The bulk of the movie shows a disastrous wedding party and its aftermath, in which the bride (Kirsten Dunst) and her sister (Charlotte Gainsbourg) seek, without success, to fend off the predations of anxiety and sadness.

NEWYORKER: Melancholia

The most spectacular evidence of this is the disastrous damage the Republican Party did to itself in California in 1994 with its support of Proposition 187.

ECONOMIST: Special-interest groups

Yet it is hard to see how anyone will be able to deny that politically the war has been disastrous for Bush and the Republican Party.

CNN: Commentary: What the Iraq mission cost Bush

Mr Davis's confident interpretation of the Tories' disastrous campaign was that a lack of boldness had prevented the party from communicating a clear direction.

ECONOMIST: Bagehot

Party elders including Mr Mori, who was a disastrous prime minister himself and who has now twice anointed disastrous leaders, will now probably favour an unruffled succession in favour of Mr Aso.

ECONOMIST: Japan

The Green Party has called on Labour leader Ed Miliband to apologise for the "disastrous" Iraq war.

BBC: Natalie Bennett

Labour leader Ed Miliband - whose party came fourth in the by-election - said it was a "disastrous night" for the Conservatives and David Cameron.

BBC: Eastleigh by-election: Politicians out of touch - Tory