Dancer In The Dark (2000)

Set in 1964 Washington state, a Czech immigrant (Bjork) is going blind and her son (Vladica Kostic) will eventually succumb to the same fate unless he has an operation. Written and directed by Lars von Trier, the film won the Palme d'Or and Bjork won the best actress award at the Cannes film festival. In the movie, Bjork's character says, "Nothing dreadful ever happens in musicals". Well, obviously they do in a Lars von Trier musical. If you've seen von Trier's films like BREAKING THE WAVES or DOGVILLE (to name just two), you know his heroines are victims and he sadistically likes to put them through the worst suffering and pain and boy, does he drag it out. DANCER IN THE DARK is no different. It's an excellent film with a powerful central performance by Bjork (amazing considering she and von Trier didn't get along) and some beautiful moments scattered throughout the film. But more than once during the movie, I couldn't help but wonder "Why?" or "Enough already!" when it came to his constant torturing of the film's heroine. It's a divisive film that I would be hesitant about recommending unless I knew the person really well. Bjork wrote the songs for the film and the choreography was done by Vincent Paterson, who plays a community theater director in the film. The song I've Seen It All (nominated for a best song Oscar) is one of the best musical sequences I've ever seen! With Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare, Joel Grey, Stellan Skarsgard, Cara Seymour, Siobhan Fallon, Jean Marc Barr, Udo Keir and Zeljko Ivanek.