Year: 2000
Director: Lars Von Trier
Country: Denmark
Language: English
Lars Von Trier is definitely one of my favourite Directors who is still alive and creating art today. He is known for his incredibly moody films that are often undeniably tragic in every sense of the word. Dancer in the Dark is no exception to his brooding style. It is a musical that defies the entire genre because it is full of depressing tunes that tear at the heart, rather than happy-go-lucky show-tunes. The first time I viewed this film I was in shock, and I remain in shock.
The plot concerns Selma (Bjork), a woman who has emigrated with her son from Central Europe to America. The year is 1964. Selma works day and night to save her son from the same disease she suffers from, a disease that inevitably will make her blind. But Selma has the energy to live because of her secret! She loves musicals. When life feels tough she can pretend that she is in the wonderful world of musicals.
Dancer in the Dark is the third film in Von Trier's "Golden Hearts Trilogy", in which the heroines remain optimistic and naive despite the fact that their world is crumbling around them, the other two parts are Breaking the Waves and The Idiots. Considering Bjork and Lars Von Trier's relationship, it was somewhat of a miracle that this film was completed. They had a contempt for each other which made each day of shooting a negative atmosphere, everyday Bjork spit on her director and I suppose she would have left if she hadn't had signed a contract. However, they both needed each other in order to make a great film and indeed they did. Bjork plays her role perfectly, her singing is beautiful. Trier is a master with his shots, using over 100 cameras to get each scene perfect.
The film is gut wrenching - an absorbing tearjerker - but not sentimental. The plot is a bit ludicrous, therefore not really possible to watch on a literal level. It is impossible to believe this is a mistake by Trier though, he's intelligent enough to know when he is making an implausible film, therefore we are viewing a fantastic nightmare scenario. This does divide cinephiles, but my own personal feelings are that it's a well made melodrama.
In conclusion, Dancer in the Dark is pretty great, but very bleak. So bleak that you may only view it once, run out of tissues, and then not watch it again. It's quite brave and it seems to be a dark homage to the classic soap-opera-esque films of Hollywood. This film is not the greatest of Von Trier's work, I would give that title to Breaking the Waves, but it sure is good. 3.5/5
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