10 Directors Who Started Movies The Same Way
4. An Ultra-Slow Motion Depiction Of A Traumatic Event - Lars Von Trier
If you thought Zack Snyder had cornered the market on unforgettable slow-motion opening montages, think again.
The first two entries into Lars von Trier's "Depression trilogy," Antichrist and Melancholia, both kick off with gorgeous-yet-devastating opening sequences set to classical music.
Antichrist's opening is a monochrome, ultra-slow-mo depiction of the night that a couple's (Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) son fell to his death from their apartment window while they were having sex, set to the classic opera piece "Lascia ch'io pianga."
Melancholia, meanwhile, is a surreal, slow-motion tableau of the movie's primary themes and images, culminating in the collision of Earth with rogue planet Melancholia, annihilating all life on Earth, scored to the prelude to Richard Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde."
Both montages ride on a firm wave of depressive energy - Antichrist covers the event which causes the depression in the central characters, while Melancholia encapsulates a woman (Kirsten Dunst) in the midst of crippling depression, ready to accept her fate.
Even if you don't vibe personally with von Trier's work, these montages are beautiful mini-masterpieces all by themselves.