Dancer in the Dark

One might say that this film is a bit of an oddball. One might say that a sad movie about a poor Checz woman living in America, slowly going blind is a and trying to save enough at her blue collar job for an operation for her son is a bit dreary. But when, you add the fact that this is a musical, and shot like some sort of weird dogmatic docudrama style, it pretty much goes over the top.

Dancer in the Dark, is in fact, quite definately a strange film. The enigmatic singer Björk gives a lively performance to Selma, the Checz immigrant who throughout the film is looses much much more than her eyesight. Selma came to America obsessed as a youth with musicals. She loves the dancing, the spectacle, and consequently she is a dreamer. Selma hears the rhythms of the world as music, a very sweet quality that leads to some disasterous consequences. She may be well liked but she looses her job at the factory, after daydreaming one too many times. But that's just the start of her problems. Selma's landloard Bill has a problem too. He is running out of money, he is worried that he will loose his wife if she finds out, and somehow he needs to get the money together to put his life together. That somehow; might just end up being the worst possible turn of events for Selma.

The story might seem like your typical small town depressing indie film, except for the talent involved, a very tight script, an invasive shooting style, and the music. The music is the glue of this film. To have a musical in itself is one thing, but to stylize it like this is from my experiences unique, and fascinating. The songs are all by Björk. Even normally she's got this very exotic and very viceral sort of way to her music, but here it's even more pronounced. The music especially in the early scenes of the film comes from the filmed world around them. The noise of the machines of life; and the experience is entrancing. Whether you really enjoy it or not (and I must admit I didn't really like some of it), you can't help but be impressed with its ferocity, its intensity.

This film was shot in a fairly invasive manner. It almost feels like a documentary with the jerky camera movements, and quick zooms. Robby Müller was responsible for the cinematography, and it sort of makes sense when you consider that he’s been responsible for some other notably strange looking films like Jim Jarmusch’s strange and beautiful Dead Man, and Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai. Here he gives us a feeling of intrusion into the character’s lives. And it works very well on the whole. The themes are dreary and bleak. And the hard realities of small town, blue-collar life come into sharp focus. It’s only during Selma’s daydreams that we see the world differently. The colours are smoother, if not brighter. And the camerawork is far more fluid. It isn’t anything I’m used to seeing in American cinema, and although jarring at first; it really nicely reflects the themes present and helps create a somber tone.

Björk, the Icelandic diva brings her presence to the screen for, as far as I know, the first time here. And I must admit I was more than a little surprised at the depth she brought to the character of Selma. She lives in a sad, lonely world; but she has these marvelous dreams of music. Björk is really superb and gives the character a reality I wouldn’t have thought possible. Really the entire cast was excellent. David Morse plays Bill, and Catherine Deneuve plays Selma’s friend Kathy. Both give stand out performances, adding rich texture to the story. At the end of the day, this film really works so well because of the strength of these actors, even more so than the script, they did a really fantastic job.

The film was directed by Lars von Trier, a Dutch filmmaker that I’m not overly familiar with. He’s done a number of films, but either they didn’t make it over to America/Canada or I just missed them. This film in particular though show a very unique and inventive style. I like the filmmakers sensibilities, the grayness to the picture. He obviously knew how to get very fine performances out of his actors and used the lighting and particularly the camerawork to show us a sometimes disturbing, but always interesting story.

This is a weird film…There are some really good moments to it and I can’t deny that it is well made and interesting in many way; but I found myself not enjoying the film at certain times. Maybe it’s just to foreign for me, maybe I just couldn’t relate. Whichever reason for my sporadic dislike though, I’d recommend this film. It’s just so different, and fresh. Give it a shot if your in a drearily dramatic, or arty foreign mood.