"Dancer in the Dark" is a breathtaking film, in the most literal sense of the adjective. At times, the audience cannot breathe.
What makes "Dancer" so spectacular is that in spite of its portrayal of a bleak reality, the film is a musical. It begins with an overture and ends with a curtain closing. But these escapes into fantasy surround some very dark scenes.
Directed by Lars von Trier, director of the highly acclaimed "Breaking the Waves," "Dancer" won this year's prestigious Palm D'Or at the Cannes film festival. Icelandic musical sensation Bjork won an honor at Cannes for her performance as well, and created the film's exquisite musical score. Bjork reportedly became so involved in the role she suffered emotional breakdowns during filming; she has vowed not to act again.
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This statement is understandable after one sees the film. The story of Selma, an ever-optimistic Czech immigrant secretly going blind and desperately trying to save enough money to prevent her son from the same hereditary fate, "Dancer" is not for the weak-hearted or the short of attention span. Do not enter the theater with popcorn or a soda. Don't consume much liquid beforehand: bathroom breaks are to be avoided at all costs. Simply enter with an open mind, accompanied by empathy.
Humanity is seldom seen on screen without makeup and explosive special effects; Selma is one of the most raw, human characters ever put up there. This is because she is real; the audience is merely eavesdropping on her life and the dramatic turns it cannot help but take. At first, audiences might resist Selma's reality, but for those who decide to stay, resistance will be futile. Selma will win you over and change the way you perceive the world and its injustices.
What Selma loves most about America is its musicals. Several of the film's scenes deal with the low-budget musical for which Selma is rehearsing before she goes completely blind. She is starring as Maria in "The Sound of Music."
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The sound of music is all-important in this film. Whenever Selma hears a beat, perhaps caused by the rhythm of factory machinery or the chugging-along wheels of a passing train, she creates full-scale musical numbers in her mind. As in most musicals, one can tell when the characters are about to start singing: the music swells, the film becomes brighter, more colorful, and suddenly Selma's world isn't so bleak anymore - it's "A New World," the title of one of the film's most powerful songs.
While filming the musical scenes, von Trier used as many as 100 cameras simultaneously so he could have as many potential shots and angles as possible. The resulting sequences bring so much vividness and entertainment to the screen that those watching, along with Selma, wish the music would never end, for the viewers move with Selma as she spins about, into and out of reality. Like Selma, we just want to escape into her dream world and forget about her tragedies. It is utterly heart-wrenching when the music ends and Selma is still smiling, yet faced with an even bleaker reality, a more magnified nightmare.
In the next-to-last song, Selma, now blind, sings, "If living is seeing, I'm holding my breath." The audience holds its breath with her. As this next-to-last song ends, they catch their breath, just as Selma does. Reality invades again, and the audience realizes that whether or not Selma really has "seen it all," as one song suggests, we have seen something entirely, surprisingly, provokingly raw, tender and moving, and will not soon forget it.
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