Arte, deseo y sujeto. Lectura de Melancolía de Lars von Trier.

In the present work we are going to analyse the relationship between Lars von Trier’s film Melancholia and the works of art, in particular certain drawings and paintings displayed or quoted in the film. These bring into their core the content of the state of mind that gave the name to the film. They also materialise the melancholic feelings, provide power to the scenes and establish a strong visual connexion between the director’s work and the spectator. There is a point of attraction that emerges as a threat and/or is the target of the spectator’s gaze in both representations. This is pointed out in the cold and threatening calm of The Hunters in the Snow by Bruegel; in the intellectual that contemplates the firmament in the The Land of Cockaigne; in the resigned posture of Ophelia by Millais; in the wailing shout of the deer in Deer in a Landscape by Hill; in the dreamy expression of David by Caravaggio while contemplating the Goliath’s head. And the image of an outburst in the print by Durero. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]