Review of Melancholia

A visually impressive but self-important film in which discomfiting (even excruciatingly bitter) interactions, neuroses and apocalyptic anxiety are bathed in romanticised visuals and music. Drawing it would seem on Trier's own experience of depression and on Kubrick and Tarkovsky for prophetic depth, the film grates more than it enlightens, and feels like a misanthropist's revenge. Charlotte Gainsbourg deserved much better.