Very Secret Movie club ratings

movie rating
The Child 4/5
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 4/5
The Son's Room 3.5/5
Stranger Than Paradise 3/5
Dancer in the Dark
4/5
ChungKing Express
4/5
Happy Together3.5/5
My Blueberry Nights
3/5
Wild at Heart4/5
Summer Hours2/5
Revanche4/5
Blue Velvet
4/5
Inland Empire
3.5/5



Friday, August 8, 2008

Dancer In the Dark ( 2000)


"Cursed with a disease that threatens to take her sight, Selma Yeskova (Björk) struggles to raise money for an operation that could save her son from the same fate. To ease her anxiety, Selma relies on a dream life that takes the form of elaborate musical numbers. After she's accused of stealing, Selma's musical reverie helps her persevere against mounting odds." - Netflix


Director: Lars Von Trier

Cast: Bjork, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare, Joel Grey, Cara Seymour, Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier

Awards:

2001 Academy Award®: Best Music Song nominee

2001 Independent Spirit Awards®: Best Foreign Film

2001 Golden Globe Awards: Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) nominee

2 comments:

Arash Z said...

I had mixed feelings about this movie. For years I've liked Bjork's music but this was my first experience watching her act. For her acting skills I would give two thumbs up. The role was believable and the conversation flew fairly naturally. However the musical interludes kind of threw me in for a loop. I didn't like much of the musicals except for the train scene when she's describing to the man who adores her how she no longer needs to see and she has "seen it all". I had heard that song before on one of her cds and liked it before I had the context for which it was connected to. Even though I expected the movie to be a sort of noir drama I didn't quiet care for the gory scene in which she kills her neighbor even though the acting in that scene and realization of her shattered dreams came through was very well done by Bjork. I'm personaly very particular about the balance between the writers philosophical and social messege about poverty but felt he could have done a better job of bringing depth into the difficulty a blind persion may face. It seemed that everytime the perspective was from the angle of the main character's mind she was day dreaming and musicals started. Over all I would give it a four stars for bjork's acting, two stars for the writing and three stars for the directing and visual works.

Arash Z said...

:-) Should have done preview before posting. Writing this at 2:53 am means I mis-spelled and have grammer mistakes in my last post :D