MELANCHOLIA @ CSL

Fellow Film Club Members & Movie Buffs:

The Producer’s theme for November is:

“Struggling with a Plan.”

Well, here we are deep in Autumn, as November & the Holidays are soon upon  us. It has been raining enough lately that we are already missing the onerous heat of our long hot summer. Get out of the rain this Friday, November 7, 2014, & join the Tacoma Film Club at CSL for a screening of a newer film by Lars Von Trier, MELANCHOLIA (2011). 

Lars Von Trier is the innovative, but controversial Danish director who helped form DOGME 95, with several other directors in Europe, whereby they have to make films within specific guidelines–such as only using HH cameras (but never a steadi-cam), & can only shoot on location. At Cannes in 2011, Kirsten Dunst won a Best Actress award, & MELANCHOLIA was nominated for the Palm d’Or–but during a press conference he told the reporters that he just recently discovered that his real father was German, & that would make him more in tune artistically with the Nazis, & that he felt Adolf Hitler was a sympathetic leader who had been misunderstood. It may have been his dark humor, but the officials at Cannes censured him, declared him a persona non grata; something they had never done with anyone else before or since.

 

Von Trier has directed 35 films (the first 10 were Shorts) since 1967, including EUROPA (1991), BREAKING THE WAVES (1996), THE KINGDOM (1997, DANCER IN THE DARK (2000), DOGVILLE (2003), THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS (2003), & ANTI-CHRIST (2009). 

Lars Von Trier has said:

“A good film should be like a rock in your shoe.”

“Everything is going to hell, but we should smile all the time.”

MELANCHOLIA (2011)

Written & Directed by Lars Van Trier @ 130 minutes.

The film stars Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsborg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgard, Stellan Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, & Udo Kier.

Synopsis:  A young woman’s extravagant wedding is complicated by her rocky relationship with her sister, who is paying for it, & overshadowed by a rogue blue planet that is on a collision course with earth.

Tagline:  It will change everything.

The cinematography was done by Manuel Alberto Claro, who has lensed 48 films since 2001, including DARK HORSE (2005), WEAPONS (2007), LIMBO (2010), & NYMPHOMANIC I & II (2013).

TRIVIA:  MELANCHOLIA (2011), is part Two of his DEPRESSION trilogy, with ANTI-CHRIST (2009), & NYMPHOMANIC (2013). Penelope Cruz was slated to play the lead in this film, but she dropped out for bigger money in the last PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. Von Triers cites Jean Genet’s play, THE MAIDS, as a source for certain elements of this film. Von Trier has never been to the United States. At one point he left his pregnant wife, & moved in with his much younger babysitter.

Rotten Tomatoes has rated the film at  78% Critic’s Approval, & at 67% Audience’s Approval.

Bill Goodykoontz of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC wrote: “This film is a  hauntingly beautiful meditation on depression that is likely to exasperate as many people as it moves.”

So mark your calendars for this Friday, November 7, 2014, & join the Tacoma Film Club for their screening of Lars Von Trier’s MELANCHOLIA (2011). It will screen at the Center for Spiritual Living (CSL), the church building we rent for our events, which is located at 206 North J. Street, on the corner of Division & J Streets, across the Group Health Specialty Center.

Doors open at 6:15 p.m., so come early & join many of us downstairs in the newly remodeled kitchen area for fun, fellowship, & food. It is permitted & appreciated for folks to bring snacks & beverages, including wine or beer, to share with others. Be sure to clean up after yourselves before coming upstairs to watch the movie on the Club’s new equipment.

Remember that no food or drink is allowed in the sanctuary upstairs. There is a Donation Box by the front doors, & all funds collected go to assist the Club in paying for the rent of the space, licensing for screening, & other expenses. MELANCHOLIA will screen at 7:15 p.m. immediately following a few words from the Club Director, & the Host for the evening, who will introduce the movie. This film runs 130 minutes, so it should be finished by 9:40 p.m. See you at the movies!

Glenn

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