Dancer in the Dark

Björk delivers an unforgettable performance in the film that earned her the Cannes prize for Best Actress and Lars von Trier his Palme d'Or.

In the postwar American heartland, Selma (played by a transcendent Björk) is a factory worker who has migrated from Czechoslovakia. Slowly going blind and knowing there is not much time left, Selma spends her days and nights working to save for an operation to prevent her son from inheriting the same condition.

Selma's best friend Kathy (Catherine Deneuve) and neighbour Bill (David Morse) look out for her, and she often escapes into a fantasy world where musical film logic rules.

However, fantasies can only protect her from the cruel vagaries of destiny for so long.

Curator's note

Five years after Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg mapped out the framework for their Dogme 95 manifesto – a strict set of rules for their brand of hyper-realistic aestheticism in narrative filmmaking – von Trier, broke the very rules he set with his crowning glory, Dancer in the Dark. Merging reality and fantasy, the film offsets stark natural lighting and handheld cinematography with frequent musical divergences, calling to mind the Hollywood musical, perhaps the least likely genre for von Trier to dabble.

As the final installment of Lars von Trier's Golden Heart trilogy, Dancer in the Dark places a revelatory Björk front and centre, portraying a character whose boundless kindness stands in stark contrast to the cruel world around her. The world in question is a capitalist America, incapable of supporting the most vulnerable on its fringe. Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, the film received both the Palme d'Or and the Best Actress prize for Björk. Additionally, Björk and screenplay writer Sjón were nominated for an Academy Award for the song ‘I've Seen It All’.

– Reece Goodwin, Curator (Film & TV)