Word: bjork
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Tonight's teacher, a wispy creature who reminds me of the adorable Icelandic pop singer Bjork, crouches effortlessly on one foot so that her rear end is nearly touching the ice while she simultaneously kicks the other leg straight out in front of her. She eases up from her elegant glide and with a big grin commands...
Fortunately, music between scenes, which ranged from Bjork to spooky Kenny G-like jazz, added to the dark mood of the play-that is, when it didn't have the audience bouncing up and down in their seats and singing along to "Happy Together." The music, which really did have an integral role in the play because there were so many scene changes, was not enough to make up for the time the audience spent literally in the dark...
Dancer premiered in May and won the Palme D'or at Cannes; it unsurprisingly was met with considerable boos and has critics and viewers alike divided on its status as groundbreaking art or inane melodrama. The movie centers around Selma (Bjork), a Czech factory and single mother who is gradually going blind. She endures ordeal after ordeal in an attempt to pay for her son Gene's operation, who we are told will develop the same eye disease as Selma. In order to escape the agony and torment of her own worsening condition, she finds relief in musicals. She goes...
...film or a way of looking: a subjective experience most mainstream films repress. For this film, he had no rehearsals; he just told his actors to say their lines when ready and do what was right for the character. He'd then shoot it (no surprise then that Bjork had a harrowing experience, and said she would never be able to make a film again). His camera mimics a casual observer thrown into the fray, panning, craning, trying to catch all the action and hear all the dialogue, which might account for some of the cinematographic rough spots...
...muted color palette of the factory and courtroom scenes. In contrast to Hollywood musicals of the '40's and '50's, von Trier uses the song and dance to further the exploration of his characters, a fragmentation or parallel universe, rather than an instrument of frivolity or light-heartedness. Bjork's performance and singing are stunning (if one is lenient toward her blunt acting style), and her voice carries one into her vulnerable and fragile sphere; all one needs to do is follow her into the depth of the notes that resonate, creating a fascinating world around...