The thing is, if you don't like Bjork, you probably won't like Dancer in the Dark. And if you do, it will go a long way towards you loving it. However, seeing as Bjork is exceedingly Bjork-like in this film, let's just say that we all like Bjork just to make my life easier.
Bjork plays Selma, an immigrant in America, supporting her young son by working long hours for low pay at a local factory. She lives in a trailer on the land of a clean, young, American-dream couple with whom she
has a shy friendship. She is only just scratching a living, and has to work punishing hours to save up for an operation to cure the onset of hereditary blindness which will eventually strike her son. She is losing her sight already, and is making dangerous mistakes at work. It becomes more and more clear that her life is centred on her desperation to give her son a better chance than she had. To relieve the drab atmosphere of the factory, Selma begins to make musicals in her head from the sounds of the machinery.
It is filmed in a simplistic, no-frills style which borders on arty hand-held-camera stuff (I'm sure I should be a bit more appreciative or knowledgeable or summat.) but remains completely watchable, largely due to
its harmony with Bjork's natural, artless acting. The song-and-dance fantasy scenes are fabulously charming, in that breathless, gritty-sweet style of much of Bjork's music, but be prepared for a complete lack of irony that comes as a bit of a shock to our cynical systems (this is the bit that repels the non-Bjorkites). This contrasts with the unforgiving circumstances that lead to the most climactic ending to a film I have ever seen. The story, despite being on paper what sounds like an American straight-to-video, grows in power and runs further and further away from being a good ol' weepie, but that's the stuff I can't tell you about.
Dancer in the Dark works on two levels, taking an individual situation and elevating it to universal relevance - the quality that makes great films great. This is definitely my best film of the year. |
