Dancer in the Dark

R

Released Oct 6, 2000

2 hr. 20 min.

Drama

List

70%

122 Reviews

Tomatometer

91%

50,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Selma is a Czech immigrant, a single mother working in a factory in rural America. Her salvation is passion for music, specifically, the all-singing, all-dancing numbers found in classic Hollywood musicals. Selma harbors a sad secret: she is losing her eyesight and her son Gene stands to suffer the same fate if she can't put away enough money to secure him an operation. When a desperate neighbor falsely accuses Selma of stealing his savings, the drama of her life escalates to a tragic finale.

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Critics Consensus

Dancer in Dark can be grim, dull, and difficult to watch, but even so, it has a powerful and moving performance from Bjork and is something quite new and visionary.

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j a

Watching this was like watching tommy wiseau's 'The Room' It appears so laughably amateurish that you think you are not in on the joke. That's all I have to say really, utter garbage from start to finish if it is meant to be serious then it's definitely one of the worst films I've ever seen but I suspect its done on purpose for some reason. Worst thing was I found out after this 'director' slaughtered a donkey for one of his films and now I feel even more sick I watched this trash.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

03/22/24

Full Review

Jill C

NOT depressing... just supremely SAD. Neither me or my husband have ever forgotten the first run screening of this. We'd planned to go out for dinner afterward and just had to go straight home, shellshocked. Proceed to fetal position. A film for grownups. And -in a weird way- it's a musical. Did not affect our appreciation.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/16/24

Full Review

Alec B

Often its cynicism is a bit too juvenile (even by Von Trier standards) but there is still something strangely compelling about the film's brutality mixed with these really peculiar songs. Also, I think that Bjork has just the right kind of otherworldly innocence for the role.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/09/24

Full Review

Kyle M

Though immaturely dampened by its melodramatic resonance that overdid the irrational sense of direction just to stir up the powerhouses in the performances without an additional thought on how it should've gone, classily edgy director Lars von Trier decrypts the musical genre in a sensibly unexpected way, stylized as stagey under an exquisite initiative, behind emphasizing the subject that doesn't transitionally get expressed much. Through it all, the injustice and affective positive heart with pending dread traced, Bjork's starring performance is powerful enough to make up for the unnecessary drawbacks lawed characterizations for her encouraging strength with beneficial talents of her stature. (B)

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

10/15/23

Full Review

Melissa A

I want to first start by saying that I have a soul and sympathize very much with our main character. But god does it hurt to speak up!!! All of this could have been avoided if she just spoke up and told the truth. She did not tell Kathy about her husband robbing her and the lie he made of her falling in love with him, she did not scream "HELP HE HAS A GUN" when he pulled it out, she really said "he asked me to" when the lawyer asked why she killed Bill instead of giving some CONTEXT and then said she promised she wouldn't say why, didn't say the truth about the money being for her son etc. Look I know she was trying to protect her son but she could've given her son new vision and still have a MOTHER if she wouldn't have been hung. I know we are supposed to feel like this world did this poor little honest hardworking mother dirty but she quite actually dug her own grave by not speaking the truth to the point that it was actual stupidity. And no this is not that type of story where the character gets shitted on for being honest and selfless, she was actually a liar. Why would you protect the man that has you in court and on top of that why constantly lie about your handicap, I'm sure her son would have survived knowing that info of him going blind. Very engaging none the less but will not watch ever again xoxo

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

06/02/23

Full Review

Paulo V

Bitter as always, great as always! On top of that, amazing performances, particularly from Bjork!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/19/23

Full Review

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Lars von Trier

Director

Björk

Selma Jezkova

Catherine Deneuve

Kathy

David Morse

Bill

Cara Seymour

Linda

Peter Stormare

Jeff

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David Ansen

Newsweek

Dancer is like no other movie around. Shot in bleached-out video colors in rough, hand-held style, the film is at once aggressively modern and deliberately, melodramatically, old-fashioned.

Mar 7, 2018

Full Review

Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: A

Sep 7, 2011

Full Review

Peter Matthews

Sight & Sound

The situations that writer-director Lars von Trier serves up here might be embarrassingly florid, but the coupling of his manipulative skills and Björk's showy intensity results in a movie with the force of an emotional bulldozer.

Dec 2, 2002

Full Review

Theo Estes

The Spool

Dancer in the Dark critiques the relentless optimism of mid-century movie musicals, but it also puts the American cultural narrative under the microscope.

Oct 8, 2020

Full Review

A.S. Hamrah

The Baffler

Von Trier infamously harassed Björk while making this film, yet its power, insight, and prescience, unpleasant and hard to take, are undiminished...

Sep 16, 2020

Full Review

Michael J. Casey

Boulder Weekly

Björk plays Selma, a Czech immigrant suffering from a degenerative eye disorder. It's a rare, hereditary disease, and it'll steal her sight but not the song in her heart.

Rated: 4/5

Jul 25, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

Selma is a Czech immigrant, a single mother working in a factory in rural America. Her salvation is passion for music, specifically, the all-singing, all-dancing numbers found in classic Hollywood musicals. Selma harbors a sad secret: she is losing her eyesight and her son Gene stands to suffer the same fate if she can't put away enough money to secure him an operation. When a desperate neighbor falsely accuses Selma of stealing his savings, the drama of her life escalates to a tragic finale.

Director: Lars von Trier
Executive Producer: Lars Jönsson
Screenwriter: Lars von Trier
Distributor: Fine Line Features
Production Co: Zentropa Entertainments, Slot Machine, Zentropa Entertainment France, France 3 Cinéma, Pain Unlimited GmbH Filmproduktion, arte France Cinéma, Trust Film Svenska
Rating: R (Some Violence)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 6, 2000, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 1, 2012
Box Office (Gross USA): $4.2M
Sound Mix: Dolby SR, Dolby Digital, Surround
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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