For a Danish filmmaker to make it in movies, switching to the English language and opting for an American setting, even an ersatz one, are a necessary part of the game so are gimmicks like the Dogma 95 Manifesto, the call for a technically austere cinema, which worked on the credulous American press exactly the way it was designed to when von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg turned up in Cannes five years ago with The Idiots and The Celebration, respectively. In a way, von Trier’s postmodern blend of national flavors is one way of acknowledging that nationalities are beginning to die out - that multinational companies, not national governments, are making most of the decisions that count nowadays, including those that map out our futures. Something personal as well as highly exploitative is being worked out here, and watching it spread like a virus across the screen and 139 minutes is part of its fascination. Von Trier - a Dane who has never set foot in this country and has no intention of doing so because of his aversion to planes - had communist parents who considered musicals capitalist rubbish, and Singin’ in the Rain provided one of his formative childhood experiences. The musical numbers reek of some of the same flavor and intolerant anticommunist Americans are much in evidence. It’s not too surprising considering that this movie offers a horrific view of the American justice system, one you’d expect to find in an east European propaganda film shot 40 or 50 years ago. Though the movie certainly has its American defenders, many of its most vociferous detractors come from this country too. Viewers are struck by its technology (it was allegedly shot with 100 stationary digital cameras) as well as its aesthetics, its setting and social aspects, and its melodramatic story, not to mention its musical numbers. Ever since this musical about a woman from communist Czechoslovakia working in an American factory won the Palme d’Or and best actress prize (for rock star Bjork) from a Cannes jury headed by Luc Besson - one of the only Europudding directors who’s both crass and clever enough to rival von Trier as the most shameless sensationalist around - it has provoked hysterical reactions, pro as well as con. To put it in the singsongy fashion of its own tacky musical numbers, Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark enrages as well as engages, but I must confess that it also fascinates with its capacity to elicit extreme reactions. J.R.ĭirected and written by Lars von Trier With Bjork, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare, Joel Grey, and Jean-Marc Barr. From the Chicago Reader (October 27, 2000).
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