Matthew Shields is a graduate of Yale University, where his work centered on the relationship between literature and philosophy. His award-winning senior thesis was entitledThe Search for Lost Time: Reflections on Benjamin, Nietzsche, and Proust. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. 
From the Sublime to the Romantic: Lars von Trier’s Melancholia
“To call any work of von Trier’s life affirming, especially one that ends in, of all things, the apocalypse, must seem seriously misguided. Life affirmation in von Trier? The most notoriously nihilistic director of his generation? But surprising as it sounds, a close reading of the film reveals that this reevaluation is just what he is after.”
