Dancer in the Dark

Director: Lars von Trier

Screenplay: Lars von Trier

Stars: Björk (Selma), Catherine Deneuve (Kathy), David Morse (Bill), Peter Stormare(Jeff), Udo Kier (Dr. Porkorny), Joel Grey (Oldrich Novy), Vincent Paterson (Samuel),Cara Seymour (Linda), Jean-Marc Barr (Norman), Vladan Kostic (Gene)

MPAA Rating:R

Year of Release: 2000

Country: Denmark

After its premier at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, where it eventually won the covetedPalm d'or, Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark was met equally with intensecelebratory applause and boos of vociferous condemnation. It has since divided audiencesand critics straight down the middle: either you love it or you hate it. Von Trier is either aboundary-pushing genius or he is a ego-maniacal sadist.

Considering that I was one of the few critics who did not appreciate his brutal ode tomasochistic female self-sacrifice, Breaking the Waves (1996), I tend to fall towardthe latter camp. Part of me can appreciate what von Trier was attempting to do inDancer in the Dark, but a stronger part is incensed by his equal-parts mixture ofkitschy aesthetics, overblown melodrama, and genuine emotional turmoil. Von Trier is afilmmaker who loves to outrage, visually and thematically. His 1998 film, TheIdiots (Idioterne), which was his first and so-far only entry under the strictDogma 95 tenets of filmmaking , was a classic example. Following a group of people whopurposefully act in public as though they are mentally handicapped, the film was both anprovocative examination of social mores and a thorough insult to anyone with a handicap.It's hard to know if he's truly transgressive or just immensely insensitive.

The central character of Dancer in the Dark is Selma (played by Icelandic popsinger Björk), an immigrant from Czechoslovakia who works at a factory pressing metalsinks in rural Washington state in the early 1960s. Selma has a degenerative geneticcondition that is causing her to go blind, and she has been secretly saving all her money inorder to pay for surgery for her son, Gene (Vladan Kostic), to ensure that he does notsuffer the same fate.

Like Emily Watson's Bess in Breaking the Waves, Selma is a simple-minded,child-like woman who is willing to sacrifice herself in order to save another. In this case,Selma is trying to save her son, as opposed to Bess, who endured sexual degradation ofimmense proportions for her paralyzed husband (the fact that both characters are childishwomen who pay the ultimate price to serve men is an arguably misogynistic pattern thatshould not be overlooked).

Björk, who suffered so much psychological abuse while filming that she has pledged neverto make another movie (she was rewarded, if that's the right word, with the Best Actressaward at the Cannes Film Festival), is a natural actress with an unforgettable presence,although one cannot imagine her playing many other roles. Her performance is a knock-out,mostly because it veers between wrenching and infuriating. Some moments in which Selmasuffers for her cause are emotionally devastating; others are maddening because sheresponds with the same, unconvincing impish smile that almost seems to suggest that she isenjoying her martyrdom (or at least von Trier wants us to think she is).

Selma's plan to save her son is thwarted when her neighbor, a kindly but distraught policeofficer named Bill (David Morse), confides in her that he is broke and cannot bring himselfto tell his wife. Bill eventually steals Selma's money, and her attempt to retrieve itculminates in Bill's brutal death. Taking the witness stand at her murder trial, Selma refusesto divulge information that could possible spare her the death penalty because she made apromise to Bill (which, by the way, he betrayed).

This is only one of many clumsy narrative conceits designed to ensure Selma's infinitesuffering (the other big one being that she cannot let Gene know about his impendinggenetic condition because "worrying about it might make his eyes worse"). Watching thefilm, it is hard to resist the suspicion that the whole thing is a ruse to satisfy somedeep-seated sadistic urge in von Trier's artistic psyche; one cannot help but wonder if heset the film in Washington for the simple reason that it was one of the few states left in the1960s that still used the dramatically vicious form of hanging as its statutory method ofcapital punishment.

Of course, the one aspect of Dancer in the Dark that has really thrown viewers isthe fact that, for all intents and purposes, it is a musical. Although shot on hand-held,digital video, the film features some half-dozen music-and-dance numbers that take place inSelma's mind. Featuring songs written and performed by Björk as strange hybrids of herparticular brand of industrial pop and show-stopping Broadway numbers, these sequencesare like The Sound of Music reproduced as stunningly bad music videos. Willfullybad. Even taking into account that they represent Selma's psychological escape from herhard-luck life (the video image even brightens and colors become more vivid during thesescenes), they are still grating in their vacant campy delight. Simply put, they belong inanother movie, which is most likely the exact reason why von Trier decided to includethem.

Whether you feel that von Trier is a true artist or a creative fraud, Dancer in theDark is a film that needs to be seen to be believed. If that sounds like damning praise,it is. I can't bring myself to detest the film in the manner expressed by some, yet I am at aloss to see how some critics find it as outstanding as they did. Throughout its 2-hours and20-minute running length (it would be half that long without the musical interludes), thereare enough moments of genuine emotionalism that it becomes hard to conceive of von Trieras a complete sham. Yet, his approach to his material is so willfully preposterous and attimes irritating, that it is difficult to fully appreciate what he is trying to do, if, in fact, heeven knows for sure.

Dancer in theDark: Platinum Series DVD

Widescreen	2.40:1
Anamorphic	Yes
Audio	Dolby Digital 5.1Surround DTS 5.1 Surround Dolby 2.0 Surround
Languages	English
Subtitles	English
Supplements	Twoaudio commentaries: Filmmaker commentary with writer/director Lars von Trier, producer Vibeke Windeløv,technical supervisor Peter Hjorth, and artist Per Kirkeby Choreographer commentary by Vincent Paterson Two documentaries 100 Cameras: Capturing Lars von Trier's Vision Choreography: Capturing Vincent Paterson's Dance Sequences Selma's Music: Direct access to nine musical sequences Alternate versions of two musical sequences Cast and crew filmographies Original theatrical trailer Original theatrical web site (DVD-ROM)
Distributor	New LineCinema
SRP	$24.98

VIDEO
Dancer in the Dark has a strange visual quality inthat it was originally filmed on digital video and then carefully transferred to film. Thus, theimage quality looks like you would expect high-resolution digital video to look--visuallysharp, but somewhat flat in terms of depth with little contrast. It doesn't have the slick,well-saturated appearance of celluloid, yet the anamorphic transfer on this DVD is stillvisually compelling. As New Line has been responsible for some of the best transfers on themarket, I can't believe this image could be made to look much better than it does. Unlike vonTrier's Breaking the Waves (1996), which was shot on film and then converted tovideo and then back to film again, the intent was not to create an excessively grainy image.Quite the contrary, the image on this disc is quite smooth, with little suggestion of the linesof resolution inherent to the video image (the edges of objects, particularly those in motion,do look pixelated from time to time, which is not the fault of the transfer). The film's colorscheme is fairly dull, with great emphasis on brown and gray, with the exception of themusical sequences, which are rendered in much brighter and livelier colors that lookexcellent. The image here is presented in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1, whichwas achieved by fitting a special anamorphic lens on the video camera during filming (videocameras normally film in an academy ratio of 1.33:1, and the only other way to get awidescreen image would have been a hard matte).

AUDIO
Available in a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix, a DTS 5.1surround mix, or a two-channel stereo mix, the soundtrack sounds fantastic. While theimage quality has a kind of misleadingly amateurish appearance with its hand-held videoaesthetic, the soundtrack is technically top-notch and shows it. The music sounds excellentthroughout, with good use of the surround speakers and an effective employment of thelow-end frequency effects. Björk's music is something of an acquired taste, but it ismusically inventive with a creative mixture of traditional and electronic instruments that arebeautifully rendered on this disc.

SUPPLEMENTS
The two feature-length audio commentaries are definitelyworth listening to, as they illuminate not only the artistic intentions of the film, but also theinordinate amount of work that went into making it (don't be fooled that it was low-budgetjust because it was shot on video--von Trier definitely left the tenets of Dogma 95 behindhim when making this movie). The first commentary is a filmmaker commentary with writer/director Lars von Trier;producer Vibeke Windeløv, who also produced Breaking the Waves and TheIdiots; technical supervisor Peter Hjorth; and artist Per Kirkeby, who opens with abrief discussion of the digital paintings he provided for the film's overture. Von Trier makesa particularly interesting comment at one point, when he says that has always thought ofhimself as having good taste; thus, whenever he ventures into territory that might beconsidered "bad taste" (as some critics have described both this movie and, moreparticularly, The Idiots), he isn't afraid. The second commentary is dedicatedexclusively to choreographer Vincent Paterson, who also choreographed TheBirdcage (1996) and Evita (1996), as well as Michael Jackson'sMoonwalker (1988), discussing how he created the film's musical sequences. The disc also included two documentaries. The 15-minute 100 Cameras: CapturingLars von Trier's Vision focuses on von Trier's now infamous use of 100 videocameras filming simultaneously to capture the "I've Seen It All" sequence (the result was over 68 hours of footage that had to be edited down to about 10 minutes). Decide foryourself whether you think the use of 100 cameras made any difference in the final product.For the record, I find it to be an interesting experiment that didn't result in anything morevisually compelling than a typical montage edited together from only a few camera set-upsand several takes (although, to be fair, when von Trier first conceived of the idea, theintention was to film the whole sequence live in only one take). The second documentary, Choreography: Capturing Vincent Paterson's DanceSequences, runs just over 20 minutes in length and includes a lot of behind-the-scenesrehearsal footage of Paterson and the dancers working on the musical sequences, both in thestudio and on the set. It also includes some interesting footage of a music sequence near theend that never made it into the movie. Demonstrating how important editing was to the film, the disc includes rough-cut alternateversions of two musical sequences, "Cvalda" and "I've Seen It All" (of which there are twoalternate versions). While I think the versions that wound up in the finished product werebetter, the alternate versions are interesting for comparative purposes, especially for thoseviewers who really like to scrutinize editing decisions. For those who are fans of Björk's music, the disc includes a handy feature that allows you tojump straight to any one the film's nine musical sequences, which also includes the overtureand the end credits. Also included are brief cast and crew filmographies, the originaltheatrical trailer, and, for those with a DVD-ROM drive and a PC, the entire originaltheatrical web site. Also, it should be noted that New Line has been good enough to presenteverything on the disc, from the documentaries to the theatrical trailer, in anamorphicwidescreen.

Overall Rating: (2)