Dancer In The Dark

"Very Good"

Dancer In The Dark Review


For years filmmakers have been trying to reinvent the musical. "Evita" went big, "My Best Friend's Wedding" sneaked musical numbers into its semi-standard romantic comedy, the "South Park" movie mocked the cartoon musical while besting it with genuinely catchy tunes, "Love's Labour's Lost" was an homage to the Fred and Ginger sing-songs of the 1930s.

But no one has succeeded in making a truly modern movie musical, one that employs emerging filmmaking techniques instead of reaching back 50 years for inspiration. In fact, no one has ever even attempted something like "Dancer In the Dark."

Writer and director Lars von Trier -- the reclusive Dane behind the minimalist Dogme95 movement that espouses natural lighting, no props and handheld cameras -- discovers a way to marry his trademark sparseness with the unfettered showmanship of song and dance numbers in this daring retooling of the musical genre.

A tragic fable of innocence and injustice, the film stars elfin Icelandic alt-pop diva Björk as Selma, an immigrant factory worker in the American Northwest, circa 1964, who tries to hide the fact that she is rapidly going blind from friends and employers.

Working extra shifts and taking home products to package for additional pay, Selma squirrels away cash in fistfuls of small denominations, secretly saving for an operation that can save her 12-year-old son from an inherited disease that will eventually rob him of his eyesight as well.

A little naive, Selma is surrounded by protective friends. Kathy (Catherine Deneuve) is a motherly fellow immigrant from the factory floor. Jeff (Peter Stormare) is a timid romantic admirer and blue-collar grunt. Bill and Linda (David Morse and Cara Seymour) are a local policeman and his wife who rent Selma the trailer she lives in with her son.

More than a little absent-minded, at work Selma is easily distracted by the ambient rhythm of the metal presses, which become the beat for some of the sublimely spontaneous production numbers that emerge from her daydreams, fueled by years of attending Saturday musical matinees.

These sequences are an inventive, hypnotic cross between "Stomp"-style choreography, Björk's distinctive musical signature and von Trier's equally distinctive digital video vérité filmmaking. The songs themselves are not particularly catchy, but they are imaginatively staged and (unlike many musicals) occur naturally in the context of the story -- as when Selma walks home along a train trestle and the clickety-clack of the passing train cars start her singing along. (Some of Björk's costars sing too, with considerably less melodious results.)

Awarded best actress at Cannes (where the film also took the top prize, the Palm D'Or), Björk gives a startling, vulnerable, determined performance as Selma. Like Emily Watson in von Trier's masterpiece "Breaking the Waves," she plays this ill-fated heroine with a childlike disposition that invokes a custodial vibe in the audience, which kicks into high gear when her life takes a terrible turn.

During a heart-to-heart with friend and neighbor Bill, he confesses to being bankrupt and deadly afraid that his wife will abandon him when she finds out. Selma tells Bill of her son's illness and the hard-earned savings meant to cure him.

In his desperation, Bill betrays her trust. Taking advantage of her encroaching blindness, he hides in her trailer to discover where she keeps her money, setting off a chain-reaction of events with results so calamitous that Selma is jailed, charged with a brutal murder. This turn of events causes her to retreat further into a fantasy world where all of life is a musical in which another melody could be just around any corner.

Selma subsequently goes on trial, and "Dancer in the Dark" unravels somewhat under von Trier's gross misunderstanding of the American judicial system. The crime investigation is skipped over (but was clearly inept), and the courtroom scenes are badly abbreviated and so far-fetched they border on the absurd. (For starters, her lawyer doesn't have a single line of dialogue.) If von Trier did any research before writing this chapter of the film, he clearly abandon it when accuracy became a burden on his rushed narrative.

But while it's a little hard to brush aside such an obtrusive transgression, "Dancer in the Dark" is otherwise nothing less than a groundbreaking -- and magical -- art house reinvention of a genre that even Disney cartoons have been shying away from in recent years. The musical is not dead, it's just migrated into the arena of experimental film.



Dancer In The Dark

Facts and Figures

Run time: 140 mins

In Theaters: Friday 6th October 2000

Box Office USA: $2.8M

Distributed by: Fine Line Features

Production compaines: Fine Line Features, Zentropa Entertainments, Film i Väst, Blind Spot Pictures Oy, France 3 Cinéma, Danmarks Radio (DR), Arte France Cinéma, Angel films, Canal+, Constantin Film Produktion, TV 1000, Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep (VPRO), Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), Yleisradio (YLE), Memfis Film, Sveriges Television (SVT), Film4

Reviews

Contactmusic.com: 3.5 / 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 68%
Fresh: 78 Rotten: 37

IMDB: 8.0 / 10

Cast & Crew

Director:

Starring: as Selma Jezkova, as Kathy, as Bill Houston, as Jeff, as Oldrich Novy, as Linda Houston, as Gene Jezkova, as Norman, as Samuel, as Brenda, as District Attorney, as Dr. Porkorny, as Morty, Reathel Bean as Judge, Mette Berggreen as Receptionist, Lars Michael Dinesen as Defense Attorney, Katrine Falkenberg as Suzan, Michael Flessas as Angry Man, John Randolph Jones as Detective, as Doctor, as Woman on Night Shift

Also starring: ,

Contactmusic


Links


New Movies

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Movie Review

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Movie Review

After the thunderous reception for J.J. Abrams' Episode VII: The Force Awakens two years ago,...

Daddy's Home 2 Movie Review

Daddy's Home 2 Movie Review

Like the 2015 original, this comedy plays merrily with cliches to tell a silly story...

The Man Who Invented Christmas Movie Review

The Man Who Invented Christmas Movie Review

There's a somewhat contrived jauntiness to this blending of fact and fiction that may leave...

Ferdinand Movie Review

Ferdinand Movie Review

This animated comedy adventure is based on the beloved children's book, which was published in...

Brigsby Bear Movie Review

Brigsby Bear Movie Review

Director Dave McCary makes a superb feature debut with this offbeat black comedy, which explores...

Battle of the Sexes Movie Review

Battle of the Sexes Movie Review

A dramatisation of the real-life clash between tennis icons Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs,...

Shot Caller Movie Review

Shot Caller Movie Review

There isn't much subtlety to this prison thriller, but it's edgy enough to hold the...

Advertisement
The Disaster Artist Movie Review

The Disaster Artist Movie Review

A hilariously outrageous story based on real events, this film recounts the making of the...

Stronger Movie Review

Stronger Movie Review

Based on a true story about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, this looks like one...

Only the Brave Movie Review

Only the Brave Movie Review

Based on a genuinely moving true story, this film undercuts the realism by pushing its...

Wonder Movie Review

Wonder Movie Review

This film may be based on RJ Palacio's fictional bestseller, but it approaches its story...

Happy End  Movie Review

Happy End Movie Review

Austrian auteur Michael Haneke isn't known for his light touch, but rather for hard-hitting, award-winning...

Patti Cake$ Movie Review

Patti Cake$ Movie Review

Seemingly from out of nowhere, this film generates perhaps the biggest smile of any movie...

The Limehouse Golem Movie Review

The Limehouse Golem Movie Review

A Victorian thriller with rather heavy echoes of Jack the Ripper, this film struggles to...

Advertisement
Artists
Actors
    Filmmakers
      Artists
      Bands
        Musicians
          Artists
          Celebrities
             
              Artists
              Interviews