Just saw "Dancer in the Dark"

[KvHagedorn]

Why did this movie get such rave reviews? The only good thing about the film was Bjork, and Lars von Trier (the filmmaker) goes to great lengths to make her character suffer ridiculously, since she was foolish enough to leave her communist-run homeland to live in America with the savage capitalist barbarians. She is put in a terrible situation by a weak and evil man and is promptly convicted of murder and hanged by the barbaric death penalty-loving Americans. Has anyone here seen the film? If so, do you think it bears any resemblance to reality whatsoever? Please post this view here so I can flame your knickers crispy black..

[paulcs]

Let's get down to the real nitty-gritty here. Is there nudity?

Paul
paulcs@speakeasy

[KvHagedorn]

Ha.. no

And can ANYONE buy Catherine Deneuve as a blue collar minimum wage factory worker at 60??? She looked as out of place as a 6yo ballerina in a coal mine.

If Bjork was not such a fascinating human being this movie would have no redeeming virtues whatsoever.

[Schorsch]

Re: Just saw "Dancer in the Dark"

Originally posted by KvHagedorn
She is put in a terrible situation by a weak and evil man and is promptly convicted of murder and hanged by the barbaric death penalty-loving Americans. Has anyone here seen the film? If so, do you think it bears any resemblance to reality whatsoever?

I have seen "Dancer In The Dark" and I think it's a pretty good movie. But I can understand that it's not everybody's cup of tea (when it was shown at the Cannes film festival quite a few critics left the cinema before the end of the film).
I don't think Lars von Trier wanted to make a "realistic" movie, and "Dancer In The Dark" is certainly not a moral judgement on "barbaric death penalty-loving Americans" (but if you want to make a movie where the plot is located in a modern Western country and ends with a execution, the USA is obviously the only possible location). Actually, the film is about a woman that gives away everything she has for another person and ultimately sacrifices herself for it (similar to "Breaking The Waves" which is probably von Trier's best film). Everything else is just a means of dramaturgy. If you don't watch "Dancer In The Dark" from that point of view, it's probably unbearable.

Georg

[box]

Re: Re: Just saw "Dancer in the Dark"

Originally posted by Schorsch


(similar to "Breaking The Waves" which is probably von Trier's best film)

Nope, that would be "The Element of Crime".

Everything since then has been downhill.

[Alec]

Schorsch has a point there...

[KvHagedorn]

I know if I were her son and had the choice between being told I had a congenital eye disorder and having my mother hanged, I would pick being told. And what kind of horrible human being could her new lawyer have been to just let her hang over a measly $2000 he wouldn't be getting? He'd already done all that research and everything. I'm sure he wouldn't just give back all the money either. And NO ONE gets executed that quickly in America. They take probably an average of 8-10 years to go through all the appeals before it happens. I think Lars von Trier could have done a couple of rewrites just to make things a bit less dumbfoundingly and laughably unrealistic, just so the ridiculousness did not get in the way of what he was trying to say.

Oh, and her boyfriend? What a moron! He says he loves her but could have sold his damn truck to pay for that lawyer.

Well, certainly if you just look at things from Bjork's character's point of view, it works in a way, but her character was as unreasonable as the plot. She was wrong to deprive herself of life in that way. She fails to realize how damaging that would be to her son, while all the while trying to benefit him.