10 Overly Pretentious Movies We Should've Walked Out Of

3. Melancholia

From its startling slow motion opening sequence, complete with music from the prelude of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, it's immediately clear that Melancholia, Lars Von Triers's 2011 movie starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Alexander Skarsgård, considers itself as a weighty and significant movie. Admittedly, the same could be said for most of Von Triers's filmography, a director who never shies away from controversy and experimentation. As the title clearly suggests, this is a film about depression both personal and universal. Newly weds Justine and Michael (Dunst and Skarsgård) arrive at a sumptuous stately home in the countryside along with numerous guests including Justine's sister Claire (Gainsbourg). As Justine sinks further and further into irreconcilable depression, the rogue planet known as Melancholia approaches Earth, a head-on collision seemingly imminent. That the film emerged from therapy sessions Von Triers underwent to deal with his own depression isn't of itself a cause for criticism - with a tendency towards the upbeat in cinema in general, movies which tackle uncomfortable negative emotions are often a welcome breath of fresh air. That said, conflating the emotional breakdown of a character with the apocalyptic destruction of the planet is clearly heavy-handed, and a rare, exceptional performance from Kirsten Dunst isn't enough to salvage Melancholia from being oppressively pessimistic.