28/07/2010

To mark the beginning of production of his new film Melancholia, Danish director Lars von Trier met with the local press on Monday. Sitting in front of a packed gathering at Film i Väst’s Trollhättan studios in Western Sweden, where von Trier is shooting for the fourth time, the director and his stellar cast – father and son Alexander and Stellan Skarsgård, Kiefer Sutherland, Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg – remained very discreet about the film’s plot.

“There is a wedding and melancholia, but I don’t want to say any more than that,” offered von Trier in his usual monosyllabic and enigmatic way. Revealing little more than the fact that Alexander Skarsgård will marry Dunst and their union will end dramatically only a few days after the ceremony.

However, US actor Sutherland added that Melancholia will have a “brutal honesty”, which he particularly likes in the director’s films. He also said that he loved “filming ‘live’, without any rehearsals”, a first-time experience in his career. Dunst, who plays Gainsbourg’s sister, described Melancholia as a “poetic film”.

The psychological disaster movie started shooting on July 22 and filming will last until September 8. The film will be delivered for next year’s Cannes Film Festival, where the iconic Danish filmmaker’s work has won numerous awards in the past, including Best Actress for Gainsbourg in 2009’s controversial Antichrist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lars von Trier
film profile].

Melancholia is produced by Denmark’s Zentropa in co-production with Sweden (Memfis Film), France (Slot Machine) and Germany (Zentropa International Köln).

TrustNordisk has already pre-sold the film to over 20 territories, including Italy (BIM), Germany and Austria Concorde) and Switzerland (Frenetic).