Barnes & Noble

It's hard to put a finger on exactly what Lars von Trier is doing in Dancer in the Dark. Is it a postmillennial paean to the social-realist musicals of industrial Russia? Is it a Douglas Sirk-esque melodrama posing as an anti-capital punishment tract (or vice versa)? Is it, like the films authored under the aegis of von Trier's Dogme 95, just a joke? The only thing for certain is that Dancer in the Dark is dramatically punishing, a film so mechanical and ruthless with its emotional fireworks that it inspires rage and tears in almost equal measures. Icelandic pop pixie Björk, with essentially no prior acting experience, portrays Selma, a single mother living in Washington State in the 1960s (rural Sweden, as the Pacific Northwest, gives an excellent performance). Suffering from a degenerative eye condition and nearly blind, Selma scrounges for money by working in a factory so her son, Gene, can undergo an operation to save his own eyesight. Selma is a terminally mousy figure -- small, myopic, and withdrawn -- whose only release is through music. In several extravaganzas, von Trier turns Björk into an Esther Williams of the woods, where she can belt out songs and frolic with utter abandon. In the real world, though, Selma finds her savings pilfered by her policeman-landlord (David Morse), and matters progress from very bad to much worse. This is not always an easy film to watch, but the performances are beyond gripping. Björk 's turn won the best actress trophy at Cannes, and Morse displays the quiet pathos that makes him one of America's most underrated actors. Von Trier's motives may be in question, but there is no doubting the result: an emotionally devastating examination of sacrifice. The slew of extras on the Dancer in the Dark DVD attest equally to Von Trier's thirst for freedom and his somewhat loony take on how to get it. In the featurette entitled 100 Cameras, he described the technique of using the alleged 100 Sony videocameras as an attempt to replicate "the transmission of a live event". The anatomy of calibrating all the cameras used during a few of Björk's tunes is fascinating, as is Von Trier when he states, "I have found that 100 cameras isn't enough. You'd need 1,000 [or] 10,000 cameras to really be free". While the director expounds on cinema that goes up to "11", the terrific extras help a viewer gauge just how close he comes. Pete Segall

All Movie Guide

Reportedly the third in acclaimed director Lars von Trier's "Golden Hearts" trilogy (preceded by Breaking the Waves and The Idiots), this film is a hip reworking of the classic Hollywood Musical, starring international pop diva Bjork. Set somewhere in rural Washington state, Czech immigrant Selma (Bjork) works in a pressing plant, struggling to make ends meet for herself and her 10-year-old son, Gene (Vladica Kostic). Her best friend is coworker and fellow European Kathy (Catherine Deneuve). While outside work, she is maintaining a cautious friendship with local yokel Jeff (Peter Stormare). She also landed a starring role as Maria in an amateur production of The Sound of Music. Selma's life would be one of relative contentment if it were not for the ugly secret she harbors -- she is on the verge of blindness due to a genetic disorder, and her young son will suffer the same fate without an operation. Selma has quietly been stashing away money for the surgery and has already amassed $2,000. When her savings, squirreled away in a can in the kitchen, suddenly disappear, she confronts her cash-strapped landlord Bill (David Morse). Of course, like all musicals, the plot periodically takes a backseat to the seven production numbers, including a show-stopping sequence in Selma's factory. Shot entirely on digital video, the film reportedly used up to 100 cameras for each musical number. Dancer in the Dark received top prizes at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival including Best Actress for Bjork and the coveted Palme d'Or for Best Picture. Jonathan Crow

Product Details

• UPC: 794043519925
• Source: NEW LINE HOME VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound, Dolby Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Time: 2:21:00
• Sales Rank: 11,780

Features:

DVD MENU