Melancholy I-II

“I must go to the Winckels. I have to go there.”

Lars Hertervig spends so much time in his own head. His anxiety about a simple velvet jacket feels almost physical.

“I am a painter. I have to be a painter.”

Being an artist looks like a slow descent into total isolation. He just wants to paint light but the world wants him to be normal.

The way he obsesses over Helene is heartbreaking. It is less about love and more about a desperate need for a fixed point.

“And then I see it. The light. It’s in the water.”

His thoughts loop over and over until they lose all meaning. It feels exactly like how a panic attack sounds from the inside.