Dancer in the Dark (2000)
dancer in the dark is one of those movies that either makes you lose all faith in the entire human race and shove your head in the oven, OR, reignites your wonder of all the beauty in the world and reminds you that the meaning of life is simply that it ends. therefore, this movie is great! not many flicks can illicit that kind of duel emotional response. it makes you angry, sad, and then angry again.
on the outside, this could appear to be another tale of a weaker-willed character struggling against all the evil in the world, but I see it as so much more. DITD combines elements of documentary-esque storytelling/cinematography, straight drama, and of course musical. oh and bjork in the lead actress, and the one doing the most of the singing. oh hai, BJORK. only a woman responsible for some of the most quirky, unpredictable and enchanting music ever could pull off selma. sure, chicago is a musical (and a decent one at that), but this is cut from an entirely different cloth. somehow, bjork manages to make even industrial music seem soft and lit from within.
I don't know wtf this picture is but it makes me laugh......NEWAYZ
a quick synopsis from imdb:
Dancer in The Dark tells the story of a single mother, Selma Jezková (Björk), a Czech immigrant living in Washington State (though shot in Sweden) with her her son, Gene Jezek (Vladica Kostic). They live in a trailer on the property of town policeman Bill Houston (David Morse). Selma and her friend Kathy, whom she nicknames Cvalda (Deneuve), work at a factory and go to the local cinema together to watch Hollywood musicals. Selma is pursued by a timid coworker, Jeff (Peter Stormare). She suffers from a congenital eye disease which is gradually causing her to go blind. She is saving all her money in a tin can to pay for an operation which will prevent Gene from suffering the same affliction. Selma frequently falls into reveries involving elaborate musical theater numbers. When Bill steals all of her savings, Selma Björks out (with the help of a gun), seeking her own justice in a corrupt world.
I don't really have any negative criticisms of this film, which is very unlike me. I love that bjork was totally emotionally drained after her role, because bitch killed it.
the director, lars von trier, founded this filmmaking style called dogma 95: "the goal of the dogma collective is to purify filmmaking by refusing expensive and spectacular special effects, postproduction modifications and other gimmicks. The emphasis on purity forces the filmmakers to focus on the actual story and on the actors' performances"....
so apparently the handheld camera and other lo-fi techniques are part of this master plan. this type of filmmaking definitely fits in with the marxist tones of DITD (seriously, reread your abridged marx theory and compare folks, shit is next levs).
watch dancer in the dark if nothing else than for bjork's performance. she's in company with bowie as one of the few musicians who can also act.
5/5 stars!
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