Melancholia is the most accessible film yet from self-styled provocateur Lars von Trier (Dancer in the Dark, Antichrist) and it’s likely to go down as his masterwork.

Like other recent stand-out releases The Tree of Life and Take Shelter, von Trier’s meditation on depression – in all of its guises – boldly contrasts the quotidian with the cosmic. Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg are sisters awaiting certain apocalypse when a rogue planet sets a collision course for Earth.

Keifer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, Stellan and Alexander Skarsgård, and an impish John Hurt round out a stellar support cast.

Gerard Elson works at Readings St Kilda.