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Dancer in the Dark

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"Dancer in the Dark" is also the title of a 2004 science fiction story by David Gerrold: see Dancer in the Dark (story).
Dancer in the Dark is a Golden Palm winning musical film released in the year 2000. It was directed by Lars von Trier and stars Björk Guðmundsdóttir, Catherine Deneuve, Vladica Kostic, David Morse, Cara Seymour and Peter Stormare. The movie is part three in a trilogy of films by von Trier that includes Breaking the Waves and The Idiots (Danish: Idioterne). The soundtrack for the film, released as the album Selmasongs, was created entirely by Björk. Although set in Washington state, the film was shot in Sweden.

Contents

Plot

Björk in Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark
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Björk in Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film, which takes place in America in 1964, focuses around Selma Jezkova (Björk), a Czech immigrant who has moved to the United States with her son, Gene Jezkova (Kostic). They live a life of poverty as Selma works at a factory with her good friend Kathy, who she nicknames Cvalda (Deneuve). She rents a trailer home on the property of town policeman Bill Houston (Morse) and his wife Linda Houston (Seymour). She is also pursued by the shy but persistent Jeff (Stormare) who also works at the factory.

What no one in Selma's life knows is that she has a hereditary, degenerative disease which is gradually causing her to go blind. She has been saving up every penny that she makes (in a tin can in her kitchen) to pay for an operation which will prevent her young son from the same fate.

To escape the misery of her daily life Selma accompanies Cvalda to the local cinema where together they watch fabulous Hollywood musicals (or more accurately, Selma listens as Cvalda describes them to her (to the aggravation of the other theater patrons) or acts out the dance steps upon Selma's hand using her fingers.) In her day-to-day life, when things are too boring or upsetting, Selma slips into daydreams or perhaps a trance-like state where she imagines the ordinary circumstances and individuals around her have erupted into elaborate musical theater numbers. These songs, as do many of Björk's songs, take some sort of real life noise (from factory machines buzzing to the sound of a flag rapping against a flag pole in the wind) as an underlying rhythm.

Unfortunately she slips into one such trance while working a machine at the factory, which she breaks. She is fired from her job. Soon Jeff and Cvalda begin to realize that Selma can barely see at all. Additionally, Bill reveals to Selma that his materialistic wife, Linda, has exhausted all of his savings and asks Selma for a loan, which she declines to give. To comfort Bill, Selma reveals her secret blindness, hoping that together they can share one another's secret. Bill then hides in the corner of Selma's home, knowing she can't see him, and watches as she puts some money in her kitchen tin.

The next day when Selma comes home she finds the tin is empty. She goes next door to report the theft to Bill and Linda only to hear Linda discussing how Bill has brought home their safe deposit box to count their savings. She additionally reveals that Bill has "confessed" his affair with Selma, and that Selma must move out immediately. Knowing that Bill was broke and that the money he is counting must be hers, she confronts him and attempts to take the money back. He draws a gun on her and in a struggle he is shot.

Linda discovers the two of them and, assuming that Selma is attempting to steal the money, runs off to tell the police. Bill begs Selma to take his life, and she shoots at him several times, but in her state of hysterics, manages to only maim Bill further. In the end she performs a coup de grâce with the safe deposit box. (In one of the scenes, Selma slips into a trance and imagines that Bill's corpse stands up and slow dances with her, urging her to run to freedom.) She does, and takes the money to the Institute for the Blind to pay for her son's operation before the police can take it from her.

Selma is caught and eventually put on trial. It is here that she is pegged as a Communist sympathizer and murderess. Although she tells as much truth about the situation as she can, she refuses to reveal Bill's secret, saying that she had promised not to. Additionally, when her claim that the reason she didn't have any money was because she had been sending it to her father in Czechoslovakia is proven false, she is convicted and given the death penalty.

Cvalda and Jeff eventually put the pieces of the puzzle together and get back Selma's money, using it instead to pay for a trial lawyer who can free her. Selma becomes furious and refuses the lawyer, opting instead to die rather than allow her son to go blind. In the end Selma is hanged to death, an innocent woman doing nothing more than trying to make a better life for her child.

Spoilers end here.

Full cast

Björk: Selma Jezkova
Catherine Deneuve: Kathy
David Morse: Bill Houston
Peter Stormare: Jeff
Joel Grey: Oldrich Novy
Cara Seymour: Linda Houston
Vladica Kostic: Gene Jezkova
Jean-Marc Barr: Norman
Vincent Paterson: Samuel
Siobhan Fallon: Brenda
Zeljko Ivanek: District attorney
Udo Kier: Dr. Porkorny
Jens Albinus: Morty
Reathel Bean: Judge
Mette Berggreen: Receptionist
Lars Michael Dinesen: Defense attorney
Katrine Falkenberg: Suzan
Michael Flessas: Angry man
John Randolph Jones: Detective
Noah Lazarus: Officer of the Court.
Sheldon Litt: Visitor
Andrew Lucre: Clerk of Court
John Martinus: Chairman
Luke Reilly: New Defense Counsel
T.J. Rizzo: Boris
Stellan Skarsgård: Doctor
Sean-Michael Smith: Person in doorway
Paprika Steen: Woman on night shift
Eric Voge: Officer
Nick Wolf: Man with hood
Timm Zimmermann: Guard
Troels Asmussen: Dancer (uncredited)
Marianne Bengtsson: Dancer (uncredited)
Edvin Karlsson: Dancer (uncredited)
Anders Skovsted: Uncredited

Music

Original music: Björk and Mark Bell (uncredited).
Singers: Björk, Catherine Deneuve, Siobhan Fallon, David Morse, Peter Stormare, Cara Seymour, Vladica Kostic.
Lyrics: Lars von Ttrier and Sjón Sigurðsson.
Non-original music: Richard Rodgers.
Choreographer: Vincent Paterson.

Awards

Dancer in the Dark debuted at the Cannes Film Festival to standing ovations and controversy and was awarded the Golden Palm and the Best Actress award for Björk. The song "I've Seen It All" was nominated for an Oscar for best song, the performance of which launched Björk's famous swan-dress. A list of all of the various awards and nominations:

Nominated

Won

Critical reaction

Positive Reviews

Negative Reviews

''

Trivia

External links

 

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