Melancholia by name and absolutely melancholic by nature, the film is a beautiful examination of depression and of that one fate that befalls us all, death. While it is true to say that this is Lars Von Trier's disaster movie this is as far from a Roland Emmerich film as you are going to get. Melancholia opens with nearly 8 minutes of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde Prelude playing over highly stylised slow-motion shots based on famous art and still photography, cutting between shots of the films main players in striking poses and the planet Melancholia's collision with Earth from the vantage point of space.
