Stars: Bjork, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Udo Kier, Peter Stormare, Joel Grey, Jean-Marc Barr

Director: Lars Von Trier

Summary: Selma, a Czech immigrant goes in search of a new life in America for her and her ten year old son. She is given a starring role in the local production of 'The Sound Of Music' and life seems relatively good apart from the fact that she has a genetic disorder that will leave her blind unless she can raise the money for an operation...

The final installment in Lars von Trier's Golden Heart trilogy (which includes BREAKING THE WAVES and THE IDIOTS), DANCER IN THE DARK takes the director's original blend of heightened pseudorealism and fabricated melodrama to a dangerously intense level. The story concerns Selma (Bjork), a Czech immigrant living in 1964 Washington State with her 12-year-old son, Gene (Vladan Kostic). On the verge of blindness, Selma spends her days working in a factory, as well as performing other odd jobs, in order to save up enough money to pay for an operation that will cure Gene of the same disease. To pass the time, Selma fantasizes that her own life is a musical, one in which her friends join her in sweeping song-and-dance routines. After her neighbor Bill (David Morse) discovers Selma's hidden savings and steals them from her, she is forced to perform an act of salvation that will condemn her forever. As the innocent Selma, Bjork is one of the most fragile and heartbreaking presences the screen has ever seen. Her unbearably moving performance is enough to keep the viewer mesmerized throughout, even amid the story gaps and inconsistencies. Featuring compassionate supporting turns by Catherine Deneuve and Peter Stormare, DANCER IN THE DARK is an unrelenting gut punch that will have sympathetic audiences quivering with uncontrollable emotion.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

Masterpiece or masquerade? Lars von Trier's digicam musical split the critics in two when it debuted at last year's Cannes film festival. There were those who saw it as a cynical shock-opera from a manipulative charlatan, others wept openly at its scenes of raw emotion and heart-rending intensity. There is, however, no in-between. Dancer In The Darkis that rarest of creatures, a film that dares to push viewers to the limits of their feelings.

In her first, and most probably last screen performance (she has foresworn acting after her bruising on-set rows with von Trier), brittle Icelandic chanteuse Björk plays Selma, a Czech immigrant living in a folksy American small town with her young son Gene. Selma is going blind and so will Gene if she does not arrange an important operation for him. To cover the expense, Selma works every hour she can, cheating on her eye tests so she can keep working at the local factory long after her vision has become too unreliable to work safely. She sublets a house from local-cop Bill (David Morse) and his wife, Linda (Cara Seymour). When nearly bankrupt Bill asks Selma for a loan she refuses, but he later returns and steals the money, which she demands back in a furious confrontation. In the ensuing mélee, Bill is fatally shot and Selma is arrested and put on trial. Will justice prevail?

Von Trier's passionate, provocative film runs all our emotional resources dry with suspense, giving us occasional flashes into Selma's gold heart and mind with superb song-and-dance numbers she conjures to banish the nightmare (Björk also wrote the score). At some two-and-a-half hours, it's not for lightweights, but anyone bored with today's smug, "ironic" cinema will relish this as an astonishing assault on the senses and a stark reminder of Von Trier's uncompromising talent. --Damon Wise

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Selmas Songs, Interview With Lars Von Trier, Behind The Scenes, Theatrical Trailer, Audio Description For The Visually Impaired
Year:	2000
Release Date:	July 15, 2002
Runtime:	134 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C C D 9077
Label:	Film Four Distributors
Keywords:	Dark, English, Dancer, Musical, Drama, Bjork
Genre:	Music/Performing Arts