Clip Analysis

Clip Analysis: Melancholia (von Trier, 2011)

The function of filming most of this scene handheld is to accentuate the fact that the end of the world is near. The shakiness of the image mostly reflects the inner thoughts of Claire, who is the main focus in the second part of the movie (the movie is split up in two parts, one that focuses on Justine and one that focuses on Claire). Interesting is that they used two shots in this scene with rough movements caused by filming handheld, and both of these shots centre around Justine. The reason why I find this interesting is because the movie is inspired by a depressive period of filmmaker Lars von Trier, in which he came up with a theory that depressive people are calmer during horrific events because they already expect the worst to happen. In this movie, Justine doesn’t fear death, however, by incorporating these two shots you could argue otherwise.