NYFF: "Melancholia" This Is The Way The World Ends

[Editor's Note: Our NYFF coverage begins! You'll be hearing from Michael and Kurt and me. -Nathaniel]

Hey, everybody. Serious Film’s Michael C. here reporting from the New York Film Festival. I’m jumping right into the deep end of the pool with the first title so let’s get to it.

When the world ends in Lars von Trier’s Melancholia it is definitely going to be with a bang and not a whimper. The film opens with a stunning series of images centered around a rogue planet spinning out from behind the sun on a course to smash into Earth like a wrecking ball. It’s a dark nihilistic death dance, the B-side to Tree of Life’s sun-dappled song of life. The sequence alone is worth the price of admission.

From there the film splits neatly into halves. The first concerns the wedding of clinically depressed bride Kirsten Dunst to “aw shucks” wholesome groom Alexander Skarsgård. The second concerns Dunst and sister Charlotte Gainsbourg grappling with the whole possible destruction of the planet thing. Both halves follow similar arcs with characters hoping against hope that the worst case scenario can be avoided before remembering that this is, after all, a von Trier movie.

I’m not sure splitting up the stories was the wisest choice, since the second half never recovers the energy of the wedding scenes. I could write that the second half creaks under the weight of its symbolism, but if Von Trier is willing to fill the sky with an ominous death planet named after his own depression, who am I to point out that the whole thing is a bit "on the nose"?

Melancholia would have to qualify as a minor disappointment considering the shattering impact Von Trier is capable of, but still, it's an experience worth having. The whole cast is aces. Dunst rises to the occasion with a bone deep convincing portrayal of smothering depression, while Kiefer Sutherland, to my surprise, punches through in a big way as Gainsbourg’s wealthy put-upon husband. Best of all, is the wall to wall breathtaking cinematography by Manuel Alberto Claro, which, by the way, is probably the film's best shot at awards attention. The whole thing has a cumulative effect greater than the sum of its flaws.

Hey Girl, It's Link Time: Young Lars, Drunk Charlize, Best Pictures

Grantland has Mark Harris (yay) on the four supposed Best Picture contenders we've seen thus far: Midnight in Paris, The Tree of Life, The Help and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two
Stale Popcorn loves the teaser poster for Young Adult and so do I. Isn't it the most... to say the least? Makes you want to "open it" right away and start reading enjoying.

My favorite detail is that Caldecott-like gold stamp, with Jason Reitman's credits on it. Gah, why can't all posters be this fuuuuunnnnn?

Vulture Did you hear Reese Witherspoon got hit by a car (she's fine). I knew this would rile her number one fan up! haha
24 Frames AFI Fest will open with Clint Eastwood's Oscar-buzzy J Edgar. 

This video which I discovered at the WOW report, from WeHoGuy30, does a gay riff on Beauty & The Beast. "Bonjour Girl" ...very funny if you enjoy this sort of thing.

The Lost Boy Ricky Gervais is threatening to host the Golden Globes again live podcast during the Golden Globes ... with comedian friends including Louis CK sounding off on the Hollywood back-patting. 
Broadway Blog interviews Jeff Calhoun who is helping to bring new versions of Newsies and Bonnie & Clyde to the stage. He also appeared in the 80s movie musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. And yes, he talks Dolly Parton.   
Movie|Line Bad Movies We Love: Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal in The Main Event.  
PopMatters on Contagion and this age of zombie epidemics and vampiric viruses and real world terror

Today's Must Read
Ultra Culture was gifted a copy of an old Swedish documentary on Lars von Trier called Tranceformer (1997) and shares five things he learned from it. Very entertaining. Why is Lars so entertaining? Why is Ultra Culture so entertaining? He just is. They just are. Incidentally, I just saw Melancholia which I'm still mulling over but it is an absolute must-see as there is much to discuss about it. Which we will do soon.

'said everybody's gonna link today, link today, link today'

Pop & Hiss Reeve Carney, who previously appeared in Julie Taymor's Tempest and Julie Taymor's Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, has signed on to play Jeff Buckley in a biopic. Sure he looks right enough for the part, but sadly, at least thus far, he doesn't seem to be much of an actor. 
In Contention loves the motion picture soundtrack cover for Drive more than the movie posters. Fair enough... but omg what's inside!!!. I'm buying the crap out of that CD when it becomes available. I kept wishing the songs were originals so that I could be incensed when Oscar ignored them.

Reeve Carney as himself. Ryan Gosling in fetishized scorpion jacket.

Time Out HK has a good lengthy interview with Hong Kong actor Daniel Wu of Bishonen fame. He's starring opposite fighting Russell Crowe (literally) soon in The Man With the Iron Fists
Cinema Blend has a funny thought. What if Channing Tatum's stripper movie Magic Mike is the first film wherein Matthew McConaughey (who just signed on as the boss man) doesn't take his shirt off? 
Cineuropa Lars Von Trier's next picture Nymphomaniac will detail a woman's sexual life from birth til she's 50. Good luck with the, uh, casting of that one Lars. 
Playbill Cyndi Lauper & Harvey Fierstein's stage musical adaptation of the drag movie Kinky Boots (yes you read that sentence right) will get a big workshop in September. I didn't even like the movie and I'm so excited for it.
Via Twitter omg. Enver Gjokaj (Dollhouse) is in The Avengers. Yay! I have no idea how this photo is supposed to prove it but it is.
Hollywood Reporter Oscar buzzing Viola Davis (The Help) may star in a new HBO series. First Julianne... now Viola? Pretty soon no actresses will be left for the movies ;) 
The Cut the cast of Glee is in Vogue. Why no Mercedes or Santana?  

Music Video Break
Do you like Mika? I do muchly. Here's his latest music video "Elle Me Dit" but I only share it on this film blog because he's moved on from Grace Kelly to... Frenchsuperstar Fanny Ardant (8 Women, Ridicule, Roman de Gare). The video seems vaguely inspired by Wes Anderson (does Fanny then equal Anjelica Huston?) divided by François Ozon because if he was going for Wes, there's not enough center frame closeup.

What'cha think?

Melancholia Fallout

I really hope that all the press conference controversy surrounding Lars Von Trier's Melancholia doesn't hinder its awards chances if it had any to begin with. Ioncinema's critics panel loved the movie but at least one distributor has already bailed. I am usually quite amused by Lars Von Trier's ease at manipulating the press with his outrageous comments -- everyone falls for it every time! Suckers -- but this time, sadly, his mischief may affect his film's chances to be seen. Which... argh. It's so anti-art to be offended by someone's peronality and therefore reject their work in its entirety and, worse, prevent others from seeing it.

Lars is always making his actresses uncomfortable

This type of moral outrage at bad-taste humor can often snowball in uncomfortable ways. I'm already worried that The Five Obstructions project with Martin Scorsese, which sounds thrilling, will end up derailed as well. Lars Von Trier has apologized but because he is also Lars Von Trier he's been making inflammatory follow up comments as well about enjoying the persona non grata designation.

I haven't been reading Melancholia reviews other than skimming blurbs. I'm most intrigued by IndieWire's description of the film as Von Trier's Rachel Getting Married because, well, who wouldn't want to see that? I was also intrigued by Hollywood Elsewhere's comment about Kiki's lead performance:

She's never operated in such a dark, fleshy and grandiose realm.

Though maybe you can disregard that one, since Mr. Wells doesn't seem to have a sense of how accomplished Dunst's filmography actually is. The Spider-Man trilogy sure did pull the wool over everyone's eyes in terms of her versatility and the general strength of her filmography. Rich at FourFour hasn't yet seen the movie but he sure loves Kiki's performance at the press conference.

ANYWAY... My increasingly anti-review stance is getting uncomfortable for me as a blogger/pundit/critic/loudmouth. I tend to talk more about movies AFTER their release and the world has definitely trended away from me (gulp) there, preferring to exhaust conversations before moviegoers can join in. I haven't decided quite how to work around this yet. See, I knew way too much bout LVT's Antichrist -- to connect this train of thought back to Melancholia -- before seeing it and it was very frustrating for me. What should have been a shock-fest instead was just "oh, here comes that part. I see what he did there." I know in my soul that the modern habit of digging for all and every piece of information for each new movie before experiencing it beforehand (a kindred spirit to the now commonplace Oscar-fanatic trend to take adamant Oscar sides before seeing the performances in question) is detrimental to the magic of the movies. But how to stay informed without spoiling your own capacity for surprise and joy?  Are you also struggling with this? It's been getting progressively worse over the past 5 or so years. I wonder if this will cycle back culturally to valuing secrets or if it will just get worse?  

My favorite shot in the Melancholia trailer. So evocative and childlike

If you released The Crying Game (1992) in today's moviegoing climate, for example, I bet it would never have taken off and nagged several Oscar nominations. (Oscar nominations that were completely deserved, mind you.)  Its whole campaign was about keeping the secret (which wasn't exactly a last minute twist) and by the time people staring knowing the secret before seeing it -- thanks to one of those Oscar nominations -- it was already a "must see" film.

My train of thought has jumped the rails. Back to Melancholia. Do you think the jury will dare give it any prizes, if they were already so inclined, given that Lars von Trier has been expelled?

Related: Yes No Maybe So Melancholia
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Lars & Marty Picking Apart The Past

JA from MNPP here, highlighting an exciting bit of news making the rounds today. We'd heard back in February the rumor of this, but now it's seeming official - next year Lars Von Trier will be redoing his Five Obstructions experiment with Martin Scorsese. Excuse me, make that "Oscar-winning pool of awesomesauce, Martin Scorsese."

If you're unfamiliar with The Five Obstructions, in 2003 Von Trier had his mentor the Danish filmmaker Jørgen Leth remake a short film of his own five times under five different sets of limitations. He was forced to shoot it in difficult locations like Cuba and the red light discrict of Bombay; he had to make it in animated form.

And now Von Trier will be training his cinematic sadism on one of the living masters of American movies. But the big question remains - what film will Scorsese be remaking? When the rumor first popped up it was attached to Taxi Driver, but now that Variety's confirmed the project's happening there is no word on if that's true or if it'll be a different film of Marty's. So I ask y'all - what movie do you most want to see Scorsese tackle again under Von Trier's ever-brutal thumb? And what limitations would you like to see set for him?