Cinescapade - Dancer in the Dark

Dancer in the Dark
Denmark/France/Sweden, 2000.
Directed and written by Lars von Trier. Starring Björk, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare, Vincent Paterson. Music by Björk. Produced by Vibeke Windeløv.
In English, 140 minutes, rated R. Fine Line Features

Highly acclaimed by critics and winner of a Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, the heart wrenching, stomach turning, yet hauntingly beautiful Dancer in the Dark is a movie that strays just about as far as possible from what is commonly called entertainment.

Set in Washington State in 1964, the movie centers on Selma (Björk), an immigrant Czech factory worker. She is a single mother slowly going blind, whose goal is to save enough money to pay for the operation that will prevent her son from the same hereditary fate. A somewhat simple-minded person, Selma lives for musicals. As her vision fades, her hearing sharpens and sounds become music, leading her into fantasies in which she and all around her sing and dance. The musicals portray the positive outlook that shapes her life and emanates from her. Throughout the movie, her life falls apart as her vision fails and events around her lead her into a downward spiral.

The story line brings the viewer to the brink and over, emotionally; it is a worst-case scenario in which snippets of hope are created in the viewer right before events take a turn for the worse. Lars von Trier likes to explore the dark side of life, relentlessly delving into dreadful situations, as if to test his audience's resistance. The viewer's emotional response is also triggered here by the portrayal of the main character, a fragile, gentle young woman who moves the people she comes into contact with by her innocence, her drive and her dignity. The whole movie revolves around this psychologically complex main character, who creates a strong emotional attachment in the viewer. This seems to be a trademark of Lars von Trier's movies. Other aspects of his films are characters living on the fringe of society who have a tenuous grip on reality, reflected by an intense fantasy life that can take over their contact with reality, as in Breaking the Waves, for example.

The other characters, although decisive in the unraveling of events, seem secondary. Yet they are all multidimensional and genuine; each character has real issues and agendas, and none can be simply categorized as being good or bad. Bill (David Morse), Selma's neighbor and ultimately the one who betrays her, best illustrates this. This character, whose main goal in life seems to be satisfying his wife's need for money and material possessions, is simultaneously kind, weak and manipulative. All the actors' performances are excellent and highlight von Trier's ability to cast roles perfectly, with the exception of Catherine Deneuve. She plays Kathy, a middle-aged factory employee who looks after Selma almost like a mother, trying to protect her from the hardships of life yet never really managing to do so. Catherine Deneuve gives a high-quality performance, but her ladylike countenance interferes with the credibility of her role as a factory worker.

The quality of the movie also stems from Lars von Trier's artistic direction and the way he uses filmmaking to reflect the life of the main character. In this the movie is truly a piece of art. The contrast between Selma's dull, difficult life and her rich fantasy life is illustrated by the sharp difference in filming techniques. When her everyday life is shown, the film has a documentary quality, with drab colors and constant camera swings; extreme close-ups blur in and out of focus, reflecting the way Selma sees the world as her vision deteriorates. In contrast, her musical fantasies are shot in a Technicolor-like quality, with perfect framing and a stable camera. This illustrates how she sees the world and herself in her daydreams, in which she becomes eloquent, radiant, and self-assured. The extreme importance of sound, increasing as her world visually darkens, is also reflected in the filmmaking. Every background noise is perceptible in the soundtrack; as she starts daydreaming, the sounds around Selma blend into rhythms and gradually into music. Very appropriately, all the songs were composed and sung by Björk. Her powerful music, a mix of industrial sounds and musical movie tunes, carries the movie and greatly contributes to its strong emotional impact. The relationship between Selma and sound is maintained throughout the film, right up to the end, when sound ceases as she does.

Dancer in the Dark is in opposition to current entertainment pictures and traditional musical movies. The topic isn't glamorous, nor are the characters. In typical von Trier style -i.e. dark and desperate-, there can be no happy ending. Yet the beauty of the musical parts saves the film from wallowing in melodrama. Ultimately, Selma's outlook on life is positive and she leads us to see beauty in everyday life. The antithesis of Hollywood's feel-good style, Dancer in the Dark shows us that good filmmaking doesn't always have to be pleasing and entertaining, that a movie can be more than entertainment.