Dancer in the Dark

Dancer in the Dark haunted me. This film was an amazing view into the human mind as well as a tragic story of hopeless hope, betrayal by others, and still remaining true to yourself. Bjork produces an inspirational performance, of which one would never think she is not primarily an actress. Some of her moments in this film bring you to tears with their absolute honesty. The ensemble cast are a godsend as well. Peter Stormare, Catherine Denevue, and David Morse in particular. Morse, playing the most varied and difficult character, succeeds with apparent ease. The only complaint I had of the film is that it was slightly drawn out and slow paced. However, it is still spiked with moments of surprise that knock you so hard, you are pulled back in immediately. With an incredible closeness to these people, Dancer in the Dark will make you think and stretch your emotions to the limit.

I admit I had to watch this a few times, the music is intriguing and ethereal, but the story seems on a parallel universe of strange, then scary, then a form of horror. But also a story of hope, which is to say, its confusing.

Basically Selma is a Czech immigrant who wants to find a life for herself, she has a secret in that her disease causes her to become at first near-sighted and myopic, she then is nearly blind.

She does not live a pretty life, works in a factory but finds that the machines are rhythmic, and as she also enjoys old musicals from the 40's and 50's this is her form of escape. This is the better part of the story, her spirit and how she endeavors to survive.

I am not a major fan of Bjork but I do like her voice and she is very affecting here, I think I had seen a very odd documentary about her made early in her career.

Am wondering what she is doing lately, as this film is well-acted and she portrays the sad and eventually discarded Selma, in a very convincing yet not trite manner. Good performances also with David Morse, Cara Seymour, Peter Stormare and the always beautiful Catherine Deneuve. 9/10.

This is quite possibly the most moving film I've seen, it ensnares you within the first minute, or Bjork does with her interpretation of the sound of music, which is both hilarious and introduces one of the main themes: the magic of musicals. Not one of my favourite genres (but everyone loves The Sound Of Music, right?) but Lars Von Trier makes you re-evaluate your perception with a gentle loving pastiche of the way for no reason people and things in musicals spontaneously erupt into song, made more credible in this film by implicating a reason for it: Bjork's character is going blind so she hears music in the slightest thing and she, in her mind, sees how moves should be choreographed with the music she hears, reminiscent of her own ‘It's Oh So Quiet' music video. And the best thing about this film is the way Bjork charms you with her portrayal of the nicest person in the world, she will do anything for you if she could. She is essentially an innocent and though this is her weakness you can't help but love her all the more: a sparkling performance from a unique singer in real life.

However from this don't assume that this is a light happy film as there is a dark tragic side also, and this side is full of injustice, agony- and I mean agony-, sorrow- like you'd not believe-, and an intense emotional pull as I've ever felt in a cinema before, and it's this half that propels it from being just a great film to becoming one of the greatest. Its greatness is in telling a simple story of a woman trying to stop her own genetic sight disorder afflicting her son, by working every hour to afford the operation, working heavy machinery despite essentially being virtually blind, its greatness is its ability to inflict upon you the gift of feeling every conceivable emotion you posses and you do, you really do experience so much during this film. But I'll not say too much as my enjoyment of this film increased due to, for a change, not second guessing what would happen but to just let it be, I would say to passively watch but there's nothing passive about this film. It really moves you. It makes you feel alive.

This film should be seen alone, in the quiet when you are all by yourself, but more importantly than that it should be seen: this is more than mere movie this is art this is real this is the greatest film I have ever seen: even better than Casablanca, and Shadowlands, and The Piano.

Why? Because it's a one of a kind movie. The acting is superb (especially Bjork), direction assured and the musical numbers are great. Still, it's the most depressing film I've ever seen. By the end of the film I was crying practically non-stop. It's so bleak I don't think I'll ever see it again, but it should be seen at least once by everybody. It shows misery and suffering full throttle. You'll either love it or loathe it (I'm somewhere in th middle), but you'll never see anything like it again and you won't forget it. Just bring lots of Kleenex.

This felt so real. When I watch films these days, I am always watching them with a critical eye for technicality or acting. This film brought me into it's world, the magical world of bjork. Even the musical parts drew me in, because they were so oddly out of place.

I've seen people complaining about Bjork's acting... I honestly haven't felt this emotional over an actors performance in years. And I've seen hundreds of movies this year alone. She made me fall in love, She was innocent, destroyed by the greed of human nature. Honestly, All technical problems aside. I mean the grain was awful, It looks like it was shot with a mini dv camera, and Von trier probably should have hired a camera operator.

This was easily one of my top 10 films I've seen this year.