Sightlines · reception
How Melancholia was received
2011 · Lars von Trier · Melancholia on Sightlines
The arc
At Cannes 2011 the film itself was nearly swallowed by von Trier's disastrous press-conference Nazi joke, which got him declared persona non grata — yet Kirsten Dunst still won Best Actress. A decade on, the scandal has faded and the film hasn't: it's routinely ranked among the greatest films of the 2010s.
What’s debated
The perennial fight: is this the most truthful depiction of depression ever put on screen, or von Trier at his most self-indulgent — and can you separate the film from its provocateur director?
Its footprint
The Wagner-scored prologue — Dunst floating in her wedding dress, the planet swallowing Earth — is one of the most referenced image sets of the decade, and 'depression as an approaching planet' has become shorthand far beyond cinephile circles.
Where it stands
A Letterboxd giant and the crown jewel of 'sad girl cinema' — the von Trier film even people who hate von Trier tend to concede is a masterpiece.
Did you know? Penélope Cruz was originally set to play Justine but dropped out, and von Trier recast the role with Kirsten Dunst — who then won Best Actress at Cannes the same week the festival banned her director.