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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: New Line Home Video
Salesrank: 4044
Released: March 20, 2001 |
| Our Price: $4.62 |
| Used Price: $3.68 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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| Features:
Closed-captioned Color Dolby DTS Surround Sound DVD Widescreen NTSC | |
Editorial Review:
Recording star bjork is miraculous as selma a factory worker in ruarl america and single mother who is losing her eyesight from a hereditary disease. Determined to protect her 10-year-old son from the same fate selma is saving her money to get him an operation. Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 02/08/2005 Starring: Catherine Deneuve David Morse Run time: 141 minutes Rating: R Director: Lars Von Trier
Description of Dancer in the Dark (New Line Platinum Series):
Masterpiece or masquerade? Lars von Trier's digicam musical split the critics in two when it debuted at Cannes in 2000. There were those who saw it as a cynical shock-opera from a manipulative charlatan, others wept openly at its scenes of raw emotion and heart-rending intensity. There is, however, no in-between. Dancer in the Dark is that rarest of creatures, a film that dares to push viewers to the limits of their feelings.
In her first and most probably last screen performance (she has foresworn acting after her bruising on-set rows with von Trier), brittle Icelandic chanteuse Björk plays Selma, a Czech immigrant living in a folksy American small town with her young son, Gene. Selma is going blind and so will Gene if she does not arrange an important operation for him. To cover the expense, Selma works every hour she can, cheating on her eye tests so she can keep working at the local factory long after her vision has become too unreliable to work safely. She sublets a house from a local cop, Bill (David Morse), and his wife, Linda (Cara Seymour). When nearly bankrupt Bill asks Selma for a loan, she refuses, but he later returns and steals the money, which she demands back in a furious confrontation. In the ensuing melee, Bill is fatally shot and Selma is arrested and put on trial. Will justice prevail?
Von Trier's passionate, provocative film runs all our emotional resources dry with suspense, giving us occasional flashes into Selma's gold heart and mind with superb song-and-dance numbers she conjures to banish the nightmare (Björk also wrote the score). At some two-and-a-half hours, it's not for lightweights, but anyone bored with today's smug, "ironic" cinema will relish this as an astonishing assault on the senses and a stark reminder of von Trier's uncompromising talent. --Damon Wise
Dancer in the Dark (New Line Platinum Series) Reviews:
eclectic 
2009-10-10 - Amazing emotional acting by Bjork. You need to understand the eclecticism of Bjork to full enjoy this beautiful movie.
Have to like Bjork's singing to love 
2009-10-01 - I rented this movie at the library based on reviews posted here. I have to say.....you have to REALLY like Bjork's music to entirely enjoy the film. I found her acting to be incredible, and the story had me riveted, but the musical numbers? Just couldn't get through them. I actually fast-forwarded after the first two. They were just too bizarre for me. Everything else about this film was amazing and I would still recommend seeing it, just be prepared for ALOT of musical numbers in Bjork's style of singing.
wow! 
2008-12-22 - Extremely powerful and emotional. Raw. Truly original and like nothing I have ever seen before. I watched this movie for the first time while at a friends house with a group of friends, it broke my heart so many times, by the end I couldn't control my tears. I had to get up and leave the room to burst into tears... Didn't want anyone seeing me crying. But upon returning to their living room, I found I wasn't the only one with wet eyes.... Bjork put on a performance like no other.
a keeper
2008-11-22 - Amazing film! Haunting memories for months.
Not for the mainstream movie goer.
will make you sob uncontrollably
2008-06-04 - I've never seen a movie that gets at your core and gets under your skin like this film. I'm attracted and repulsed by this film at the same time in that it is such a good film but also actually emotionally painful to watch. I've seen this film 3 times and each time I sob uncontrollably at the end. I recommend this film to people but also caution them because it is so powerful that it transcends the surface entertainment that most films are made for. I know it is just a movie but there is something deeper in this film that transforms in into a very believable temporary reality that lingers on after you've seen the film. Perhaps it is also due to Bjork's acting which in some cases, she wasn't acting, but actually being Selma. She did say that it was emotionally draining making the film. I don't usually waste my time writing reviews for movies, but after seeing this film, you have to get it out of you. I'm just trying to shake it off.
