MovieChat Forums > Dancer in the Dark (2000) Discussion > Just awful

Just awful

posted 13 years ago by rob-asbell
37 replies | jump to latest

This is a terrible movie. As bad as "Can't Stop the Music."
I understand that people want to be cool and say they "love Bjork" because she is so cutting edge, but the truth is she's quirky, not talented.
The movie itself has a plot based on everybody being ignorant of her blindness and allowing her to work in a factory. Really?
It looks like it was filmed using an old Sony video camera and the acting and dialogue is terrible. It seems like they just filmed the first day of rehearsals.
And to make it worse, just when it gets really bad, Bjork breaks into one of her songs that sounds like the ramblings of a six-year-old. And THEN to take it to a whole new level of bad, people start dancing on trains and in factories.

This movie should be used to torture people or to induce vomiting in poisoning victims.

Somebody owes me 140 minutes of my life back.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] where_is_my_mind09 12 years ago

OP: Just shut up.

[–] merqabah 12 years ago

i felt it was bad, the music was terrible and embarrasing(points could be argued that it was in her head, so it wasnt supossed to be profesional), the stroy was melodramatic and manipulative,the camera work was very shaky and unfocused, and i felt it was longer than the material required, considering it was straight up melodrama.

now to be fair acting was good, and the execution scene was very well directed.

stroszek is how you handle a film about immigrants american dream going to hell, and brazil, purple rose of cairo and pans labyrinth is how you handle a film about fantasy retreats from harsh realities, as for musicals, well there are so many i dont know where to start.

as for the academy nomination comment, hitchcock, kubrick, raging bull, taxi driver, are just the most famous examples of oscar snubs, so quality or integrity arent really a part of the show.

[–] richnieh 12 years ago

Raging bull and Taxi Driver? Those are snubs?

That is your opinion, right?

[–] merqabah 11 years ago

no, raging bull and taxi driver lost to inferior films, it is widely known

[–] aquenio-137-313330 12 years ago

The fact that you hate Bjork's music as much as Von Tier's "Europe, Europe" made me sick few years ago shouldnt block you from acknowledging creativiy and talent regarding the creation of something new and unseen, to the point that to the minds trained on Hollywood mainstream music and cinema, gets uncanny, even scary.

To broaden our minds, we -the one that loves arts- need to train ourselves the same way a somelier needs to taste a lots of wine to recognize variety and, even then, he'd find hard to dismiss something just because it's not his particular taste.

Briefly, ur commentary is random and square minded.

[–] zensixties 12 years ago

I agree this movie sucked, however Von Trier has done some good things such as Zentropa, and Bjork also. I just thought the plot was ridiculous, the musical format didn't work, and it was just a failure of a film. I call it now what I called it when I saw it: a Bjorksploitation film ;-p

For who would bear the whips and scorns of Hollywood... (;-p)

[–] DrinkFromTheSameFountain 12 years ago

I thought "Can't Stop the Music" was a lot more fun than this. For lovers of camp, it's not bad at all.

[–] conspirator52 12 years ago

Yes, I consider myself to have true staying power when it comes to movies but this one I couldn't manage, mainly because I have many other movies to watch in a pile waiting but still. Bjork's accent sounded so British at times it really threw me, being British, but her acting was strong.

I agree that the camera/film choice was poor and made this look cheap, that could be said to be a charm of its own but for me didn't help. It was a simple film and usually they have the most affect on me but the singing did ruin this for me, only because I know Bjork is a singer, if it was some unknown then maybe, just maybe, but I felt it to be unnecessary, why not just have her watching many musicals at home to drive that point.

So I got to 1hr 15mins and stopped it, again this is very unusual for me but it just didn't have 'enough' to maintain my interest.

[–] ciocio-2 10 years ago

I know this is an old discussion, so you may not even see this, but (oddly) felt compelled to answer. I say oddly because I'm not positive even how much I do or don't like this movie; I saw it so long ago, when it was in theaters, and felt fairly conflicted about it then--very moved in some ways, somewhat annoyed or just not pleased in others (I did know to expect the Dogme 95 visual characteristics, so surprise at that was not what bred annoyance). I need to watch it again sometime soon, and see how I feel about it now. One thing I'm fairly certain of, however, is that Björk's character ultimately struck me as a very tragic one, similar in a way to some operatic characters who, along with their surrounding circumstances, can come off as quite absurd in ways, and yet are extremely moving, in some part due to that absurdity (perhaps because real life, humans, and their tragedies contain such great elements of absurdity).

In any case, it seemed to me that the last few minutes of this movie were unequivocally gut-wrenching. I've heard and read from others, many of whom really disliked the movie overall, who were also deeply affected by the ending and its direction. I happened onto this discussion of DANCER IN THE DARK today and, remembering it, will try to see it again soon, especially for that ending. So, if you have the opportunity, I'd recommend giving the movie one more viewing (even if you must speed through parts of it), and experiencing the ending of it. If you do, let us know what you think, however it goes.

Multiplex: 100+ shows a day, NONE worth watching. John Sayles' latest: NO distribution. SAD.

[–] maz89 12 years ago

Bjork is both quirky and talented; she turned in a great performance and she also sounded utterly sublime, especially in I've Seen It All (although I wish they'd dubbed in Yorke's voice).

Funny how most of the film's detractors have a very low tolerance for the musical performances, regardless of how poignant and depressing their presence actually were.

Yeah, there was a certain predictability to the plot (having already seen Breaking The Waves, I'd expected Trier to take it in a similar depressing direction where all manner of misfortune befalls a naive but well-intentioned and noble woman) but it pulls you in all the same. The aesthetic was also interesting, if only for the jarring contrast between the depictions of "reality" and "fantasy" on the digital format.

7.5-8/10

Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

[–] Oberlai 12 years ago

Didn't like it either. Also seen Melancholia, which was similar in many ways, unfortunately.

I happen to love weird movies and I honestly gave this one a fair chance, the first rule for weird movies is to have an open mind.

I guess what bothers me the most in Trier's movies is how characters respond. The responses do not match the stimuli. The dialogues are slow, weird and unnatural. Apply this to a few hormonal women, and you have Melancholia.

Björk does have talent, just not so much ACTING talent, but Björk does not ruin this movie, the script and the director does.

[–] Mudsharkbytes 12 years ago

It never fails.

I find a movie that is so different, so moving, and so memorable that I decide to head on over to IMDB to check it out, and every time I go to the message boards, somebody has posted a message about how the movie is "The Worst Ever".

Pick a classic, well known masterpiece such as "Citizen Kane", or "Psycho", or, well, you get the idea, and go to the message board for that movie and I guarantee you will eventually come upon a message about how the movie isn't just bad, it's the "Worst Ever".

Now, to be fair, the OP didn't call Dancer in the Dark the worst ever, but I'll bet if I dig far enough in this board, I'll find somebody that does.

Not sure what the point of my rant is. Certainly people should be free to express their taste in movies, but when I see a movie I don't like, generally, I'm not motivated to go to the message board associated with that movie and trash it out.

In this case, even if the movie was not to your taste one would thing the writing, creativity, and obvious talent Björk and the other actors displayed would be enough to stifle opinions such as "She's quirky, not talented(?!)", or "This movie should be used to torture people or to induce vomiting in poisoning victims", really? That bad huh?

Don't care for it? Fine. But it takes a special kind of badness that simply isn't present in this movie to justify some of the comments the OP made.

Messages like these tell me more about the OP than they do about the movie, and that's usually the case.

You have a wooden leg - you must be a table.