Lars Von Trier is in my mind a genius. While not every single film that he makes is a masterpiece, in fact the last film I watched by him (Manderlay) I thought was just average; I believe he is one of the smartest filmmakers around in this day and age of cinema. The first film I watched by him was Antichrist and that was a movie that truly blew my mind. It was something that I had never seen before and I loved it. Immediately I had to know more about him, his films, and his mind and since then I have tried to understand this man. I recently saw Melancholia and absolutely loved it and decided to go on a Von Trier binge by watching Dancer In The Dark. I knew very little of this film, only knowing that Bjork was in it and that was very questionable in my mind. Still, just seeing Melancholia, I was willing to give this movie a shot and hopefully one again enjoy this film.
Dancer In The Dark stars Bjork as Selma Jezkova a mother of a young boy and factory worker who just loves American musicals. She loves musicals so much; her days are filled with daydreams of singing and dancing in the factory or even on a train. Unfortunately Selma has a unique disease that is taking away her sight slowly will eventually make her blind. She manages to still work at her factory, fooling a doctor even to get permission, and pins hairpins in unbent cardboard so that she can raise and save money. She saves the money in hopes that one day she will be able to pay for a surgery to save her son from the same disease she has. Unfortunately Selma’s landlord (David Morse) has run into money troubles and cannot afford the rich lifestyle he has lived and continues to ask Selma for a “loan” to help out. I don’t want to give out too much story so this is where I will stop but know that it gets much more interesting as the story goes on.
