In a sublime esthetic charged with symbolism and history (of art),Lars von Trier presents a desperate vision of the existence. He constantly reminds us that death waits for us all, at one time or another.
Here, deep black nihilism requires, there is no real consolation. We can only not be afraid, just like Justine (Kirsten Dunst) who embraces the end of the world in so serene we are not ready to forget. The course of the young woman is the opposite of the other characters. They wallow in alienating social rituals (marriage, beautiful mansion in the countryside, domestic delivered, neat family) whose Justine’s sister, Claire, is the condensed neurotic symptom. Justine rejects these shackles, leaving her sweet and beautiful love and walking alone on her wedding day, to hide where she can undress and finally just be herself. When the actual end of the world is approaching and all the horns of the "normal" life abandon the ship, when helplessness and anxiety are revealed, it is the so-called "fragile" that bring a bit of beauty in the chaos that is the universe : the child and the sick one, the innocent and lonely, both dependent and apparently eventually so strong, the only ones to not be afraid of this outcome inevitable destruction of all life.
It is in a flamboyant final scene, cosmic union that could be perverse and ridiculous that Lars von Trier reached the great, perhaps because unlike in the movie "Antichrist", he doesn’t spread too much of arrogant contempt but a deep sincerity inhabited by an abysmal sadness and beautiful as a Dürer. Whatever one thinks of Lars von Trier since he started, his provocations - sometimes meaningless (except for himself) - or his often misinterpreted excesses, "Melancholia" unexpectedly transcends the pseudo- nerds vagaries putting the guts on the table and the artist in the spotlight.
Masterpiece.
