"Dancer in the dark""

Lars von Trier's critically acclaimed breakthrough-film "Breaking the waves" is a dreadfully sad story about a deeply religous woman who sacrificies her body and eventually commits suicide in praise of her perverted husband. The overall story-telling is sparce, gloomy and probably as far as you could get from the naive cheerfulness and the multi-colored arrangements of Björk's "Debut"-album. Lars von Trier still wanted the Icelandic singer to play the role of "Selma", a Chechz musical-worshipping immigrant and single mother, in his semi-musical-project "Dancer in the dark".

The story takes place back in the 1960s in a grey-shaded factory-area in USA. The main-character Selma suffers from a heredity disease, which threatens to make her blind. Her son Gene has got the same disease and Selma works overtime in a factory to save money to be able to pay for an operation that will rescue his eye-sight. Inbetween the working hours she's rehearsing for a role in an amateur-version of "Sound of music". One day a police-officer with financial problems steals all the money she has saved for her son's operation. Selma is forced to kill the police-man to take the money back. Unfortunately the police catches her and after a brief trial, she is sentenced to death. The last 45 minutes of the film consists of an extremely long-drawn and painful description of her way from the death-cell to the execution.   

The filming-technices in "Dancer in the dark" are just as remarkably sparce as in "Breaking the waves". It's  mainly shot by a single low-color hand-camera, which makes it seem like an amateur-made homevideo. The plot is especially tragical, since the shy and introvert character of Selma is very easy to identify with. Luckily there are some muscial elements, courtesy of Björk, assisted by colorful dance-sequences, which lightens the mood and creates a well-working contrast to the otherwise harsch and brutal straight-forward-story-telling. Selma is assisted by her friend Kathy (played by Catherine Deneuve) and an anonymous cavalier (played by Peter Stormare), who adds some comical elements to the film.

"Dancer in the dark" is completely based on Björk and the fate of Selma and the other characters literary stay in the background. The Icelandic singer does an extremely convincing and captiviating interpretion of the film's tormented and self-sacrificing character and I definitely think she was worth winning the female acting-prize in Cannes. All the similarities between Björk and Selma (they're both  musicians, single mothers, immigrants etc) must have made the filming especially difficult. But to anyone who has spent hours watching her videos live-performances, her acting skills shouldn't come as a surprise.

Occasionally I find "Dancer in the dark" even more captivating than the masterpiece "Breaking the waves". The musical elements adds some more aspects to the psychological drama. Selma is a remarkable character since manages to remain strong and independent, though she sends out a great deal of warmth and innocence. A warning must be put though, since the final scenes are extremely painful, showing every detail of Selma's realistic, long-drawn wait for her execution. There are more tears, shrieks of pain and close-ups of emotional breakdowns than in any other Lars von Trier-production. Despite the sadness, the film remarkably enough, never turns into nostalgia. If you're very sensitive or easily affected by movies, then I seriously advice you to leave before the final scenes. Many American critics have also been put by the film's negative view of the American law-system.

The music for the film is quite remiscent of the "Homogenic"-era, but a bit more focused on real-life-sounds and industrial rhythm-structures. Björk has added some musical clichées and grateful orchestral arrangements to make it fit more with Selma's taste. Again she has kept crossing and combining videly different genres and created something just as innovative as skillful. Björk herself has claimed the music for the film to be her best work ever. So just go to the cinema and don't forget to bring handkerchiefs. Trust me, you'll need them!