Dancer in the Dark (2000)

Ann Hale: Lars Von Trier is well known for making controversial and sometimes disturbing films. I tend to avoid his movies because they are just far too extreme for my tastes. Antichrist alone had me messed up for days. The stand out film in his portfolio is his heart wrenching musical Dancer in the Dark.

Bjork plays Selma, an immigrant from Czechoslovakia, who moved to America for two reasons: Her love of American musicals and to get surgical help for her son’s inevitable blindness. She doesn’t want her son to know that he will go blind, so she concocts a story to cover up the truth as his worrying will only make the blindness happen sooner. This lie comes back to haunt her when she does something to help a friend who ultimately betrays her and lands Selma in major trouble with the law.

Dancer in the Dark is hauntingly beautiful thanks almost fully in part to Bjork, who not only performed every song to perfection, but wrote them as well. This earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Music, Original Song. Personally, I think she was robbed as “I’ve Seen it All” was, in all honesty, a better song than Bob Dylan’s “Things Have Changed.” If you don’t remember her being nominated, I am sure you haven’t forgotten that swan dress she arrived wearing.

Bjork’s Selma is the most innocent and likeable person to ever exist, which makes her story so much more heart breaking in the end. I can honestly say that I have never cried so hard at a movie in my life and I warn people to proceed with caution but, as Dancer in the Dark is one of my favorite films of all time, I strongly encourage everyone to watch it at least once.

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