|
Dancer
in the Dark is billed as a musical. It's the story of
Selma (Björk), a Czech immigrant, and single mother working
in a factory in rural America. Her salvation is her passion
for music, specifically, the all-singing, all-dancing
numbers found in classic Hollywood musicals.
Selma
harbours a sad secret: she is losing her eyesight and
her son stands to suffer the same fate if she can’t put
away enough money to secure an operation for him. When
a neighbour falsely accuses Selma of stealing his savings,
the drama of her life escalates to the tragic finale.
 |
| Pardon
me boys - Is this the Chattanooga choo-choo? |
Björk’s
character is, well, very Björk-like. She has the same
nervous, edgy quality that comes across in her music.
She comes across as a sensitive, trusting person, who
would do anything to protect anyone close to her (like
she did in real life attacking a reporter at Bangkok’s
Don Muang Airport when she felt her son was being thrust
into the media spotlight).
The
dialogue seems largely improvised. It’s littered with
lots of pregnant pauses. You can almost hear the actors’
brains whirring away, trying to come up with the next
line. For me it doesn’t come across as the sometimes stilted
and awkward conversation of everyday life, but rather
sounds contrived and more acted than a more conventional
style.
 |
| Not
your conventional musical location - a sink factory
|
What
sets the film apart is it's photographic style. Unlike
other films which let your eyes focus on whatever interests
them,
in this the camera is dictatorial. It remains in extreme
close-up a lot, only allowing you to look at the actor’s
eyes and mouth, not even their full face.
The
camera is restless throughout, quickly panning away from
people when they’re still speaking to try to capture another
person’s reactions.
This
might sound like a great style for your more art-house
movie but for me the wobbly quick moving image just induced
motion sickness and made the film difficult to sit through.
A
good story, but the film-making gets in the way of the
movie. My world is still spinning.
|
