Dancer in the Dark (Widescreen) | 
| Director: Lars Von Trier
Actors: Bjoerk, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare, Udo Kier
Studio: New Line Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: CDN$ 8.99
Buy New: CDN$ 8.48
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New (15) Used (4) from CDN$ 8.48
Rating:  225 reviews
Sales Rank: 9401
Format: Ntsc, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: TRNDN5199D
ISBN: 078063408X
UPC: 794043519925
EAN: 9780780634084
ASIN: B00003CXKS
Theatrical Release Date: 2000
Release Date: February 8, 2005
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: ******BRAND NEW****SHIPS WITHIN 24 HRS DIRECTLY FROM CANADA USING CANADA POST, NO DUTY FEES TO BE PAID, WE ARE THE SOURCE FOR MOVIES, GAMES AND MUSIC~~~~
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| Editorial Reviews:
From Amazon.com
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. IDancer in the Dark/I is that rarest of creatures, a film that dares to push viewers to the limits of their feelings. p 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 Bjoerk 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? p 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 (Bjoerk 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. I--Damon Wise/I
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| Customer Reviews: Read 220 more reviews...
 the extras were cool, but boy was this a downer! October 6, 2005
Rusty McMyrtle (Saskatoon)
I have to admit that I found the extras to be much more interesting than the movie. Von Trier seems more humble in person than his pretensious movie would imply. While Bjork and the rest of the cast sing great, and some of the dance numbers are inspired, the overall plot is so unrelentingly grim that there is no reason to sit through it. And the casting? Just bizarre. If Von Trier wants to make movies that are believably set in the States, then he should hire yank actors.
 If you want idiots buy Van Trier's other one March 26, 2005
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
It is with a heavy heart that I must write this review of what should have been Lars van Trier's masterpiece. brTo begin with I need to point out though that I am no Van Trier virgin and was saving this film for last to complete the Van Trier cycle. I was perplexed by Element of Crime, baffled by Epidemic, enthralled with The Idiots, amazed by Breaking the Waves, and totally blown away by Dogville. (I know there are a few missing but I can't find Europa, and his T.V stuff doesn't count.)brI understand Van Trier's Dogme philosophy and therefore can give him plenty of leeway in certain elements of his films. So as DITD opens and we see his now trademark documentary style hand held film structure I was hoping for a treat. But I soon disovered it's single biggest flaw... believable characters. As a reference point one only needs to watch BTW to see that this type of man versus the world (in this case woman) epic film can be done well. I mean at least there was some point to Emily Watson's Neurosis, and she could be forgiven for some of her behaviours. But in DITD Bjork's raison d'etre is so utterly baffling and idiotic that I was actually looking forward to her untimely demise. To make things worse her supporting cast may just win the award for boneheads of the year with their Oh your blind!? routines. brShame on you Van Trier you're much much better than this, and you've proven it with 1996's Breaking the waves. How this won the Palme d'or I'll never know. brSorry for the Spoilers but if i've detracted anyone from buying this....GOOD!brBuy anything else from Van Trier, he truly is an imaginative and brilliant auteur.
 A beautiful, utterly devastating movie. July 19, 2004
Steven F. Paul (Amityville, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Bjoerk, an accomplished singer from Iceland who is best known for her progressive music, unusual style, and quirky personality, absolutely should have won Academy Awards for the her outstanding score and sublime performance in this phenomenally beautiful, yet utterly sad motion picture. Why she didn't is beyond my capacity for reason, and is a testament to a commercialized Hollywood that rarely bats an eye at outstanding independent filmmaking. br Working beside a knockout cast (including Joel Grey, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, and Stellan Skarsgard), Bjoerk plays Selma, a woman who copes with the increasing difficulties of her life through music. She suffers from a degenerative blindness, which causes her to lose her job - a significant loss, since she had been saving money to pay for an operation that would prevent the same blinding disease from befalling her son. All the while, the cruel world around her works against her undying selflessness, and, in the end, she unfairly pays the ultimate price.br Not since "West Side Story" has music been more of a compliment to a movie than it is in this musical. The music, arranged and composed by Bjoerk (and performed with original, effective choreography), is almost a being in itself, popping in at a moments notice when Selma hears the slightest rhythm of a passing train, a metal press, or even the light scratching of a pencil on paper. It is through music that Selma finds her escape from an increasingly hostile world...and us along with her.br This movie, phenomenally written and directed by Lars von Trier, raises the soul and the spirit, then brings it crashing to the ground as we witness the martyrdom of one of the most stirring and decent characters in recent memory. Yet, despite the inevitable depression you may feel at the movie's end, you will feel fortunate to have even encountered a soul such as Selma in the first place.
Simply the best... July 15, 2004
Andrew Jennings (Kissimmee, FL)
The first time I watched "Dancer in the Dark", I had already listened to a good portion of Bjork's music, primarily her "Post" album. However, I do not remember if I watched DITD because of her or if because my sister recommended it. Probably a combination of both. Either way, watching this movie was probably one of the most emotional events of my life. I have never ever seen a movie more intense or moving than DITD and I recommend this film to anyone who would like to really feel again for a character who truly is beautiful and fulfills the highest ideal of any human being. brLet me just say that while this movie is rated R, there is little if any profanity and no sexual content whatsoever. Rather, this film is probably rated for its extremely intense displays of violence. In the scene where Selma "kills" David Morse's character, there is a sense that Selma does not want to do what she is doing and you can sense this in her sobbings as she slams a large metal box over Morse's face. brThe final scene at the gallows is without a doubt one of the most cringing and intense scenes in movie history, rivaled probably only by the end of Part 1 of the Green Mile. brDITD takes you places that you most likely would not voluntarily want to go in real life. Selma's sacrifice for her blind son is so beyond 'average American humanity'. Although Selma believes in communism (heaven forbid, so Anti-American!), her selfless actions prove that there are no real lines of separation in our world. The lines we believe are there are only imaginary.brI truly recommend DITD for Anybody; however, please be prepared; DITD could just change your 'vision' of things forever.
Compare to the Passion of Joan of Arc June 8, 2004
Monica Aiken (San Francisco, California USA)
Lars Von Trier must have seen The Passion of Joan of Arc and liked it so much that he decided to make a movie (or a trilogy of movies) that parallelled the same female martyrdom. If you have seen the Passion of Joan of Arc, then you have seen a real masterpiece, perhaps the best movie of all time. It's no wonder why Von Trier would want to copy it. pIn both Carl Dreyer (ironically another Danish director from the 20s)'s film trying to take the material from another country's story (Jeanne d'Arc), the main character is put on interrogation for being criminal when she was in fact more saintly than her interrogators. Falconetti, like Bjork, the main character of Dancer in the Dark, decided never to act again after the traumatic experience. pBoth Carl and Lars liked to purposefully film from a strange tortured angular way so as to thoroughly torment the viewer. Lars's camera holding technique was more painful to experience, because he sometimes shook the camera, as if it were a home video making me want to practically throw up at times. But in both films, the way that the camera is held, and the scenes are viewed give the viewer more reason to feel sympathy for the main character's plight, (in Bjork's case, that she was blind and poor and a single mother who needed to work to take care of her kid) ...(and in Falconetti's case, that she was imprisoned and humiliated for freeing her country of intruders.) Each character always seemed cornered out, or set aside from whatever reality they had to confront. pThe depiction of Selma by Bjork was just as honest and heartfelt and raw and real and tormenting to experience as Falconetti's portrayal of Jeanne d'Arc. In both films, the acting is more as if the actors arent's actors but they just let the character of their story possess them and speak through them. pAlso in both films, the music is incredibly powerful and moving and enhances the emotional situations that both women had to undergo and confront and overcome, even in martyrdom. In DITD, the music is modernly inspired electronic music composed by Bjork and sung by Bjork, and has beats made from normal sounds in the surroundings in the film, whereas in the Passion of Joan of Arc, the music score was only added to the silent movie 50 years afterwards, ...after the film was salvaged from its disappearance in a fire and found in the attic of a Norwegian insane asylum. The Passion of Joan of Arc's music was done by a modern composer as well (Richard Einhorn) and sung by a choir and a female quartet of singers called Anonymous 4. pI'm sure that other comparisons can be made, if one views both movies in the same night. My only complaint is that both movies leave you with the feeling that this sacrosaintly behavior from honest, defiant women who dare to step out of the lines and do what their heart, or their spirituality tells them to do, only get squashed in the end. It's a real depressing view of mankind and what devastation we are capable of. pLeave it to two Danes to critique American society (in Dancer in the Dark, and Dogville) or tell the story of a French saint who was slandered as a heretic (in the Passion of Joan of Arc.) Carl Dreyer got censored, his film was lost in a fire for 50 years and then found in an insane asylum, only to be restored and upgraded with a soundtrack that he never asked for but which made his film even more powerful. Perhaps Jeanne's spirit was playing tricks on the movie that tried to portray her plight, and that's why it (the film negatives) went up in flames (as did she, in the end) and were lost for 50 years only to be found in an insane asylum (coincidence? ...her interrogators accused her of lunacy and of conspiracy with the devil...like a crazy person, or a witch) and then when the negatives were found, they were treated like a treasure, just as Jeanne was only called a saint hundreds of years after her death. pMaybe Von Trier will be just as cursed by the stories he tries to tell, (he tries to talk about America when he's never even stepped foot here, and never probably will) only that his are ficticious stories, and DITD was brought to life only by a fierce force to be reckoned with...a practically pagan and mystical Icelandic woman who can believe wholeheartedly in her character, Selma, and in the apparent reality and gravity of her situation, just as the people of Iceland can seriously believe in elves and gnomes possessing rocks and mountains and rivers. (Icelandic people will build a road around a rock instead of destroying it, because they believe that the gnomes/elves would be disturbed or mad if they destroyed the rock or moved it.) I think that this belief in characters and in spirits is obvious in Bjork's way of acting and being Selma and being true to Selma's plight, ...just as true as Falconetti was to Jeanne d'Arc's plight.
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