Movie of the Day – Dancer in the Dark

This is a bit of an odd choice for today’s selection.  The movie today is a weird, but strangely beautiful and moving film that incorporates drama and music.  Dancer In The Dark is not only a catchy musical, but incredibly crushing drama from Lars von Trier.  If you aren’t familiar with Trier and his works, suffice to say that there are very few happy endings in his movies.  His work brings about such vitriol and praise from all critics, that you aren’t certain whether you should side one way or the other.  Von Trier practically pushes his actors to the limit, wanting pure raw emotion from them and demands nothing less.  Dancer in the Dark is this balance between melodrama and musical, as Icelandic singer Björk is the composer of the soundtrack and also giving her first real shot at being a lead actress.  For me this is one of Von Trier’s best films in terms of the emotional upheaval that you go through when watching this movie.  At times it is beautiful, other times it is utterly tragic and depressing.

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