Lars Von Trier calls Melancholia romantic, lauds Kirsten Dunst’s performance

By Jake Dee

Posted 15 years ago

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

So how’d the trailer for Lars Von Trier’s MELANCHOLIA sit with you last week? Sill haunted by its artsy images?

Well, despite Von Trier’s early claims that his new film will eschew any kind of happy endings, he’s now speaking about the film in a glowing romantic light. Funny how the tenor changes once it’s time to promote the film, ay?

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Anyway, speaking with Empire Online, Von Trier not only spoke about the philosophical tenets of romanticism, he also spoke glowingly about the performance of Kirsten Dunst (below) and how it compares to some of the other women in his films. Peep it…

“As you can see in the trailer, Melancholia the planet, is kind of ten times bigger than the Earth, and I liked the idea of being ‘swallowed’ by Melancholia. I thought that was quite nice. And then I read today that that’s actually one of the virtues of romanticism – willingly being purified by dying. In fact, the film contains maybe more of the original idea of romanticism. I’m just saying that a lot of films today, their interpretation of romanticism is… quite boring, I think.”

“I think that Kirsten got off FAR too easy. FAR too easy,” he laughs. “She was not dragged through any masturbation. She had a very smooth ride, I would say. But she did an extremely good job.”

Also featuring the impressive lineup of Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Alexander Skarsgard, Stellan Skarsgard and Udo Kier – The film is about two sisters. One of them is melancholic, the other quite normal. The two sisters react completely differently when the end of the earth approaches. The melancholy sister is calm as a rock because, in her darkened mind, she has always felt that things go as expected – to hell!

MELANCHOLIA hits Cannes next month, having its release in Denmark May 26th.

Source: Empire Online

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Jake Dee

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