I always wondered about those people who believed that the Rapture was coming, in 2012 and in past years. They gathered, fearfully and eagerly anticipating the end of times. When that moment came and went, and it became clear that nothing would happen, were they relieved to be alive, or disappointed to have been wrong?

You might be perplexed, or even frustrated, by the heavy, slow prologue, set melodramatically to Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” in MELANCHOLIA. But stay with it. Amid the slow, strange images, we see a large blue planet in a coy waltz with Earth. Approaching a kiss, or a totentanz? That planet is Melancholia, and it is supposed to near Earth and pass by, creating nothing but a beautiful show, according to the scientific authorities. Von Trier essentially tells us what will happen in the film’s first few minutes, but as the film progresses, we wonder if we can trust these images. Perhaps they are imagined scenes, or moments from a nightmare.

The film begins at the wedding of Justine (Kirsten Dunst), a dysfunctional gathering in luminous detail. As the decadent festivities progress, Justine unravels, surrendering to her own private melancholia. The film’s focus is clearly on the bodies and faces of Justine and her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), as others flicker in and out of focus, and say little of import. Many odd, impersonal guests are there. There is no linear narrative, really, just strange dialogue and pieces missing from each story. Everyone is going through the motions of a party, the rituals of marital love, the norms of how people in a society behave (even if on the brink of elimination)

Some time later, Justine is in a collapsed state, arriving at Claire and brother-in-law John’s manor not long before Melancholia is predicted to pass by Earth. There, they settle down to watch the skies. Because the build-up, and the motion of the swirling blue planet itself are so slow, it is hard to be afraid. It’s not a close sense of impending doom from which von Trier draws his horror, but rather, the unknown. What if it doesn’t happen the way they say it will? What might happen instead? It is not a sci-fi apocalyptic-action film, so there is none of the nightly news, phone calls, and looting and rioting that might be found in other filmic handlings of this premise.

The real action is the buildup of dread, and von Trier wants it that way, creating an absorbing, breathtaking trap of all-encompassing angst. Each character, once made aware of the inevitable, has a different reaction. Justine, who transforms out of limp and painful depressive paralysis seems like the birds and horses around her, to sense that something is coming, and accepts it with a resigned stoicism and clarity. John’s blind faith in science and his own importance keeps him optimistic until his telescope shows him what he can no longer deny. Claire’s reaction is the strongest — a pervasive dread and sickness that makes her panicked, irrational, grief-stricken not for herself but for the stolen future of her child.

“Life on earth is evil,” Justine says, as justification for accepting its demise. We don’t see much of this life — just a strange, small group on a lavish estate, in two acts. The gentleness of Claire, played to striking effect by Gainsbourg, and the eerie clarity of Justine form a triangle with the protected innocence of Claire and John’s young son, an important image for the film’s climax.

I couldn’t help but imagine von Trier gleefully rubbing his hands together as the ending came together. The audience filtered out slowly, some looking utterly drained, others bemused. You’ll be staggered, shaken, perhaps considering how you yourself might react to the world’s end. And you will get to file quietly through the dimly lit halls of the museum after hours.

MELANCHOLIA (2011) dir. Lars von Trier [135 min] @MFA- Remis Auditorium, 161

Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 7:00 pm

$9- MFA members, seniors, and students
$11-Nonmembers

Part of ongoing film series: The Films of Lars von Trier (February 1-23, 2014)