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"In wouldn&amp;#039;t feel quite like the Cannes Film Festival without Lars von Trier on the Croisette. The Danish filmmaker, a Palme d&amp;#039;Or winner in 2000 for Dancer in the Dark, debuted his Kirsten Dunst-led drama Melancholia for the world&amp;#039;s press this morning and then took part in a provocative and controversial press conference. Digital Spy reacted with a glowing 5-star review, but what do some of the festival&amp;#039;s other critics make of his end-of-the-world opus? Read below to find out... Time Out (Dave Calhoun) &amp;quot;... It feels that von Trier is mostly in it for just a handful of striking images set to music from Wagner&amp;#039;s Tristan and Isolde. Much of the rest of the film feels like wading through glue in beautiful surroundings.&amp;quot; Empire (Damon Wise) &amp;quot;True to form, the film does not wimp out and von Trier does not shortchange us in the final, simultaneously horrific and beautiful scene. But the emotions it leaves us with are not those he has presented before in his multiple masterpieces Dancer In The Dark, Breaking The Waves or Antichrist. The women are little more than ciphers, and Dunst, though surprisingly good as the withdrawn and often vicious Justine (a part written for Pen\u00E9lope Cruz), gets less to do than any von Trier heroine has ever done before.&amp;quot;  The Guardian (Peter Bradshaw) &amp;quot;If Melancholia had been conceived with real passion or imagination, or if it had been well written or convincingly acted in any way at all, it might have been a loopy masterpiece. The montage of images at the beginning is interesting, as are some of the lush, hyper-real tableaux, like the dream sequences from Antichrist.&amp;quot; Movieline (Stephanie Zacharek) &amp;quot;With Melancholia, von Trier hasn&amp;#039;t tried to top himself, thank God. Despite the somber nature of the title, the movie is something of a breather, a respite, a chance for von Trier to explore emotional anguish and intricacies in vibrant, often elegant visual ways, with no self-mutilation involved. It&amp;#039;s gorgeous to look at, deeply moody and atmospheric, and it&amp;#039;s always in on its own grim little joke.&amp;quot; The Hollywood Reporter (Todd McCarthy) &amp;quot;Lars von Trier manages to turn the end of the world into a bit of a bore in Melancholia. A brooding cross between The Celebration (Festen) and Armageddon drenched in the tragic romanticism of Richard Wagner, this contemplation of the planet&amp;#039;s demise predictably provides not an ounce of comfort or redemption, nor does it offer characters or ideas with which to meaningfully engage, just ample opportunity to wallow in some rapturous images, glorious music and a foul mood.&amp;quot;  The Daily Telegraph (Sukhdev Sandhu) &amp;quot;The apocalypse, when it comes, is so beautifully rendered that the film cements the quality of fairy tale that its palatial setting suggests. Music, including a Wagnerian overture, is used to maximal, almost overwrought effect: von Trier seems to be implying that it would be timid, cowardly even, to employ a less momentous score in the service of such fundamental consideration of the meaning of existence.&amp;quot; indieWire (Eric Kohn) &amp;quot;The greatest possible expression of von Trier&amp;#039;s recent &amp;quot;no happy endings&amp;quot; edict, Melancholia is supremely operatic, enlivened by its cosmic sensibility, and yet widely rendered on an intimate scale. Beyond its opening and closing minutes, the movie&amp;#039;s appeal mainly comes from its fine-tuned performances, each of which adds to the developing sense of dread.&amp;quot; &amp;gt; Read our five-star Melancholia review &amp;gt; Lars von Trier talks Hitler, porn and Melancholia &amp;gt; Cannes Film Festival complete coverage Watch the trailer for Lars von Trier&amp;#039;s Melancholia, opening in the UK on September 30, below:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/cannes-film-festival/news/a320202/lars-von-triers-melancholia-what-the-critics-say/>