Dunst gives the performance of a lifetime in the bleak new film. She talks to Richard Rushfield about the role, and how controversial director Lars von Trier can be "a little pervy."
The first half of Melancholia, the new film by controversial Danish director Lars von Trier depicts the saddest wedding in the world, a weekend in the country where all attempts at joyfulness are suffocated by a heavy cloud of gloom, largely emanating from the bride, played by Kirsten Dunst. In the second half, Dunst's character rejoices as a planet approaches to destroy Earth and everyone on it.
If the film itself is a bit dark, its publicity campaign has been even edgier—accidentally. The worldwide tour started out with director Von Trier being ejected from the Cannes Film Festival after jesting about having positive feelings for Nazis.
Despite this backdrop, Kirsten Dunst radiates excitement when she comes to talk about Melancholia. And why shouldn't she? Difficult though Melancholia may be, it is in the minds of many the most interesting film to come along in years, one certain to top many end-of-the-year Best Of lists. Nearly every frame of the film is built around Dunst's character, Justine, the saddest bride in history. It is the sort of part an actress dreams of, and Dunst gives what is clearly the performance of her career, creating a human puzzle that viewers will be trying to solve for years.
So despite the bumps in the road, and despite the deeply depressing film, Dunst's exuberance overflows as she talks about the film while sipping lemonade on the sunny patio of West Hollywood's Tower Bar. "This sort of part is just a rarity," she said. "These auteurs who write and direct don't make that many films, and when they do it usually is built around a male part. It's so rarely around a female part."
Dunst, 29, has already had a very long career since she first caught the public eye at age 12 in Interview With the Vampire. But despite working with many of Hollywood's great directors, she has hovered just off the margins. Other than in the Spider-Man movies, her roles have always been too indie (the great Dick), or the films have just missed (Elizabethtown, Wimbledon). She has never turned in anything less than a very solid performance, she was never less than memorable, but hadn't yet found that one role that closes the door for all time on questions of how good an actress is.
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