death is the only meaning

Nyasia 2022-04-23 07:01:54

Lars von Trier continued the aesthetic style of "The Antichrist". The star collision at the beginning and the slow-motion scenes of all beings under the apocalypse include Justin walking in the woods in a wedding dress, the vines under her feet entangled her legs, etc. The picture pulls people back to the Garden of Eden in "The Antichrist", and the exquisite dynamic destruction paintings exude a gloomy atmosphere. Interestingly, the extreme, marginal, sensitive, neurotic, and abnormal female characters in Feng Zi's films have changed from one to two in this film, and they each share the burden of the protagonist in the first half and the second half. , this kind of role assignment and intertext is very interesting.

The protagonist of the first half is Justin, who has fallen into a melancholy state at her own wedding, and the only one who really understands her is her sister Claire. However, the state of depression is uncontrollable, and no amount of counseling and comfort is a drop in the bucket. Justin and her husband are two hours late for their wedding, followed by an embarrassingly awkward wedding speech between a romantic father and a cold, mean mother. And Justin's boss brought work tasks into the wedding, and asked a new male employee of the company to follow Justin all the time to capture fleeting inspiration. The wealthy brother-in-law reminded her that the wedding cost a lot of money and not to be too headstrong. Her husband was gentle and considerate, but he couldn't get into her heart after all and couldn't understand her melancholy. In the end, she messed up the wedding, she scolded her boss, got a new employee in the company, and her husband left him. In what should have been a romantic and happy wedding, she was melancholy, neurotic, and self-willed. Perhaps the wedding was just an insignificant performance in her eyes. Her older sister Claire, on the other hand, is a sensible, decent person who knows the big picture. She observes the situation and organizes the wedding well, because she seems to be the only reasonable and normal person in the family.

In the second half, the protagonist became her sister Claire, and the status of the two sisters changed drastically. Claire let her sister Justin live in her own home to take care of each other, but at this time, Claire fell into anxiety, fear, and gradually became sensitive and neurotic because she was worried that the "Melancholy Star" would hit the earth and bring about the end of the world. This fear of death carries a maternal instinct, and she can't accept the death of her young son in a disaster. At the same time, her sister Justin has become rational and calm. She is no longer at a loss, no longer anxious, no longer sad. The arrival of the doomsday is a relief for her, and it is the "leaving" she has always dared to think about. . She would even lie naked under the night sky and look at the "Melancholy Star" in the sky with a satisfied expression, as if she was having a relationship with the "Melancholic Star". She told Claire that all life on earth is evil, and evil has always been the theme in Feng Zi's films. This time, he intends to use doomsday to destroy all evil. In the final collision of the stars, the calm Justin and the manic Claire are in stark contrast, everyone will face death, the fear of death makes everyone keen to find out the meaning of life, when you take the initiative to eliminate the meaning of life, you also No longer fear of death, or, death is the only meaning.

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Extended Reading

Melancholia quotes

  • [crying into her meatloaf]

    Justine: It tastes like ashes!

  • Justine: I smile, and I smile, and I smile.