Melancholia Film Breakdown

Continuity: Tjolöholm Castle in Sweden is the location where the Melancholia was filmed. The exterior of the castle and its grounds is where Melancholia made for the perfect its eerie outdoor scenes of the movie. The main sequence of Melancholia drastically differs from its opening sequence. Instead of  providing static, long-shot picturesque scenes, the camera is always pushing aggressively into the faces of its subjects. Everything is close ups and intimate. The camera is handheld, and it constantly shaken around, like atypical handheld film. Never once staying still and never steadying itself, but instead continually filled with motion. Whether it be via swish pans, readjustments of focus, pov shoots, etc.  

Depth:

Light: Being a film focused on depression, it is no surprise that Melancholia utilizes a lot of cold lighting. Majority of the movie is characterized by cold, blue undertones. For example, in the scenes where Justine is moping around her sister’s house, are lit with cold, blue undertones. Eventually, as the inevitable collision with Melancholia becomes clear to Claire, she is lit with cold lighting as well. In the final scene where Justine, Claire, and Leo are sitting in the ‘Magic Cave’ awaiting collision, close-ups of Justine are heavily saturated in blue, and as Melancholia approaches, the entire scene is drenched in the ‍same blue light‍ing. Meanwhile, the opening scene with Justine and Michael in the limousine uses much warmer lighting. This appears to be the only happy scene in the entire film. The lighting immediately changes to a cold blue tone the moment they step out the car. While most wedding scenes are set with happy and bright lighting. Justine’s wedding is full of extremely dim tones and shadows. It’s important to note that during the wedding banquet, the room is lit with a warm yellow glow, but ‍Justine’s mother and Claire are both dressed in blue. This could hint at hidden feelings of depression or sadness they hold.

Movement: The movement surrounding the space scene in the opening sequence is one full on tension and unexpectedness. The first time space is shown during the opening sequence, there is a blue planet, seemingly Earth, with a red dot to its right. The red point turns out to be planet Melancholia, which is hurtling toward Earth on an collision course. The next space shot, is one of a half-obscured Earth moving away from the much smaller, yet equally obscured Melancholia. Earth appears to be trying to escape the imminent collision. In the third opening space shot, Earth and Melancholia move toward each other and touch as delicately as if they were kissing. In the last space shot, and final image in the prelude, Melancholia moves from left to right toward Earth, which pulls the smaller globe closer with translucent rays as if in an apocalyptic embrace. Alongside nature scenes, the animals involved in the film have movement of their own. Much different from how the human subjects of the film move about. In the scenes depicting Abraham, Justine’s favorite horse, they seeming to be oozing with fear. For example, one of the long picturesque scene from the opening sequence is of Abraham saddled falling back on its hind legs, is a uneasy slow motion, seemingly filled with fear and no longer able to stand after an attack. Later on in the film, Justine can be witnessed viciously kicking and beating Abraham with a crop when he refuses to cross a bridge separating the estate from the outside world. Again, Abraham is reduced to only fear for what he has done wrong.

Sound: During this entire 8 min opening sequence, Wagner’s Prelude to Tristan plays. Together, music and images create an odd sort of churning suspension. There is no sense of peace, everything feels unstable and on edge. The Prelude to Tristan is not just played in the Prologue. It returns, again and again, throughout the film. And each time that we hear the Prelude, it starts from the very beginning. And indeed, every time the Prelude repeats, the audience is never given the second half of the piece, which it is supposed to conclude. That is to say, we get a continuous build up of tension, but we never get any form of resolution.

Framing:

Leave a Reply

Skip to toolbar