PNC, Library to Host “Melancholia” Film Screenings

Public showings of the film "Melancholia" will be offered through a collaboration of the Purdue University North Central Odyssey 2011- 2012 Arts and Cultural Events Series and the Michigan City Public Library. The showings are free and open to the public.

It will be shown Sunday, March 18 at 2 p.m. at the Michigan City Public Library, 100 E. Fourth St., Michigan City and Thursday, March 22 at 5 p.m. in the PNC Library-Student-Faculty Building Assembly Hall, Room 02. The film is rated R.

"Melancholia" opens with images shot from above the Earth that depict a giant planet approaching. It appears that the Earth is about to be destroyed. The "New York Times" describes this opening scene of the Lars von Trier film as being "rendered in surprisingly lovely digital effects."

"Melancholia" the film takes its name from the planet that is shown streaming toward Earth. It also is the name of an emotional disorder that Freud termed as "profoundly painful dejection, loss of the capacity to love . . . that culminates in the expectation of punishment."

The expectation of punishment and suffering are standards in Lars von Trier films. Still, "The Times" notes that while "Melancholia" is not a feel-good movie, it does leave a "glow of aesthetic satisfaction."

Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars. He noted that the film is divided into halves entitled "Justine" and "Claire." Justine is a bride featured in the film and Claire is her sister.

Justine first sees this new planet as a bright evening star. As time goes on, it grows larger until it consumes the sky. The characters are shown going about their lives.

Ebert describes von Trier's pattern of creating films where "impending doom seems to have created a mental state of dazed attachment. . . von Trier has never made a more realistic domestic drama, depicting a family that is dysfunctional not in crazy ways but in ways showing a defiant streak of intelligent individualism."