Melancholia, Lars von Trier’s latest, will be playing Cannes this year and other than the cast and a very basic plot and von Trier‘s declaration of “no more happy endings,” not a lot has been known about it. And when you’re dealing with a director like von Trier, what you don’t know can…well, it won’t kill you but it certainly won’t be pleasant.
We showed you the trailer last week and while it gave a better impression of the type of work we could expect from Dunst and an overall aesthetic direction from the man himself, still, there hasn’t been a whole lot bandied about. Until now…sorta.
CHUD’s good friend Russ Fischer over at /Film has brought us a few snippets from an interview between Empire Magazine and von Trier where the director offered up a few scant details, which are below.
“As you can see in the trailer, Melancholia, [which is the name of] 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.”
He also has a few words to say about Dunst, who – aside from what appears to be rather tasteful nudity – apparently didn’t have it nearly as rough as some of her female predecessors: “I think that Kirsten got off FAR too easy. FAR too easy. She was not dragged through any masturbation. She had a very smooth ride, I would say. But she did an extremely good job.”
Empire touts that the full interview (scheduled to run in an upcoming issue) will have more details on the film and some information on von Trier’s followup to Melancholia. Will it be The Nymphomaniac (which was almost titled Dirt in Bedsores?) We’ll find out, and we’ll let you know.