50 Essential Sci-Fi Films of the 21st Century (So Far)

Lars von Trier has spent his career mixing depression with drink and drugs, to frequently disturbing results, and his only sci-fi film to date, Melancholia, is as true an example of this methodology - and the themes it evokes - as any other entry in the director’s filmography.

A quiet and crushing apocalypse takes place around the house and grounds of a wealthy family’s estate, as Justine (Kirsten Dunst) languishes in the ruins of her failed marriage, in the company of her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), Claire’s husband, and their son. Meanwhile, the rogue planet Melancholia enters their skies, set to pass close by Earth, before either moving out of its orbit or coming back around to collide head-on and end humanity.

The effects of the planet’s proximity are mesmerising, and sometimes literally electric. And thanks to the heavily aestheticised staging, lensing, and editing of many of von Trier’s scenes, we can never be sure whether some of these effects are the planet’s doing or a product of Justine’s mental state as she declines.

Over two hours of stale misery are punctuated with flurries of action as people argue, kill themselves, and take tentative steps towards insanity, all culminating in the most gorgeous end of the world ever created for the big screen. Yes, Melancholia is an extended metaphor for depression, but it’s so often so much more than that.