Finally, finally being distributed stateside! It needs to be said though, with delays between the premier of films of this caliber in international festivals (Cannes in May, Venice in Sept) and the three, four, six months between then and hitting the screen, it does nothing but fuel the already distribution-compromising online bootlegging/torrent culture. To cite an example that contrasts this trend, Terrance Malick's "Tree of Life" was premiered at Cannes, and prints already made and in a complete edit, prepared before it's premier, were being distributed and the film was on-screen within a month. That said, very excited for the new Von Trier. For all his ill-conceived misbehaving at Cannes this year (that sadly overshadowed the press on his film), the reviews of "Melancholia" have made it out to look his best in a very, very long time.
Check J. Hoberman's review from Cannes for the Village Voice with the headline of 'Wow' along with Nicolas Rapold's review from the NYFF in the most recent Film Comment which depicts it to be the mapping of one persons life-destroying personal depression projected on a global scale as world-destroying inevitable cataclysm - successfully! A grand Von Trier style melodrama that hits all the right notes and delivers again on the blending of dark miserablism, immense scale and the absurd that Lars has been missing from much of his recent work. Lastly, but not least-lauded, Amy Taubin rated it the best drama seen at all of Cannes for Film Comment, for her, even surpassing the aforementioned Palme d'Or winning "Tree of Life". So where the Malick was a grandiose existential inquiry into the Cosmos' cyclical designs of Light, Time, Beauty, Rebirth and Destruction - the Von Trier is more a gorgeous, fatalist, Cosmic melodrama about wish-fulfillment, Moon-bathing, Lunacy (literally) and Doom. Curious to see some of the most notable names in film criticism finding their passions more stoked by the latter. Can't wait!
Link to official Magnolia Pictures "Melancholia" site
Link to Landmark Theatres "Melancholia" site
