| Dancer in the Dark | |
|---|---|
.png) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Lars von Trier |
| Written by | Lars von Trier |
| Produced by | Vibeke Windeløv |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Robby Müller |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Björk |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Angel Films (Denmark)[1] Les Films du Losange (France)[2] Constantin Film (Germany)[2] Istituto Luce (Italy)[2] Sandrew Metronome (Sweden)[2] FilmFour Distributors (United Kingdom)[2] Fine Line Features (United States)[2] |
Release dates |
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Running time | 140 minutes[3][4] |
| Countries |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | USD$12.5 million[5] (120 millionkr) |
| Box office | $45.6 million[5][6] (416 million kr) |
Dancer in the Dark is a 2000psychologicaltragedymusical[7] film written and directed byLars von Trier. It stars Icelandic musicianBjörk as a factory worker who suffers from a degenerative eye condition and is saving for an operation to prevent her young son from suffering the same fate.Catherine Deneuve,David Morse,Cara Seymour,Peter Stormare,Siobhan Fallon Hogan andJoel Grey also star. The soundtrack for the film,Selmasongs, was written mainly by Björk, but a number of songs featured contributions fromMark Bell and some of the lyrics were written by von Trier andSjón.
Dancer in the Dark is the third and final installment in von Trier's second trilogy "Golden Heart", followingBreaking the Waves (1996) andThe Idiots (1998).[8] It was an internationalco-production among companies based in thirteen European and North American countries and regions.[9] Like the first installment, it was shot with a handheld camera inspired byDogme 95.[10]
Dancer in the Dark premiered at the2000 Cannes Film Festival and won thePalme d'Or, along with theBest Actress Award for Björk.[11] The film received generally positive reviews, with Björk's performance being widely praised.
The song "I've Seen It All" performed and co-written by Björk, withSjón and von Trier, was nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Original Song, but lost to "Things Have Changed" byBob Dylan fromWonder Boys.[12]
InWashington State in 1964, Selma Ježková, aCzech immigrant, has moved to the United States with her 12-year-old son Gene Ježek. They live a life of poverty as Selma works at a factory with her good friend Kathy, whom she nicknames Cvalda. She rents a trailer home on the property of local police officer Bill Houston and his wife, Linda. She is romantically pursued by the shy but persistent Jeff.
Selma is gradually losing her vision due to a degenerative eye condition, but still is saving money to pay for an operation that will prevent Gene from sharing her fate. She also takes part in rehearsals for a production ofThe Sound of Music and accompanies Kathy to the local cinema, where together they watch Hollywood musicals, as Kathy describes them to her.
In her day-to-day life, Selma slips into daydreams, imagining herself in a musical ("Cvalda"). Jeff and Kathy begin to realize that Selma's vision is worse than they thought, and that she has been memorizing eye charts in order to pass vision tests and keep her job. Bill reveals to Selma that Linda's excessive spending has put the couple's house in danger offoreclosure by their bank. He has contemplated suicide but cannot bring himself to carry out the act. Selma promises to keep his secret and confides in him about her advancing vision loss. Bill pretends to leave, but watches Selma hide her money in a tin.
The next day, Selma's boss Norman believes that her eye condition has deteriorated; he accepts herresignation and pays her final wages, but promises to re-hire her once her sight has improved. However, Kathy accuses him of firing her. Not willing to get her job back, Jeff tries to escort her home by car, but she walks home along a railroad bridge instead ("I've Seen It All"). Opening the tin to add her money to it, Selma finds it empty. Realizing that Bill has robbed her, she goes to his house to confront him. Linda accuses Selma of trying toseduce her husband, explaining that Bill told her Selma wanted him for his money. Not wanting to reveal her knowledge of the impending foreclosure, Selma ignores Linda and confronts Bill about the theft. They fight over the money, with Bill drawing a gun only to be accidentally shot by Selma.
Bill yells for Linda to call the police, saying that Selma has tried to rob him, then begs Selma to kill him, telling her it is the only way she will ever reclaim her stolen money. Selma shoots Bill several times, but only wounds him further due to her poor vision, and finally beats him to death with her safe deposit box once the gun runs out of ammunition. She imagines that Bill's corpse stands up andslow dances with her, and he and Linda absolve her of blame and tell her she just did what she had to do ("Smith & Wesson"). Taking her money back, she flees the house and pays for Gene's operation in advance.
Not knowing about the murder, Jeff takes Selma to rehearsal, where her director calls the police to have her arrested ("In the Musicals, Part 1"). In court, she is accused of being aCommunist sympathizer and of pretending to be blind to exploit the American healthcare system. 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, even though revealing the secret could help to clear her name. When her claim of sending all her money to her father,Oldřich Nový, is proven false, she is convicted of murder andsentenced to death ("In the Musicals, Part 2"). Kathy and Jeff eventually figure out what happened and recover Selma's money, using it instead to pay for a trial lawyer who can free her. Selma refuses the lawyer, opting to face execution byhanging rather than let her son go blind, but she is deeply distraught as she awaits her death ("107 Steps"). As Selma reaches the gallows, she begins to panic and the guards strap her to a board. Kathy runs in with news that the operation has saved Gene's vision and gives his glasses to Selma. Relieved, Selma sings one final song on the gallows with no musical accompaniment, but is hanged before she can finish the last verse; the final lines are displayed as the proceedings conclude ("Next to Last Song").
The film's title suggests theFred Astaire/Cyd Charisse duet "Dancing in the Dark" from the 1953 filmThe Band Wagon, which ties in with the film's musical theatre theme.[citation needed]
ActressBjörk, who is known primarily as a contemporary musician, had rarely acted before, and described the process of making this film as so emotionally taxing that she would not act in any film ever again[13][14] (although she appeared inMatthew Barney's film installationDrawing Restraint 9 in 2005, and inRobert Eggers'The Northman). Trier and others have described her performance asfeeling rather than acting.[15] Björk has said that it is a misunderstanding that she was put off acting by this film; rather, she never wanted to act but made an exception for Lars von Trier.[16]
The musical sequences were filmed simultaneously with over 100digital cameras so that multiple angles of the performance could be captured and cut together later, thus shortening the filming schedule.[citation needed]
A DanishMY classlocomotive and oneT43 (#107) (both owned by Swedish train operatorTÅGAB) were painted in the AmericanGreat Northern scheme for the film, and not repainted afterward.[17][18]
Much of the film has a similar look to von Trier's earlierDogme 95-influenced films: it is filmed on low-end, hand-helddigital cameras to create a documentary-style appearance. It is not a true Dogme 95 film, however, because the Dogme rules stipulate that violence,non-diegetic music, and period pieces are not permitted. Trier differentiates the musical sequences from the rest of the film by using static cameras and by brightening the colours.[citation needed]
Selmasongs: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack 'Dancer in the Dark' is the first soundtrack album by Icelandic musicianBjörk. It was released on September 18, 2000, byOne Little Indian Records to promote and accompany the filmDancer in the Dark. In the film, Björk starred as Selma Ježková, a Czech immigrant who has moved to the United States. The album features classical arrangements, as well as melodies and beats composed of sounds from mundane objects, such as factory machines and trains.
Notably, some songs on the album have lyrics that are substantially different from their lyrics in the film, the most pronounced example being "Scatterheart". The album omits the vocals of actorsDavid Morse,Cara Seymour and Vladica Kostic. Some lyrics were rewritten, perhaps to prevent spoiling crucial plot details, since the soundtrack was released in stores before the movie opened in theaters, or to make the record flow better as a stand-alone album. In particular, on the song "I've Seen It All",Thom Yorke performs the words sung byPeter Stormare in the film. In addition, the tracks "My Favourite Things" and the original "Next to Last Song" do not appear on the album at all, despite appearances in the film.
The track "I've Seen It All" was nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Original Song, and was released as apromotional single in 2000. For the track, Björk made a "webeo" with directorFloria Sigismondi that premiered on September 1, 2000, onMTV.com. It used a shorter version of the song that the singer recorded specifically for the webeo.[19]At thereview aggregatorRotten Tomatoes,Dancer in the Dark earned positive reviews from 70% of 122 critics, with anaverage rating of 6.8/10. The critics consensus on the website reads, "Dancer in Dark can be grim, dull, and difficult to watch, but even so, it has a powerful and moving performance from Björk and is something quite new and visionary".[20] According toMetacritic, which assigned the film a weighted average score of 63/100 based on 33 critic reviews, the film received "generally favorable reviews".[21]
OnThe Movie Show,Margaret Pomeranz gave it five stars whileDavid Stratton gave it a zero, a score shared only byGeoffrey Wright'sRomper Stomper (1992).[22][23] Stratton later described it as his "favourite horror film".[24]Peter Bradshaw ofThe Guardian dubbedDancer in the Dark the "most shallow and crudely manipulative" film of 2000,[25] and in 2009 he described it as "one of the worst films, one of the worst artworks and perhaps one of the worst things in the history of the world".[26]
The film was praised for its stylistic innovations.Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times wrote: "It smashes down the walls of habit that surround so many movies. It returns to the wellsprings. It is a bold, reckless gesture".[27] Edward Guthmann from theSan Francisco Chronicle wrote: "It's great to see a movie so courageous and affecting, so committed to its own differentness".[28] However, criticism was directed at its storyline.Jonathan Foreman of theNew York Post described the film as "meretricious fakery" and called it "so unrelenting in its manipulative sentimentality that, if it had been made by an American and shot in a more conventional manner, it would be seen as a bad joke".[29] Fiachra Gibbons, writing forThe Guardian, considered the film to be "the most unusual, extraordinary feel-good musical ever made".[30]
In 2016, David Ehrlich rankedDancer in the Dark as one of the best films of the 21st century, hailing Björk's performance as the "single greatest feat of film acting" since 2000.[31] Björk's performance is also ranked in the "25 Best Performances Not Nominated for an Oscar of the 21st Century" list.[32]Mia Goth credited the performance as one of her main influences, dubbing it "perfect" and "faultless".[33][34]
The film previewed on 12 screens in Denmark where it grossed 1,562,965Danish krone ($180,223). It officially opened in Scandinavia on 8 September 2000 where it grossed a disappointing $288,723 in its opening weekend. It grossed $103,102 (kr. 0.9 million) from 49 screens in Denmark, finishing in second place behindX-Men. In Sweden, it opened in fifth place with a gross of 928,621Swedish krona ($96,330) from 34 screens. It also opened in fifth place in Norway with a gross of 587,495Norwegian krone ($63,858). In Finland, it came sixth with a gross of 152,598Finnish markka ($25,433) from six screens.[35]Overall, it grossed $45.6 million worldwide, including $4.2 million in the United States and Canada.[5] It wasnumber one at the Japanese box office for three weeks.[36]
Dancer in the Dark premiered at the2000 Cannes Film Festival and was awarded thePalme d'Or, along with theBest Actress award for Björk.[37] The song "I've Seen It All" was nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Original Song, at the performance of which Björk woreher famous swan dress.
Sight & Sound magazine conducts a poll every ten years of the world's finest film directors to find out the Ten Greatest Films of All Time. This poll has been going since 1952, and has become the most recognised poll of its kind in the world.[38] In 2012,Cyrus Frisch was one of the four directors who voted forDancer in the Dark. Frisch commented: "A superbly imaginative film that leaves conformity in shambles".[39] Director Oliver Schmitz also lauded the work as "relentless, claustrophobic, the best movie about capital punishment as far as I'm concerned".[40]
In 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition ofThe New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 218.[41]
Bjork vowed never to act again after making Dancer in the Dark in 2000, despite winning a best actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Right now, I feel very strong about focusing on music
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Xan Brooks leads a critics' roundtable on the highs and lows, the sublime to the ridiculous at the 2009 Cannes film festival, before sailing into the sunset. See video at 8:20.
Singer Bjork amazing in von Trier's tragedy
Despite 2 Good Performances, 'Dancer' Is Just Fakery with an Anti-american Drum To Beat
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