I found the latest film by Lars von Trier so visually stimulating, the topics so intriguing that after watching the movie I looked for movie reviews, if only to re-live it another way.
The articles appeared vague and confusing as if the topic of depression was too depressing to review. And then I tripped over a 'review' written by a Catholic in a weekly magazine called America. It's a lovely read as he avoids applying religious doctrine for much of the piece, ironically making it seem more 'christian' in both feeling and compassion. Refreshing in this random, violent world, filled to the brim with judgment.
"And so the point of my point: If we cannot understand what drives and burdens and enlivens remarkable individuals around us who care so deeply about things we know and feel only in a vague way, Melancholia might be a reminder that some day, perhaps soon, we will suddenly see what this sense of justice or compassion or imagination is all about. Something will happen to us as individuals, or to the world. In the meantime, we would do well to watch and withhold judgment: it is the ordinary way of living that is the illusion; reality is what shines in the eyes of the sorrowing or ecstatic or wrathful person on the margins of our vision. And so, as Advent begins, we can at least keep our eyes open, and listen."
