Melancholia (2011)

Melancholia tells the story of two sisters, who meet each other again as one of them gets married in a castle. The family gathering is fraught, bringing up old scars, which the women have to navigate. All the while, a distant star turns out to be a planet (or, at least, a planet-sized metaphor) that threatens to destroy the world as it hurtles towards Earth.

This was perhaps Lars Von Trier's high water mark in mainstream cinema*, a visually spellbinding meditation on depression, loneliness and familial bonds that somehow manages to mix in apocalyptic elements. Kirsten Dunst gives probably her best ever performance in the lead, heading a cast that includes regular Von Trier players Charlotte Gainsbourg, John Hurt, Udo Kier and Stellan Skarsgard alongside his brother Alexander, Charlotte Rampling and Kiefer Sutherland. It also has one of the most beautiful movie posters ever, don't you think?

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzD0U841LRM

Tickets here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/close-up-cinema/e-kqezzg

This is showing at Shoreditch's classy Close-Up cinema, so let's meet at half seven for a pre-drink in Rain Dogs on Brick Lane, and then head in afterwards.

*He'd follow it up with Nymphomanic, which was filled with explicit sex and had to be edited down to four hours, and then The House That Jack Built, a film that manages to be both morally loathsome and crap at the same time. Neither is currently on the Alt/Cult viewing schedule.