Saturday, December 10, 2011

Art in Melancholia



Has anyone else seen the new Lars von Trier film Melancholia? The film itself is an amazing (albeit, depressing) work of art, but there are many scenes where we catch glimpses of art we've studied in class, or artists we've studied. In the movie, Kirsten Dunst's character secludes herself in a room which isa sort of art book library.
In one of these scenes she rearranges some openly displayed books. Some of the art we get to see includes:

Pieter Breugal's The Land of Cockaigne





Klimt's The Kiss


In addition to placing art in the film, von Trier also draws inspiration from art. A prime example of this is the image of Justine (Kirsten Dunst's character) floating down a stream with a bouquet of flowers. Somebody else caught this reference as well and wrote a blog about. Click here to check it out!

I think it's really interesting that there seem to be a lot of references to centuries old art in recent films. Someone else posted about art being referenced in the new Twilight movie and in The Skin I Live In, and now Melancholia, and these are all films that were released this year.

-Alexandra Martinez



3 comments:

  1. I saw this film yesterday! It was really well done and so visually stunning!

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  2. I saw the film when it was on HDNet Movie Channel on November 9, 2011. (Hehe. I didn't have to pay anything.) It definitely wasn't a Hollywood way of dealing with the end of the world (think Bruce Willis in 'Armageddon'). So while the ending was (spoiler alert) not a happy one, at least it wasn't cheesy.

    It is cool filmmakers are still inspired by centuries old art and put it into their films. The classics never really die out.

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  3. Anyone interested in other von Trier films, you should check out Dogville and AntiChrist...Not only are his films beautifully made there are very dark and haunting!

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