"A
provocation’s purpose is to get people
to think. If you subject people to a provocation,
you allow them the possibility of their
own interpretation." —Lars von Trier
During
the opening minutes of the film, patterns
and colors ebb and flow against stirring
music, and are as lovely as can be, as
lovely as anything in FANTASIA. When the
story gets going, the colors wash out
like home movies from the ’60s.
DANCER
IN THE DARK is about Selma (Björk),
an immigrant from Czechoslovakia who lives
with a terrible secret. She is slowly
going blind from an inherited condition
that will also blind her son, Gene, unless
she can save up enough money for an operation
for him. Selma’s life is one of unrelenting
hard work and unstinting sacrifice, and
her only escape is musicals. Selma gets
a lift through her wearying days from
the production numbers running through
her head. She’s also rehearsing the role
of Maria in the local community group’s
production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC.
People
like Selma. Jeff (Stormare) wants to be
her boyfriend. Samuel (Patterson), the
director of the community musical, encourages
her and teases her about her love of tap-dancing.
Bill (Morse), the local cop and her neighbor
and landlord, and his wife Linda (Seymour)
give her little gifts. Her best friend
and co-worker Cathy (Deneuve) protects
her as fiercely as a mother bear, and
covers for her on-the-job screwups caused
by daydreaming and poor vision. Only 12-year-old
Gene, who resents his mother’s stinginess,
is immune to Selma.
Taking
on a factory job plus at-home piecework,
Selma tells everyone who asks that she
has to make money to send home to her
father in Czechoslovakia. She also claims
that her father’s name is Oldrich Novy.
Novy, unbeknownst to her American neighbors,
was a movie star in the 1930s and ’40s,
and known as the Czech Fred Astaire.
One
day, Selma and Bill exchange confidences,
setting in motion a train wreck of human
suffering. I don’t want to get into details
of how it all goes horribly, horribly
wrong. Suffice it to say that the story
plays out like an opera by Dickens. Our
heroine suffers worse and worse mistreatments
and indignities—the world so cruel and
she so good-hearted and unequal to it
all.
Too
bad that opera was set to Björk’s
jarringly modern music. Either you get
this music or you don’t. I don’t, and
it’s a large part of DANCER IN THE DARK,
which isn’t just about musicals, it is
a musical. Björk’s compositions are
more recitative than aria, and the accompaniment
of dance just seemed weird. Also, Selma’s
a lifelong fan of an elegant dancer from
the early days of movies, yet the choreography
of her internal dance numbers was more
Stomp-inspired. There is a factory scene
that incorporates the sounds of the machinery
and is reminiscent of that Astaire dance
number set in a ship’s engine room, but
that’s the closest the numbers come to
paying homage to her idol. I think DANCER
IN THE DARK should have had the courage
of its musical convictions and gone for
it, like PENNIES FROM HEAVEN did, or should
have left it alone.
On
the other hand, I had no problem seeing
Björk as Best Actress (she won at
Cannes), not so much because I loved the
film, but because she had hard, hard work
to do and did it. Like a jazz piece that
may not be your cup of tea but is undeniably
difficult to master, you have to respect
the performance. Now technical proficiency,
that’s a whole ’nother deal. Björk’s
no Meryl Streep, and her accent—sometimes
almost Cockney, sometimes some vaguely
undefined European styling—came and went.
I’m
always glad to see Lars Von Trier’s movies.
I don’t always like the overall product,
but I always have something to think about.
Here are some things I think he does well.
He takes good care of the actors, so that
no one is left out there, exposed and
embarrassed. That’s not to say that Selma’s
internal musicals aren’t ever embarrassing—they
are. But then, why shouldn’t they be?
Who among us has interior fancies that
could really bear the light of day? Also
Von Trier is good at mood, at making me
feel a time and place, just as he did
successfully in BREAKING THE WAVES. I
do think, though that it may be time to
move on from tales of sweet, kindly, addled
women whose love and selflessness for
another leads them to tragic, operatic
ends.
I’d
have to say that, as a movie, DANCER IN
THE DARK is a swing and a miss, though
it’s clear that Von Trier was aiming to
hit it out of the park. As a provocation,
it’s a home run.
On
a side note, the real-life Oldrich Novy,
played here by Joel Grey, was indeed the
Czech Astaire. He died in the 1980s, having
starred in THE BLUE STAR HOTEL and other
films. If anyone has a lead on where these
films can be rented, WRITE
ME!
.
—
Roxanne Bogucka — an Action Grrl!
-
While we would never encourage anyone
to destroy a video...
