Amazon.com

Once upon a time--1967, to be precise--Danish director Jørgen Leth released The Perfect Human. In The Five Obstructions, fellow countryman Lars von Trier (Breaking the Waves) challenges his "hero" to remake the short five times and provides a different set of "obstructions" for each. Because Leth likes cigars, von Trier suggests the first be made in Cuba. For the second, however, he sends Leth to "the worst place on earth"--Bombay's red light district. The obstructions keep coming, interspersed with conversation and clips from the original film, in which actors engage in a variety of activities, like eating and dancing, while the narrator posits oblique questions like "Why is joy so whimsical?" (Von Trier claims to have watched it "at least 20 times.") In the end, the two Danes have whipped up an unclassifiable concoction that plays less like documentary and more like a duel between friendly adversaries. --Kathleen C. Fennessy ... Read more

Description

When Bess, a naive young woman, marries Jan, a handsome oil-rig worker, she experiences passion and physical pleasure that she never imagined. Their bliss is cut short when an accident on the rig leaves Jan paralyzed. Believing he will never make love to Bess again, he tells her to take other lovers, convincing her that this will help his recovery. Bess is sent spiraling into a world of dark emotions she cannot understand ... Read more

Reviews (120)

Harsh/Graceful Modern Retelling of Orpheus, Joan of Arch, ..
Try at a short(ish) review: Breaking the Waves reminds me of Ingmar BergmanÕs work and other great auteurs who not only play with our emotions but reach into our gray matter and belief systems, stirring them all up. After 6 years, I finally felt prepared to view this passion play. It went from being a movie I should see to one that I am grateful I saw and will see again (when I am ready).

Emily Watson is stellar and accompanied by a cast that almost seamlessly makes the strange premise of a wife trying to save her husband by sexual encounters with other men believable. Even the chapter breaks connote a sense of the story looking real but also not looking real. To keep this telling from being too stark and unyielding, Lars von Tier presents an unexpected sensuality and sense of humor in the first half. Otherwise, I donÕt think we could care about these extremely religious and/or secular people for 2 1/2 hours. On the other hand, it takes its cameras, not filtering the sound of the film running through the camera spokes, into the scenes of BessieÕs search for men. It is a very painful adventure into Hades for such a simple woman child.

Ultimately, it is a story about attaining love but goes beyond to finding grace. It is a marvelous work to be in the collective consciousness and definitely not meant to be a popcorn movie. The film has an Achilles heel or two but so superficial that I hardly feel they need be noted. Make sure you have the stomach and compassion. It rang the church bells in my heart and mind.

Try pairing this movie with EgoyemÕs ÔExotica,Õ any of BergmanÕs films, Marcel CamusÕ ÔBlack Orpheus,Ô Allen's 'Crimes & Misdemeanors' or DreyerÕs ÔPassion of Joan of Arc.Õ Then go out and get some sunshine, have a good walk and dinner with loved ones.

Not your average God-obsessed-nympho movie...
A fascinating but not entirely successful fantasia that owes just about all of its power to Emily Watson, making a stunning film debut. Watson is the mentally unstable Bess, who talks to God (God seems to talk back in her voice). Bess, a virgin, marries the burly but sensitive oil-rig worker Jan (Stellan Skarsgard). Once she tastes the joys of sex, Bess becomes delirious with love for Jan. But soon he must return to the oil rig, where he has an accident that paralyzes him. The erratic and heavily medicated Jan takes it into his head to ask Bess a favor: she must sleep with other men, and tell him about the encounters, to keep him alive. Both Jan and God seem to want Bess to go through with it.

It's a mistake to take this sort of fable literally, but director Lars von Trier makes everything seem realistic with artsy touches like handheld camerawork, jump cuts, and saturated photography (by Robby Muller). He also, for whatever reason, divides the movie into chapters, and the chapter headings are surreal landscapes with sometimes grating '70s rock songs played over them. You nod and understand all the points von Trier is making, but everything is so symbolic and predetermined that it seldom truly reaches you. The film is haunting but mechanistic and, in its last third, borderline ludicrous -- the meaningful masochism gets to be more than a little much. Yet Emily Watson, who's in almost every frame, very nearly puts the entire gigantic daft movie across all by herself. Her elastic face is a playhouse for violently conflicting emotions, and she's never less than touching. With anyone else in the role (like Helena Bonham-Carter, who was going to do it but dropped out), the movie would probably collapse.

Note: Nothing on the featured cover artwork or in Amazon.com's description indicates whether this DVD is letterboxed. I'd have a look at the back cover or rent it first to make sure, as this is a widescreen, 2.35 movie that needs to be seen letterboxed, though since there is an existing widescreen VHS edition, I see no reason why Artisan wouldn't have letterboxed the DVD.

Beautiful...
This film does NOT endorse what it depicts. Obviously, the memebers of the church are misguided, in fact a great deal of the film points that out. But the film is not about them, it is about Bess, and about her love for God and God's love for her. What happens to her in the movie is not God's torture of her, it is human free will being exercised on a pure spirit, and the beauty is how her spirit always remains pure. That is why God loves Bess. God does not sugarcoat the world, and all who wish to follow him go through trials. Bess made it through those trials, and this is, as such, a TRUE CHRISTIAN FILM.

Not to mention it is cinematically the best film I have ever seen, as Heilman says, it is transcends words and descriptions. Do not let any review scare you away, if you don't like graphic sex turn it off, but this is a film about the love God has for all the how beautiful a pure spirit is.

ALERT TO CHRISTIANS
I loved dancer in the dark. I found it to be one of the saddest, most beautiful films that i have ever seen. This led me to search out other films by Lars Von Treir. This one was said to be the most comparable to it. This couldn't be further from the truth.

If there are any true christians out there, i can't tell you how strongly I advise you to stay away from this film. Maybe, like me, you saw dancer in the dark and are looking for something similar or just as good. THIS MOVIE WAS ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE.

There are graphic sex scenes in this movie, which if alone wouldve been reason alone to not see this film. The way they depicted God in this film was what was most offensive to me. Throughout the movie there are constant scenes depicting a church involved in mass ritualism, who have no love for God or his people. They enjoy seeing people in sin and have no problem seeing them go to hell. They are constantly showing hatred towards others and fail to reveal one ounce of compassion. Another problem with how they depicted God was that he was a cruel and evil person that likes to play little games with the world. They made him out to be someone who hates his creation and wants to hurt them in the form of teaching them a lesson. They even stated that God told the main character to become a prostitute. The God of this movie shows absolutely no love.

There are many churches and people like the ones depicted in this movie. People like this do not accurately depict anyone who truely knows and loves God.

God is not someone who sits up in heaven, bitter and scolding everyone, and taking pleasure in seeing people suffer. He did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that through him the world might be saved. He loves us more than everything we could ever know. God loved us so much that he became a man, was beaten to near death and then crucified for all of us.

He loves everyone and wants to have a loving relationship with anyone who will ask him. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever (anyone) believes in him would not parish, but have everlasting life, John 3:16.

If you are a christian, listen to this review from someone who loves God, and stay away from this film. If you are not a christian, God loves you more than you could ever comprehend. All he wants is for you to love him in return. Jesus Christ is God, believe and recieve.

So disappointing...
A long, slow study of life in a small northern Scottish town, ruled by the old men of the village's Calvinist kirk, as seen through the eyes of a village lass who appears to be able to hold conversations with God. And I mean sloooooow. At times fascinating and at times just frustrating, the story moves along at its own pace, broken into sections that are annoyingly introduced with still frame shots and titles.

The movie is at times beautiful and at times clearly an exercise in self-indulgence on the part of the director, Lars von Trier. What I found absolutely inexcuseable was the final, very final shot. Without giving the ending away, hearing the bells was beautiful. It was transcendant. It made up for the length and leisurely pace of the whole movie. But then von Trier spoiled all the goodwill he had just created with me by showing me the bells. Why? Oh, why? The ending ruined the movie. What, we're too dense to put two and two together and figure out for ourselves where the peels were coming from? ... Read more

Reviews (3)

WATERY MEDEA
First of all I'd like to say that you don't have to be a von Trier expert to judge this film but someone with knowledge upon the most difficult theatrical species: the Ancient Greek Tragedy. Most contemporary efforts of modern directors to direct Tragedy end in totally ridicilous and laughable results as Tragedy is a species that demands not only enormous interpretations by the actors and directors but also a deep philosophical insight. The reviewer who disregards the "plot" as he calls Medea's Myth as not so strong he should know that this "plot" is one of the few revelations and revolutions in the History of Literature and a philosophical mind game which no-one has solved up to today (I didn't expect from undereducated Americans nothing more that what I read in this page, they should be reviewing Tom Hunks' latest stupidity instead of dealing with masterpieces like this one)

It is totally ingenious the fact that von Trier conceives the Dark Witch Medea inside endless Waters... what a remarkable sympbolism... the Icons are truly masterpieces of symbolisms and the entire scenery placed in a swamp characterizes the dark and treacherous souls of the Heros involved. The scene where Medea throws the poisons she makes into the waters of the swamps creates an Icon of the most intense theatrical and conjectural importance. Pure Art of the highest level... that is the way we imagine Medea...

I was totally flabergasted with the scene of the murder of the Children by Medea. While in the entire film the sky is clouded and it is raining constantly as if the sea, the swamps and the air are one -Endless Tears of God ancient greeks called the Rain-in the scene of the Horrible Crime the season is Spring, the flowers are blossomed and the birds are singing... in that idyllic environment Medea performs her Atrocious Act... it truly brought shivers down my spine as it is one of the greatest symbolisms I have come in across in modern cinema and has its origin in the thoughts of great artists like Stravinsky who conceived Spring as the Season for Death...

Medea is undoubtedly the most difficult role in the entire female repertoire. The actress who decides to play Medea should be aware that acting is not show-bussiness but one of the Highest Forms of Art (which is totally degenerated in our days). Kirtsen... delivers her role with amazing qualities, her expressions are few and meaningful -not at all like modern actors who change expressions every 2 seconds showing the blur they have in their minds regarding the characters emotions - She shows in her acting what we call Ancient Greek Meter: the ability to act with very few but deeply meaningful gestures.
Her last scene's Tearless Cry is one of the most amazing face expressions I have seen and indeed one that deeply characterizes the emotions of Medea... the psychological block and death that leads her to the Horrible Crime...

Overall I was deeply astonished by watching this most marvleous delivery of what is probably the most difficult Classical Drama ever created...
What it would be like if von Trier didn't want to modernize and thus had used the original Euripides Poetry... Classical Literature is a miracle by itself, it does not need improvements!!!

Not his best, by a longshot.
First I would like to say that I have a deep knowledge of Von Trier- he was brought to my attention before any of his films saw US release by friends in europe and well before Dogme existed. This is probably the worst work I have seen from Von Trier. The film is incredibly short, and still manages to seem long and grating at points. Stylistically, themetically, and in regards to acting, this film is very strong, however it is overly minimalistic to the point of being off-putting.

If you absolutely have to complete your Von Trier collection then consider purchasing this DVD, otherwise I'd recommend seeking out the complete Europa trilogy and the under appreciated Kingdom miniseries. Worth a viewing, not a purchase.

Essential Von Trier
This beautiful piece of art is one of Lars Von Trier's best works, and is certaintly the best of his pre-dogma period. It is based on a previously unfilmed script by the master Carl Th. Dreyer (Lars claimed to be in constant telepathic communication with him during its filming), and tells the story of Medea's revenge on Jason (of the Argonauts) after he leaves her to become the heir of a throne. The plot is sparse; the real star of this film is Von Trier's direction and great command of mood. Many of the techniques employed in "Zentropa" and "Element of Crime" are used, as well as an extremely drab and degraded film image, and all serve to create a harsh other-world filled with despair.

About the DVD: sound is good, and while the image is made intentionally ugly by Von Trier, it is hard to say if the picture was made any worse in this transfer. Regardless, this release marks the first time U.S. audiences get to see this masterpiece, and lovers of Von Trier, Dreyer, art, and avant-garde cinema can't afford to miss it!! ... Read more

Amazon.com

It's reassuring to know Lars von Trier was always unconventional. Epidemic, von Trier's second feature, comes close to being a horror movie, except it keeps derailing itself to noodle while a director (played by von Trier) and screenwriter (screenwriter Niels Vorsel) improvise a scenario about a plague epidemic. Their struggles are shot in grainy 16 mm., while flashes of the intended film are in stunning 35. Epidemic is meandering enough to test the patience of even devoted von Trier fans, but it always looks good even when it looks bad, if that makes any sense, and the finale--which involves hypnotism, one of the Danish director's early obsessions--will give a chill to genre fans looking for a "gotcha." Von Trier regular Udo Kier pops up, and the film wouldn't be complete without its logo:the title branded onto the upper-left corner for most of the movie. Lars, you devil. --Robert Horton ... Read more

Reviews (39)

Anti-human allegory
Not everybody will be able to understand and enjoy Lars Von Trier's first film in his "Land of oportunities" trilogy, "Dogville". It is long, unusual, intelligent, sarcastic, strong, tense and even violent, among other things. I'll try to explain these adjectives in the following paragraphs.

"Dogville" is long. Very long. Almost three hours in length, divided in more than ten chapters, showing a young lady, Grace (Nicole Kidman, good as ever) reaching a small and self-centered mountain town, named Dogville. Grace, at first, stirs the sameness in Dogville's citizens' lives, trading shelter and food for a job as a housemaid in the many houses of the village; then, as time goes on, Grace will be the cause of great troubles and disagreement. The viewer must have patience, because the movie is long; it is not, however, boring. Von Trier takes his time and explores all the features he wanted to portrait in his film.

"Dogville" is unusual and intelligent. I'ts unusual because of the setting. The little town of Dogville is nothing but a stage. The many buildings (the houses, the church, the mine, and such) are marked by white paint in the floor of the stage, like a blueprint that we may open atop a table. And that's why the movie is also intelligent; as the buildings have no walls, the viewer is able to see everything that goes "on stage", even if the scene is focused only in one or two characters (but the characters act as if Dogville was a common town, with walls on their houses). This way, the viewer feels almost like in a theater. The viewers are part of the play: they have, somehow, in a distant manner, to interact with the characters on screen. The viewers themselves become citizens of Dogville.

"Dogville" is sarcastic, strong, tense and violent. For sarcasm, the title Von Trier self-imposed to his trilogy: America, land of oportunities. In fact, what happens on Dogville could happen anywhere in the world, for the story deals with selfishness, intollerance, distrust and prejudice, emotions prone to every human being. Von Trier shows that, if the United States want to be the new "center of the world", they will have to deal with their own "ghosts in the closet", before attempting to judge other societies. That's why this is a strong movie: it deals with things that most people are not ready to consider being part of their own self behaviour. It's easy to judge others, but it's hard to accept others judging us, or for us to judge ourselves. "Dogville" is tense and violent (and even ugly) because of how the characters act, and because, while watching the movie, we consider that we may not be so different from the characters at all.

"Dogville" is a very well constructed movie, with an excellent script, great (stereothyped) characters played by effective not-mainstream actors (Paul Bettany, Patricia Clarkson, Stellan Skarsgard, among others) and a provocative direction. One of the great movies of 2003.

Grade 9.4/10

A lot of bite to this movie
I'm glad to see this movie has finally made it on DVD and VHS in the States. It took a long time to do so. Lars von Trier follows up Dancer in the Dark, with an even darker view of small town life in America. In this case, we find a town quite literally at the end of the road, buried in a hollow somewhere in West Virginia, where the denizens are reduced to having to pick up the scraps left behind by others and live out a marginal existence. But, in its midst there is a dreamer, Tom, who at first appears to be the moral bellwether of the community. He tries to convince the community to take in a fugitive, evocatively played by Nicole Kidman, and finds that he has to make certain concessions in order to do so.

This film unfolds on stage in a highly theatrical telling, lending to the story the strong sense of a parable. Von Trier has assembled an impressive cast including old favorites Lauren Bacall and Ben Gazzara. The story builds slowly, with some fascinating twists and turns before reaching its shattering climax. It reminded me a lot of Shirley Jackson's classic story, The Lottery, but seems to owe more to the small town vision of Sinclair Lewis and Thornton Wilder.

I suppose some will be turned off by von Trier's disturbing view of small town life, but this film is masterfully handled, and shows what an accomplished director he is, drawing the most from his actors, in particular Nicole Kidman.

"Are you for us or against us?"
Every so often, a director appears who seems determined to antagonize and challenge his or her audiences. One such filmmaker would be Lars von Trier, the creator of such uncomfortable viewing experiences as "Breaking the Waves" (in which Emily Watson's character had conversations with God and played both roles) and "Dancer in the Dark" (featuring Bjork as a guileless, nearly blind factory worker who winds up on death row, thanks to bad luck and poor communication).

His "Dogville," a parable about how community spirit can either elevate or destroy people, is lengthy chronicle of Depression-era America that's played out entirely on a large, sparsely furnished soundstage. Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany, Lauren Bacall and others play their scenes not on actual sets, but inside chalk-drawn rectangles meant to symbolize various locations. While Kidman's character Grace Margaret Mulligan talks about finding herself in "a beautiful little town in the midst of magnificent mountains," all the viewer can see is a bunch of scattered chairs, a few wooden arches and a blank white scrim that serves as the backdrop. Locations with such picturesque names as Raccoon Road and Elm Street have no raccoons and no elms to offer.

This is, obviously, at heart a theatrical piece that's heavily dependent on lighting, sound effects and, more than anything else, the passion of the performers to put it over. For many viewers, "Dogville" will be nothing more than a curiosity piece that quickly exhausts the patience; for others, it may be a mind-bending experiment in determining exactly where stagecraft and the art of film can intersect.

It could all have been insufferably pretentious -- and at times, it comes perilously close to being exactly that -- yet the movie does have its own bitter humor, a few vividly etched characters and a kind of offbeat flavor that's admittedly an acquired taste.

Unfolding in nine chapters (plus a prologue), "Dogville" is the story of Grace, a pale young woman who hides behind her dishwater-blonde hair and tries exceedingly hard to please everyone around her, often to her own disadvantage. She stumbles into Dogville (population: approximately 15) after escaping some gangsters and she hopes to find shelter in the backwoodsy hamlet, even though the inhabitants don't seem to have much of anything to spare.

Local philosopher and would-be intellectual Tom Edison (Bettany) takes an immediate interest in the soft-spoken stranger, but most of his fellow Dogvillians (including Patricia Clarkson as a prissy sort, Phillip Baker Hall as a sickly physician, Jeremy Davies as Tom's dopey buddy and Chloe Sevigny as a curly-haired cutie) cast a wary eye in Grace's direction, at least until she volunteers to help out around the place. Suddenly, everyone is quite fond of her -- and why not, when she's willing to work for free? -- and Grace finds herself laboring day and night for mostly thankless bosses. "There's an awful lot to do here in Dogville, considering no one needs help," Grace muses, as she scurries from task to task.

In von Trier's eyes, the residents of Dogville represent not just the stereotypical "ugly Americans," but the very ugliest America has to offer: On the average day, they're merely suspicious, hostile and greedy, but when something really gets them worked up, they're capable of every kind of abhorrent behavior, including the enslavement of the weak and sexual humiliation.

Despite the vaguely 1930s setting, "Dogville" is very clearly designed as a skewering of the jingoistic, anti-foreigner sentiments that swept certain corners of the U.S. in the months following the 9/11 attacks. In the story, the community's happiest times come, not coincidentally, around July 4; not long afterward, circumstances cause most of Grace's new "friends" to turn on her. Even the children Grace has taken care of resort to blackmail to get what they want, as the adults begin barking slogans like, "Are you for us, or against us?"

Kidman, in a performance as emotionally stark as any she's ever given, makes Grace's journey achingly real, even though everything around her is deliberately artificial. Initially, Kidman and von Trier had planned to collaborate on a trilogy of stories following Grace's misadventures, but Kidman has since pulled out of that project. Considering what the director puts her through in "Dogville," it's not hard to guess why she didn't sign up for more.

Priceless lesson.
All angles of Von Trier's genius bursting in this movie have been more or less thoroughly explained in the previous posts. I'd just like to add one thing that wasn't much talked about, yet I thing it was the crown jewel of this movie.

Yes, the movie is a brilliant study of characters and (dark) human nature, but more importantly it gives viewer a priceless lifetime lesson. It displays a battle between moral purity, youthful idealism and unaware-of intellectual arrogance on one hand and pure-and-simple concept of responsibility on the other. It is in fact this battle that squeezes and twists our stomach throughout the whole movie; it is this opposition which, in all its clarity, finally unveils itself in the final dialogue. Intellectual exchange of argument defines the "winner". And leaves the viewer contemplating, speechless in awe.

A masterpiece that raised the bar of cinematographic creativity on a brand new level.

Flawed Masterpiece from Von Trier
I don't want to repeat what a lot of the reviews have said. Yes, Von Trier has done an excellent job, the set was a brilliant choice to film on, and the acting is all excellent. I just wanted to point out a few flaws I felt the film had.

First, it did not have to be 180 minutes long. I understand the long time Von Trier took to introduce us to the town of Dogville, because it made everything that followed in the story more powerful because of the understanding we had for the village and it's characters. However, Von Trier proved his point again, and again, and again. I felt between the two and a half hour point and three hour point that a lot could have been cut. The story lost its fury and steam through that half hour. It felt like rambling, and it could have been condensed in the screenplay to still showcase everything the filmaker wanted to.

Next, one of the reviewers said that critics "pounced" on this film for being anti American and gave it bad reviews. They didn't. Most reivews of Dogville are positive, and those that aren't clearly state problems with the film, and not the anti Americanism in it.

Finally, I felt like Von Trier took all this time, three hours to be exact, to construct this pretty darn good cry out against humanity, and not America, and then after the powerful ending the credits just let me down. I felt like Von Trier took all that time creating this masterpiece, only to side swipe it with a cheap jab at America. Those who say it's not anti American need to review it again. The end credits play over homeless people to the tune of David Bowie's I'm Afraid of AMERICANS. HELLO, thats a big clue people! The film itself is not anit American I believe, but the end credits really let you know what Von Trier thinks. The end creidts also felt like they had no relation to the film. After watching the bare bones scenery, set to classical music, the glam rock Bowie tune did not fit at all. It was cheap, sloppy, and unfortunate that it degraded such a fine piece of cinema. Bad choice Von Trier. It quickly numbed the sting I felt after the actual film ended, instead of letting it stay.

Overall, see this film if you are curious about it. It is a mini masterpiece from Von Trier, but a flawed one at that. ... Read more

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. 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 ... Read more

Reviews (260)

Au contraire mon Frere!!...
I beg to differ with the opinion of the last reviewer! Dancer in the Dark is unlike most films you would see in regular "mainstream" cinema. The innocent character, Selma, played by Bjork, draws you straight into her story and keeps your attention. This is a wonderful story about a hard-working immigrant mother slaving her days to make a better life for her young son and daydreams mostly about musicals, which sometimes lands her in trouble. In her daydreaming, Selma has a tendency to create a musical of her own which is played out in the movie scenes as well. The diversity of the camera angles, and not using your typical still-cam, gives the viewer the perspective that you are watching Selma over her shoulder with all the trajedies, mishaps, and comedic times.

Bjork plays such a wonderful role and obviously has taken the character's personality to heart as she gives an absolute stunning performance. This film deserves much more credit than the last reviewer has given. With Bjork helping in the creation of the musical score any fan would appreciate this dramatic film.

If you are someone to pull apart a film piece by piece then maybe this film will not be for you. From an artistic point of view, there are some quirky points to the film...the flow of some dialog between some characters, the distorted camera scenes...but it all makes for a stunning performance. In essence, it all works together.

I wouldn't say it is a masterpiece, but it stil deserves 5 stars in ratings. Give the film a chance. Bjork will grow on you. Selma will grow on you and the film as well.

A complex & devastating work of art
There is so much pain going on in "Dancer in the Dark," it's almost impossible to begin to explain. But one thing that I can say is that it was one of the most original and nostalgic (in its fallback on being a musical) and devastating movies I've ever seen. Believe me, only the truly perceptive and seeking filmgoers will understand and appreciate the film's message.

However, one thing that was a little distracting (yet, also, I think it added to the rawness of film and its subject matter) was the shaky camera work close-ups. At times, you'll want to spring for the bottle of asprin to overcome an oncoming headache via watching the film, but restrain. Just finish the movie. If the headache is still there, then you've experienced "Dancer in the Dark."

The last 10 minutes of this movie is probably the most riveting, suspenseful and adrenaline-pumping movie sequence I've ever seen. Bjork's voice, facial expressions and inner emotion bleed through her body in a way that is both unsettling and undeniably powerful.

I must say that I'm no Bjork music fan, but the songs in the film did touch me. They were so radical, so inventive, so simple and bizarre, if you will, that it's almost impossible to not simply appreciate them for being so outlandish. But nonetheless, the movie is really about suffering.

You can draw many symbolisms to Selma's (Bjork) lonely, simple and heartbreaking character, one being almost christological. (that may be a stretch, but it's valid if you look closely at the film, what Selma's purpose was and how she was "wrongly" accused in a sense and then attempted to be put to death) Either way though, it still is a pretty amazing movie. I can't believe I wrote this much. Movies that make me want to write this much about them are truly unique. "Dancer in the Dark" is one of the precious few. Devastatingly powerful and unflinchingly raw. See it. (all of it)

A beautiful, utterly devastating movie.
Björk, 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.
Working beside a knockout cast (including Joel Grey, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, and Stellan Skarsgård), Björk 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.
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 Björk (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.
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...
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.
Let 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.
The 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.
DITD 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.
I 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"
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.

In 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.

Both 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.

The 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.

Also 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.

I'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.

Leave 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.

Maybe 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. ... Read more

Amazon.com

It may prove confounding to anyone expecting a more conventional narrative, but The Element of Crime--the debut feature of Danish visionary Lars von Trier--marks the arrival of an audaciously original talent; the film is deeply personal in its inspirations yet richly informed by a pure love of cinema. Approaching a hard-boiled detective plot from a hypnotically subconscious perspective (thus establishing the tone he would echo in his later films Epidemic and Europa), von Trier presents a murder case solved from the inside out. Which is to say, the plot unfolds as recollected under hypnosis by Fisher (Michael Elphick), the grizzled cop who investigates the case.

This framework is arguably beside the point; it's merely von Trier's way of entering a post-apocalyptic world of his own making, flooded and decaying, and filmed entirely in an amber-tinted tone punctuated only by blue police lights and sickly green fluorescents. By following principles of crime solving conceived by his mentor (played by British film veteran Esmond Knight), Fisher closes in on an awful revelation that spins The Element of Crime into another psychological dimension. Multilayered, deliberately paced, and atmospheric in the extreme (which less appreciative viewers may find intolerable), The Element of Crime elicits a dream state that is simultaneously oppressive and visually unforgettable, crammed with symbolic subtleties and cinematic references that can only be fully absorbed over multiple viewings. To say the least, this is a film that grows on you. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (50)

"E.R." Meets "Twin Peaks"
This 5-hour marathon was originally a mini-series on Danish television, which partly explains the length. It won't take you long to get completely involved in the weird goings-on at the massive Copenhagen hospital complex named "The Kingdom", though, and once you're hooked, you'll want to savor every minute. The primary plot concerns a malingering woman's search within the hospital for the spirit of a young girl, but there's also a phantom ambulance, a secret society (complete with some really bizarre initiation rites!), a Greek Chorus doing the dishes, and at least a half-dozen sub-plots. Although there are some visually disturbing scenes, plus a few steamy ones, the overall tone is best summed up as "quirky humor". The vast impersonality of the hospital is conveyed through washed-out sepia-tinted shots of endless corridors and fly-over shots of the huge complex, but the halls are chock-full of nuts. The Swedish chief neurosurgeon, on the lam from Stockholm thanks to assorted misdeeds there, shouts his frustrations at the "Danish scum" from the rooftops. A resident takes *his* title quite literally, setting up living quarters in the basement, where he recycles pharmaceuticals and keeps tabs on who's up to what. A portly orderly, cowed into submission by his psychosomatic mother, wheels her throughout the building while she searches for the spirit of a young girl she believes was murdered. The loopy head of staff seeks to inspire the workers with a typically management-brain-dead scheme he proudly calls "Operation Morning Wind". If you like the movies of the Coen brothers ("Fargo", or "The Hudsucker Proxy") or if you enjoyed "Twin Peaks", this is *definitely* one to check out. And since this isn't enough in itself, yup, there's a five-hour *sequel*!

Stanley Kubrick meets David Lynch
When I first saw this foreign gem from director Lars Von Trier ("Breaking The Waves")in Cork, Ireland, the film festival program copy read, "Kubrick meets David Lynch. Already has a cult following."

What "it" is, is "The Kingdom." Perhaps best decribed colloquially as ER on acid, "The Kingdom" is a four-part series set in a hospital in Sweden. Built on an acient burial ground (somewhat a la "The Shining"), as the hospital (named The Kingdom) defies nature with the pursuit of hard-nosed science, it begins to undergo structural damage and visitations by uneasy spirits.

While shifting from the levity of relationships between the doctors, who range from open-minded and good-natured to practitioners of bad medicine, to the greek chorus (represented by two mentally challenged dishwashers who work in the basement), "The Kingdom" delivers palpable chills. Expect ghosts, severed heads, malpractice suits, seances, alien/ghost births and operations involving the switching of organs. It may sound like a bad episode of "The X-Files," circa '98, but the full effect of Von Trier's opus is decidedly classier and worth every second of the four one-hour installments (it originally ran as a television program in Denmark). If you enjoyed the following, you will most certainly take delight in "The Kingdom": The City of Lost Children, La Femme Nikita, Twin Peaks, The Shining.

Mad Genius!
A fascinating ghost story set in a Danish hospital and created by the mad genius, Lars von Trier. This director is famous for Breaking the Waves and his new film, Dogville. However, The Kingdom is by far my favourite film he has directed so far. [...].

A masterpiece encompassing many kingdoms
The Kingdom is the name of a gargantuan decaying hosital in Copenhagen where this amazing Lars von Trier Gothic television miniseries is set. of course, the title also refers to the kingdom of Denmark (in the staff meeting room where many scenes take place, the portraits of Queen Margrethe and her consort are prominently displayed), for which the hospital is a metaphor, and for the kingdom of society in general. And, as von Trier explains in his charming afterwords to the episodes, it also refers to the kingdom of the imagination itself.

The miniseries works on all these levels. It's a quirky, incredibly atmospheric study of the hospital centering upon the discovery of the ghost of a girl murdered 75 years previously on the same site haunting the hospital, and it revolves around a giant cast of dozens of memorable characters, all of whom are intensely sympathetic even though they're pretty miserable human beings. The three at the core of the story are a malingerer, the septuagenarian medium Mrs. Drusse, obsessed with discovering the story behind a ghost; a blackmailer, the young and sexy Dr. Hook; and his nemesis in the neurology department, the jaw-droppingly arrogant brain surgeon Dr. Helmer, who had to take this job in Denmark (which he loathes) after being cast out of a job in his native Sweden under suspicion of plagiarism. Although the Gothic aspects to the story are beautifully brought out by the labyrinthine deserted basement hallways of the hospital and Von Trier's gorgeous sepia-tinted cinemtography, like all the best ghost stories the ghosts here serve as metaphors for what's wrong with the state of society in general. The miniseries is an amazingly funny satire on the dilapidated Danish health care system, and the film's funniest moments involve the attempts of the neurology department's manager, the marvelously manipulative and passive-aggressive Professor Moesgaard, to implement a hilariously inane PR campaign called "Operation Morning Air" that involves (among other things) having the neurosurgeons cheerfully sing introductions to one another at staff meetings.

The series has often been compared to "Twin Peaks," but it's probably even better. Like the Lynch series it does a marvelous job of conveying atmosphere, but it is deeper and more carefully engineered and imagined. Though there are moments that sag (including the disastrous idea of having Dr. Helmer visit Haiti near the end, which jarringly breaks the miniseries' adherence otherwise to the Aristotelean unities by and large), as a whole it is a genuine masterpiece. It is one of the richest works for television ever made.

Wish I could give it a 6
Sit back and enjoy the ride. It's weird, sometimes silly, but thoroughly captivating.

I hate to bring up a boring old theme, but we in North America rarely come up with works of such subtlety. I have been watching 6 Feet Under and the comparison is stark. In Kingdom, the characters are flawed, interesting, and likeable. In 6 Feet Under, they are flawed, uninteresting, and unlikeable.

It is scary to think that an American re-make of this is in the works. But, you never know...remember Twin Peaks (almost 20 years ago now!)? ... Read more

Description

Praised as one of the top films of the year, ZENTROPA is an erotic, passionate thriller delivering nonstop, suspense-filled excitement. In this Hitchcock-like tale, Leo Kessler, an American visiting devastated postwar Germany, gets seduced by a beautiful woman and suddenly finds himself caught in a never-ending web of mystery and intrigue. Leo's nightmarish journey takes him through a hypnotizing maze of romance, passion, and betrayal -- leading to acts of terrorism, and finally, murder. With its many plot twists and heart-stopping surprises, this riveting, seductive thriller is sure to entertain from beginning to end. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Zentropa
The best film that Lars von Trier directed, better than the more well known films"Breaking the Waves"&"Dancer in the Dark".Although the critics didn't pick it up, this film,I believe, must have been influenced by Herman Melville. It has the theme of an innocent man who ends up dead under the water due to his hubris and naivete. It tells the story of Kessler, an American who makes the fateful decision to become a sleeping car conductor in 1945 Germany. He is beset by his cranky uncle who is his superior at work, he is seduced by asympathizing femme fatale, among other events. The movie has both substance and style and is never short of fascinating due both to its plot as well as the directorial technique. The performances are outstanding. It is highly recommended.

TOO CONVOLUTED TO ENTHRALL, BUT TOO BEAUTIFUL TO IGNORE
In his typical scattered narrative, von Trier crafts a hypnotic tale of an American in the post-WWII rubble of Germany, as he gets entangled with a stunning local woman. Problem is, the woman is revealed to have been a dangerous operative during the war with far-from-simple roots.

Sounds like a fairly comprehensible theme to wrap a thriller around, but no, not under the sly lens of von Trier! His screenplay copiously employs his characteristic symbolism, effortlessly morphing between black & white and technicolor, using double-exposures, backprojections, and some fascinating trick photography such as superimpositions.

The resulting murky, obscure atmosphere of psychological disorientation may lead a casual viewer to much the same frustrations as the film's protagonist -- of never quite finding a footing in the surrealistic, trancy goings-on.

But if you prefer ambitious enigmas to lacklustre boxoffice hits, then give this truly challenging film a chance.

DVD Buyers Beware!
Buyers beware of the DVD version! I bought this DVD version of this glorious film two months ago and for somewhat unknown reasons, this DVD wouldn't play on my DVD player and my friends' DVD players. BUYER beware!

Lars von Triers'masterpiece
Zentropa is much more than a simple movie. The experience you feel when you are under the control of time in the railroad is a brilliant idea that slowly mesmerizes you in a nightmare of horror, passion and death. Lars von Triers built a story where the anguish, the shame, the memory, the werewolf, the loneliness create an evil atmosphere. The edition is unforgetable, the amazing sincronization between the black and white and color, gradually envolves us and make us descends to the unboreable state of tension And this situation is only generated in another film ·Midnight express . of Alan Parker.
Returning to Zentropa, the sense of guiltness surrounds to our american benefactor who initially seems to be in a redemption state . Every one of his achievements are governed by the ethic . But he doesn't realize how the circunstances slowly are engaging him to the gallow. The relationship between him and his uncle, the epic affair with Barbara Sukova, announces us a fate far away he planned it. The performances are superb. You don't find just a hole. The use of the old fashioned effects is a great tribute to the golden age of mude film. From Griffith to Stroheim through the german expressionism Murnau, Wiene and Lang.
The final sequences are so original,fascinating and so beautifully made , that at the end of film the plot permeates your soul and your psiquis several weeks after.
Triers made Breaking the waves and The element of crime, which define him as a brilliant storyteller , with a visual style like very few directors.
Triers belongs to that elite of directors who see upon their shoulders. Creator in the purest sense of the word.
Don't miss the opportunity of watching this movie. You'll appreciate it several times because it's impact will shock you every time you watch it.
This is a true milestone in the cinema story. Orson Welles wherever he is, will be smiling , because Triers is one of his remarkable descendents.

Follow the river...as days go by.
"You are not free not to choose". Kessler's efforts to remain in gray area makes him the only sinner in a railroad-hypnotic view of Germany right after WWII. ... Read more