine (played by Kirsten Dunst) does just that. Due to a bout of inevitable all-consuming melancholia, she ruins her own wedding and turns what should have been a clean beautiful once-in-a-lifetime event into a chaotic night of living hell. But despite the blitzed wedding and the crashing of her world, the high concept here is not the ruined ceremony nor the many disappointed family and guests.

What matters here most is the mood of Justine, the piercing heavy gloppy and chthonic goop that drags our poor heroine to the ground, that inexplicable, impossible to avoid bilious black dark cloud that takes down whomever it possess with great invincible force. I am talking of course of ‘Melancholia’. Many just understand this word as a mood, as a passing fleeting moment of discontent. But others experience it differently. Others live with melancholia as an affliction, a hereditary disease that makes them chronically depressed, bipolar or even as a type of schizophrenia. Without a doubt, it is a serious psychological condition and only those who have it can truly understand...

...CONTINUE READING MY REVIEW HERE: http://www.fest21.com/en/blog/vanessa_mcmahon/melancholia

-written by Vanessa McMahon