LVT's Melancholia: What does it mean to deserve less than nothing?
This essay is the first in Angelicism01's "For Angelicism" Series
In Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, there’s a pivotal scene where Justine quits her job. It’s Justine’s wedding night, and her boss, Jack, has been hounding her throughout the celebration, trying to get her to come up with a tagline. Over a bowl of onion soup, he pesters her, once again, about the tagline, and she responds, “I had nothing at dinner… Then, surprisingly, I arrived right back where I started from- at nothing.” Then Justine declares, “Nothing is too much for you, Jack,” and storms off, not caring in the slightest that she has just lost her new position as the firm’s Art Director.
Von Trier, no doubt, chose the name ‘Jack’ in reference to his other movie The House That Jack Built- and that Jack, a serial-killer, was inevitably a reference to Jack the Ripper. For Von Trier, the ‘Jack’ archetype represents a totally depraved man with no redeeming qualities. Jack, along with the other insufferable male characters in Melancholia, is not willing to accept Nothing as the answer; Therefore, they all get what they deserve- which is Less Than Nothing.
When Claire’s husband realizes that his calculations are wrong and that the planet Melancholia will, in fact, crash into the earth, he cannot look Nothingness in its face, and so, he makes a cowardly exit, killing himself by overdosing on pills. By enacting such a feminine suicide, he not only emasculates himself, but becomes less-than-nothing.
Only the women can stare into the face of nothingness, as the planet looms closer. And only Justine is able to resign herself, fully, to the impending nothingness. She not only accepts it, but luxuriates in it. At times, she even manages to sexualize Nothing. On that final night, Justine basks naked in the moonlight, appearing electrified, turned on by the end of the world.
Before that, on her wedding night, Justine fucks her co-worker out on the golf-course- Thus, ending her marriage before it began. Though we only see the sex from a distance, it appears that Justine is coldy, almost mechanically, forcing herself on top of him. It almost looks like rape.
Why does Justine go into a sexual frenzy at the end of time? Maybe because sex finally means nothing. Sex, outside of time, has no end goal. Without a future, pregnancy and romance are obsolete, along with everything else- which is why in LVT’s vision of end times, women are free to wreak havoc and act as cold-blooded succubi. They do this not for procreation or pleasure, but in supernatural communion with nothingness.
For the first half of Melancholia, I experienced the grandeur of sadness. When Claire’s husband complained about party expenses, cruelly reminding Justine that she’s obligated to feel happy, I could so clearly feel that lack. Then I felt lack after devastating lack. However, after finishing the movie, my experience of the first half had transmuted, and I felt that the film, when viewed in reverse, could be interpreted optimistically.
In the brief moment before Claire, her son, and Justine take shelter in the ‘magic cave,’ Justine smiles, authentically, for the first time, at the end of time. This smile is the key to the movie’s ability to invert its own pessimism. After noticing the smile, I realized that Justine had never been sad at all. All along, Justine had been happy to let go of her life, her job, her marriage. The end of the world arrives as her salvation; It relieves her from having to endure the same fate as her parents and sister: an unhappy marriage, a tedious, long life. Notably, Justine is the only character at the end who doesn’t consider killing herself. Because she’s the only one with the strength to do nothing. She embraces nothingness, but she doesn’t degrade herself so far as to become less than nothing.
Claire, as it turns out, is the more tragic figure. Faced with the end, she becomes hyperactive and overly concerned with ‘doing the right thing.’ She continues to fret over her son, over Justine- but, of course, her actions are in vain. Claire, who worked so hard to assuage familial tensions, to care for everyone else, is actually the weaker sister; She isn’t strong enough to do nothing.
Justine is the only character who knows, intuitively, how to ‘do the right thing’ at the end of existence. As her subtle smile reveals; Nothingness arrives as salvation for those who can accept it as such and are willing to shed themselves of their past, present, and future. Just like in the biblical story of Sodom And Gomorrah, the correct response when faced with total annihilation is to not look back- Because as soon as one looks back, one turns into a pillar of salt- or, in other words, becomes something that’s less-than-nothing. When Justine tells her sister that “Life on Earth is evil,” she implies that Nothing is Too Much for Us, that we deserve less. It is only by understanding this that we can find grace and ascendence in accepting Nothing as a generous ending.
There’s one scene where Claire coaxes a depressed Justine out of bed by making her her favorite meal- meatloaf. Here, we see Justine positioned to finally enjoy an earthly pleasure; But, then- as soon as a forkful of meatloaf enters her mouth, she grimaces and claims that “It tastes like ashes.” If Justine had simply been anhedonic, the meatloaf would have tasted like nothing. Instead, it tastes like ashes, like punishment, like less-than-nothing. One can only imagine that less-than-nothingness tastes like ashes, and that an absence of taste would have been preferable.
When Justine quits her job by declaring, “Nothing is too much for you, Jack,” she suddenly introduces a hierarchy of nothingnesses. Just as some infinities are bigger than others, some nothingnesses are less than others. Beyond zero, there is a negative zone. At the end of time, you don’t want to look back, because, if you do, you will get stuck in a place of permeate lack. In the negative zone, you can only ever dwell on what you once had. While positioned at zero, you are unburdened from all memory of ever having anything at all.
After a second consecutive viewing of Melancholia, you will see how, under astrological guidance, Justine is positioning herself at zero. While in the first viewing, I felt Justine’s absence of excitement for her marriage, a second viewing showed her triumphantly emptying herself of lacks. Once she has fully hollowed herself out, she sprawls out naked on the rocks, ready to receive the planet as it hits. Ready to become one with zero.