From Lars Von Trier with Björk in the lead role. This is the most boring movie I have ever seen: very bad and shaky direction from unbelievable angles, depressing story of an already worn out formula, the horrible music of Björk that every time there was a musical segment it felt like an endless torture, her totally insipid representation... I did not even regretted that she died at the end. Even more depressing is the fact that this is an idea of Lars Von Trier that I even had in some consideration but this is very amateur.

I only saw this movie once, while I was in high school. I watched it over the course of a whole weekend, as I had to stop each 15 minutes for crying. It is the most heartbreaking movie about the injustice there is in the world, about the beauty of emotional and good hearted people. It portrays love, but in a way that it has no power, if not for the beauty it brings for a moment in time. It still remains the saddest movie I have seen in my life. Bjork is delivering such beautiful acting.

her performance. her dance. her manner to use the details of the role for give a delicate, cruel, dramatic story about innocence, about clash with a strange universe and the end of dream. a film far to be comfortable. not only for the clear mark of director but for a rare form of honesty who has the gift to ignore the genres. story of a woman from East who hopes become happy . and the way for define the new world. one of films who are not exactly dark or bitter or dramatic or cruel. but only a question to the viewer. about choices and decisions. about status of the other. about dreams and about limits of gestures. about loneness and about value of life. about beauty. and about truth. about importance of refuges. a film for powerful memories. and not real comfortable answers.

Lars Von Trier's "Dancer In The Dark" is set in an isolated working class milieu, where we follow Selma (Björk), a Czech immigrant who's eye sight gradually deteriorates throughout the film. In the first 20 minutes, we instantly understand our protagonist's primary interests and ambitions: Gene (her son) and music. These two things carry her forthwith throughout the film, music especially, even when the odds gradually go against her. Dancer In The Dark is a story of betrayal and injustice, themes that were explored in Trier's previous film "Breaking The Waves". Selma's viscera manifests in her determination to sacrifice for what she loves, namely her son, so much show that she was willing to sacrifice her own life to ensure that the congenital eye disease that will inevitably effect her son will be cured with the money she saved. Despite the atrocities our protagonist witnesses, she maintains a sense of elation through her affinity with music. Riddled throughout the film are elaborate dance scenes which play out like musical dance numbers. Unfortunately, the songs aren't great and are tedious. They abruptly get in the way of the scenes that are taking place. The dance numbers and songs end up being the film's weakest point, excluding the song before 107 steps (which unfortunately is not on the official soundtrack for the film), in which our protagonists finds peace in singing to the sound of hymns coming from a church. This scene, aside from the last scene, is possibly the most powerful scene in the entire film. The jerky camera that is experienced for a great deal of the film is kept extremely still, and the audience is allowed to see our protagonist's emotional ascent from sorrow to euphoria. I can't say this for all the songs unfortunately. Like my aforesaid remarks, they are tedious and feel like left overs from Björk's debut record. Despite my gripes with the song, they do serve another purpose other than just killing time. As the atrocities of the film only worsen, the audience, like Selma, are just longing for the next musical dance number to appear to escape from the trauma, and thus these songs are effectively used as a comforting tool to distract the audience from remembering that even more atrocities await. This applies to Björk's character as well--a mere distraction. While acknowledging this, these songs last way too long and aren't enjoyable enough to justify their length. Speaking of the camera, the cinematography is consistently good despite the camera that jerks around on more than one occasion. It's not as bad as a Michael Bay film, however the awkward editing (which is most likely an artistic decision on Von Trier's part) becomes distracting at points. All the performances are generally well done, namely Björk's and Catherine Deneuve's. However, these actors don't shine until the latter half of the film. In the first 20 minutes, the jagged editing are especially present and Björk scolding Gene was especially laughable, however this is redeemed by her fantastic performance for the last 40-50 minutes or so. The final scene is a grotesque and agonizing scene, as the audience suffers as much as our protagonist. We see our beloved protagonist struggle for survival, find peace, and then meet their inevitable doom. This film may not live up to Von Trier's other masterpieces (Riget/Kingdom, Breaking The Waves, and Europa come to mind.) However, this film remains as a powerful naturalistic drama. This film isn't hard to like, alas it is hard to love.Rating: 7.5/10