``Melancholia'' A sweet apocalypse, like cream on top of cream.

Motifs from therapy

The story of "Melancholia" is extremely simple and straightforward. Justine (Kirsten Dunst), who suffers from depression, ruins her wedding reception with Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) and is forced to divorce her husband. Having lost her husband and job, she decides to rest at the mansion of her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her husband John (Kiefer Sutherland). Eventually, it is discovered that the giant planet "Melancholia" is approaching Earth, and Claire and the others are horrified by the possibility of a collision, but Justin revives them...

The idea to have two sisters as the main characters was born from an exchange of letters with actress Penelope Cruz. She was a big fan of Trier and wrote a letter eager to star in his work, but the work she proposed to him, ``I would really like you to make into a movie,'' was the playwright Jean Genet's masterpiece ``The Maid''. '. The maid sisters Solange and Claire who appear in this play become the prototype for Claire and Justine in Melancholia.

However, the character of the main character, Justin, is a living copy of Lars von Trier himself. It is well known that he suffered from depression for a long time. Psychiatrist Tamaki Saito makes the following observation from an expert standpoint.

"Melancholia" (c)Photofest / Getty Images

``His well-known statement, ``Basically, everything in life is scary,'' is probably a reflection of his actual experience of true depression. It seems to be very similar to the so-called melancholic type of depression.'' (*3)

The ``melancholic type,'' proposed by German psychiatrist Hubertus Tellenbach, is generally defined as ``a type that is serious and has a strong sense of responsibility.'' Because they thoroughly avoid friction and place too much importance on others rather than themselves, they lose their mental balance and become depressed.

Trier has suffered from anxiety all his life. When I was little, every time I heard the sound of an airplane, I would tremble, thinking that World War III was about to break out. If such a person were to lead a large staff and cast as a film director, his depression could become more serious. He ends up undergoing a therapy session, and the words he hears from the therapist at that time become the motif for ``Melancholia.'' He says, ``When faced with a dire situation, people with depression tend to stay calmer than normal people.''

For Trier, these words must have been a revelation from God. In this way, the ultimate happy sad movie is born, in which ``souls are saved by the destruction of the earth.''

two lonely souls