10 Brilliant Films That Were Intentionally Boring

Quite too much has been made in recent years of Lars von Trier’s stature as a controversial filmmaker. Tear away the oddball image the director has fashioned for himself, and what you get with his visually-appealing film Melancholia is a serene, meditative take on a familiar end-of-the-world scenario, given a wholly unfamiliar and totally disarming treatment to grand effect.

As the title suggests, this is a film about depression, both personal and universal. Newly weds Justine and Michael (played by Kirsten Dunst and Alexander Skarsgård) arrive at a sumptuous stately home in the countryside along with numerous guests including Justine’s sister Claire (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg). As Justine sinks further and further into irreconcilable depression, a rogue planet known as Melancholia approaches Earth, a head-on collision seemingly imminent.

Understated and deliberate almost to a fault, Melancholia has been described as terminally long and dull. A lot of people will hate Trier’s ambitious work for all the reasons it's not like other sci-fi films or traditional dramatic films - and others will love it for its difference.