With its famous traffic, ubiquitous smog, and abhorrent city planning, Los Angeles tends be a bit of a punching bag for the rest of the country, from the Midwest to New York City.  While one could argue the cultural and aesthetic value of the city all day, it is without a doubt the premiere city in America for moviegoing.  There are, of course upscale theaters like the Arclight or the Landmark, and there are unparalleled revival houses such as the New Beverly, the Aero, and the the Silent Movie Theater. 

In addition to this embarrassment of riches, there's the cinematic programming at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wilshire Boulevard.  Film Independent, the very same non-profit organization that puts on the annual Independent Spirit Awards celebrating the best in independent film, has a year-round weekly film series curated by critical luminary and KCRW's The Treatment host Elvis Mitchell.

Opening in theaters on November 11th is a new science fiction film from acclaimed Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier (Breaking the Waves) called Melancholia. The film features an Oscar worthy performance by actress Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man), as well as an impressive supporting cast that includes Kiefer Sutherland (TV's 24), Charlotte Gainsbourg (I'm Not There), Alexander Skarsgard (TV's True Blood), Stellan Skarsgard (Thor), John Hurt (Alien), Charlotte Rampling (Swimming Pool), Jesper Christensen (Quantum of Solace), and Udo Kier (Armageddon). 

IAR's managing editor Jami Philbrick recently had a chance to sit down and talk with Kirsten Dunst about her work in Melancholia. The talented actress spoke about the new film, its abstract story, working with Lars von Trier, her character's strength, her own acting process, and how director Paul Thomas Anderson helped her get the role.

Without a doubt, one of the most highly anticipated films of 2012 has got to be The Avengers. Marvel Studios has been teasing this film since the release of Iron Man in 2008 and the movie promises to bridge elements from all of their previous endeavors, including The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, and this past summer’s Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger, into one cinematic Marvel universe. It’s a pretty daunting task if you think about it and one that has never been attempted before, which makes it all the more impressive that it appears that they are about to pull it off.

One man who Marvel Studios has given a pivotal role to in this process is Swedish born actor Stellan Skarsgard. Best known for his roles in films like The Hunt for Red October, Ronin, Good Will Hunting, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Skarsgard appeared this past summer as Dr. Eric Selvig in Thor and is set to reprise his role next summer in The Avengers. Anyone who stayed through the end credits of Thor to see Marvel’s traditional tag-on scene knows (SPOILER ALERT) that Skarsgard’s character is now working with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and S.H.I.E.L.D. to study the cosmic cube, which was first introduced in Captain America: The First Avenger. However, unbeknownst to Fury, Selvig appears to now be under the influence of Thor’s brother and archenemy, Loki (Tom Hiddleston). But how is Loki controlling Selvig and just how large will Skarsgard’s role in The Avengers be?

This morning I had the pleasure of speaking to Stellan Skarsgard about his work in Thor, which will be released on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD on September 13^th. While we won’t publish my conversation with Mr. Skarsgard about the making of Thor until closer to the film’s home media release, I wanted to let you know what the veteran actor told me today about his work on The Avengers. It turns out that Skarsgard is actually in New York today filming his final scene for the film and will then fly to Los Angeles to re-shoot some scenes for David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on the extremely popular Swedish novel of the same name.

No matter how lavish and well-attended, a wedding can be said to have gone quite wrong if longstanding familial tensions come embarrassingly to the fore on what's meant to be a happy celebration.  If said wedding also involves the bride noticing for the first time a celestial object that happens to be a previously-unseen planet on an inevitably collision course with Earth, then it's probably not going well and is also in a Lars von Trier movie. 

That movie is Melancholia, and as a new UK trailer will shortly inform you, Kirsten Dunst plays the bride, with Alexander Skarsgard as her groom, Charlotte Gainsbourg as her sister, and Kiefer Sutherland as her brother-in-law.  The new, apocalypse-bearing planetoid is, naturally called Melancholia.  Check out the trailer, and even if it's not your speed, at least you can enjoy the idea of a planetary disaster movie that doesn't involve Will Smith punching aliens or Jake Gyllenhaal somehow outrunning a cold front.

One of the most discussed events at the 64th Cannes Film Festival – aside from Lady Gaga performing on the Croisette, Woody Allen debuting a film everyone agrees it pretty damn good, and provocateur Lars von Trier making a bad joke or two – was last Monday's premiere of The Tree Of Life.  The film from venerated auteur Terrance Malick was intended to premiere at last year's fest, but Malick was busy fine-tuning his opus, which stars Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and Sean Penn.  At the closing ceremony on Sunday, Malick's latest was awarded the festival's highest honor, despite less-than ecstatic reviews.

Hey guess what?  We have a Cannes update that will not involve Lars von Trier beyond that merest mention.  Yesterday, the international brouhaha over a bad joke continued, while director Nicolas Winding Refn and star Ryan Gosling wowed attendees with Drive.  Today, by contrast, was considerably more low key.  This Must Be the Place, which stars Sean Penn as a goth rocker looking for revenge, had its big premiere.  The Sesame Street-centric documentary Being Elmo made multiple deals, and the Belgian film The Giants won two big prizes before it has even premiered.

You might think that, nine days in, the Cannes Film Festival would be winding down.  You'd be incorrect.  Things were as busy as ever on the French Riviera today.  Melancholia director Lars von Trier was banned from the Festival, then placed in the Phantom Zone and set adrift for jokingly calling himself a Nazi yesterday.  The premiere of two movies today has helped keep at least some of the focus on films: Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In starring Antonio Banderas and Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, with Ryan Gosling.  In addition to those two stylistic departures from acclaimed directors, Take Shelter, starring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, won the 50th Annual Critics Week Grand Prize.

Ahhh, the Cannes Film Festival.  Beautiful weather, films from all over the globe, gorgeous movie stars, models, musicians, bajillion dollar yachts, perfect azure water lapping at the beach, and a Danish director causing a ruckus by declaring himself a Nazi and saying that he sympathizes with Adolf Hitler.  You know, the usual.  The biggest story on the eighth day of the festival involves a movie only tangentially, as Lars von Trier's Third Reich comments pissed off a whole lot of people.  Other than that, though, his film Melancholia, starring Kirsten Dunst and Alexander Skarsgard, had its world premiere and Gus Van Sant discussed his Twilight: Breaking Dawn job interview.

If you've seen any films written and directed by Lars von Trier, such as Dancer in the Dark and Antichrist, then you know he doesn't mess around.  Today saw the debut of the first trailer for his latest effort, Melancholia, starring Kirsten Dunst, Alexander Skarsgard, Charlotte Gainsbourg, John Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, Udo Kier, and Stellan Skarsgard.  As the title suggests, Melancholia appears more restrained and low-key than the all-out assault of crazy that was Antichrist, but it also contains a previously unseen planet about to collide with Earth, so it's no slouch, either.  Check out the singularly strange trailer, but be advised that it is slightly NSFW, with a smattering of nudity.