04.28.11
Lars Von Trier's
MELANCHOLIA will
compete for the Palme d'Or at the 64th Cannes Film Festival next month
and will be released in the UK on September 30th. Recently, the director
was interviewed by Empire magazine and offered these comments on his
psychological drama: "As you can see in the trailer, Melancholia, which
is the name of the planet, is ten times bigger than the Earth, and I
liked the idea of being ‘swallowed’ by Melancholia. I thought that was
quite nice. And then I read that it's actually one of the virtues of
romanticism – willingly being purified by dying. In fact, the film
contains maybe more of the original idea of romanticism. I’m just saying
that with a lot of films today, their interpretation of romanticism is…
quite boring, I think.”
Few details are known about the
story aside from Von Trier’s announcement that there will be “no more
happy endings!” Cheating the audience of any apocalyptic suspense to the
proceedings, "Melancholia" reportedly starts with the destruction of the
world only to work backwards and show characters on the eve of their
inevitable demise. Said to be a cold war fears revision of the
filmmakers’ own childhood anxieties, this bleak entry into the doomsday
canon is sure to be as uncompromising as his previous film,
"Antichrist". We do know that the film centers on a wedding
between Justine (Kirsten
Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Skarsgård)
and during the celebration, the
guests notice a red star
which turns out to be the planet Melancholia, previously hiding
behind the sun. Justine and her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg)
then begin to wonder what will happen when the world comes to an end.
The images released are mainly of
Kirsten Dunst but watching the trailer gives you a stronger sense of the
film though Dunst seems unintelligible as she mumbles through her lines.
Perhaps it's just the poor quality of the online trailer. Let's
hope....
Check out a
new
music video, directed by Tarik Saleh, with Swedish singer Lykke
Li and Stellan! The seven-minute video for "Sadness is a Blessing"
features the singer as a daughter who drunkenly embarrasses her father.
The opus, which begins in silence with Lykke Li slinging back shots
while a somber Stellan and an uncomfortable restaurant crowd looks
on. After getting properly soused, Lykke Li begins to dance around this
European formal dining establishment in a diaphanous white frock before
her father delicately intervenes. Although Stellan's character could be
construed as a much-older love, Li cleared up any ambiquity writing in
her blog, "Father, I know I broke your heart, it was never my intention,
all I ever wanted was to dance." This was not the first time our Swede
appeared in a music video. Some of you may recall that in 1991 he was featured in a
music video with Swedish
singer Eva Dahlgreen.
The
Film Society of Lincoln Center presented "The Far Side of Paradise: New
Films from Norway" last night. The opening film was
KONGEN AV BASTØY
(aka King of Devil's Island) with both director Marius Holst
and Stellan attending a Q&A session following the screening. Film
Movement has just nabbed the North American distribution rights with
plans to release the film theatrically. "We couldn't be more delighted
to continue supporting the fresh and diverse cinema from (Norway)," Film
Movement VP of acquisitions and distribution Rebeca Cognet said in a
statement. "Stellan Skarsgard's acting is as powerful as ever, but the
real treat is the ferociously raw performances by the mostly
non-professional teens."
04.06.11:
During
the Kosmorama International Film Festival this week, the Norwegian film
industry announced their Kanon Awards. Stellan received a Kanon in the
Best Actor category for A SOMEWHAT GENTLE
MAN. He also scooped up an Amanda - Norway's national film prize
for his performance. In the photos below Stellan is seen kissing his
director's wife, Maria Sødahl, because Hans Petter Moland's spouse
happens to be a film artist and was honored for Best Original Screenplay
and Best Director for her feature debut, "Limbo". Best Cinematography
was awarded to Stellan's other Norwegian film,
KONGEN AV BASTØY
(aka King of Devil's Island).
03.05.11:
Stellan
has joined the cast of the Marvel Studios film, THE AVENGERS. The
superhero blockbuster is currently in pre-production with shooting
beginning April 1st through late July. It will be directed by Joss
Whedon with a script by Zak Penn. The cast includes Chris Hemsworth
reprising his role as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow, Chris
Evans as Captain America, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Robert Downey, Jr.
as Iron Man, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce
Banner and Stellan as Professor Erik Selvig. The highly anticipated
movie will be released on May 4, 2012. The photo above shows most of the
cast at Comic-Con last July.
The
Wagner/Cuban Company’s Magnolia Pictures has announced that they have
pre-bought North American rights to
MELANCHOLIA,
the eagerly awaited new film from legendary filmmaker and provocateur
Lars Von Trier. According to Cineuropa, the
film will show at the 64th Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22, 2011).
The photo to the right was taken on February 7th when Stellan was at the
Chateau Marmont in LA. Apparently Alexander and girlfriend Kate Bosworth
had just taken off and a fan quickly got Stellan to pose for a snapshot.
02.16.11:
Magnolia
Pictures has picked up the North American distribution rights to Lars
Von Trier's upcoming movie
MELANCHOLIA
in a seven-figure deal with Trust Nordisk. The
rights were bought as the film by the Danish director is still in
post-production. Besides Stellan, the cast
includes Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland,
Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Alexander Skarsgard, and Udo Kier. A promo for the film was
shown this weekend in Berlin, and Twitch.net reported the following: "In short, it is
gorgeous – instantly recognizable as Von Trier’s work and very likely
the most commercial iteration of his talent that we have seen yet. This
in no way implies that he has dumbed things down, just that the wild
transgressions of Antichrist are not present here – where they would be
entirely inappropriate – and that the imagery is so beautiful that this
is a film that you could clearly cut one hell of a trailer for…Though
firmly grounded in reality there are a lot of special effects in this
and they are integrated seamlessly, shots of static electricity arcing
off skin and dead birds falling from the sky in super slow motion being
particularly effective."
Von Trier has already
revealed that some of the most explosive moments in the film,
the physical ones, at least, come right
at the beginning. He explains, "In
‘Melancholia’ I start with the end. Because what is interesting is not
what happens but how it happens! So we begin by seeing the world being
crushed, then we can tell the story afterwards… In this way you don’t
have to sit and form theories about what will happen, but can delve down
into some other levels and become interested in the pictures and the
universe – that’s what I imagine."
02.10.11:
February 7th turned out to be a
family affair for some of the Skarsgård
men. Pictured below is Stellan with his two oldest sons, Alexander and
Gustaf, at the Audi's award season party for "The King's Speech." The
event was held at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles.
02.03.11:
I've added an
interview which took place
during the Rotterdam Film Festival, which screened Stellan's latest
film,
KONGEN AV BASTØY
(aka King of Devil's Island/King of Bastøy). After his Dutch
visit, he was returning to Sweden to continue shooting "The Girl with a
Dragon Tattoo" with David Fincher. Stellan describes the director as
"not at all anal. He just wants to try different things, which is great
for an actor." However, the shoot has been longer than expected. Stellan
reports, "Originally I was scheduled to end in
April. Then it got pushed to May, then June, then July
– and now they’re calling to ask me if I’m free in August!”