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Dancer in the Dark

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Dancer in the Dark

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2000 film by Lars von Trier

OverviewAI-generated

Dancer in the Dark is a 2000 musical drama and trial film directed and written by Lars von Trier. The cast includes Björk, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, and Peter Stormare, with Björk also serving as the composer. Vibeke Windeløv produced the film, which was distributed by Fine Line Features. The narrative is set in Washington and explores themes of capital punishment, blindness, and music.

The film has a runtime of 140 minutes and was produced by companies including Canal+, Film4, France 3, and Zentropa. It originated from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and Argentina. The production budget was 12,500,000, and it generated 40,061,153 in revenue.

Dancer in the Dark received the Palme d'Or, the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, the Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Foreign Language Film, and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film. It was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama, the Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture, and the César Award for Best Foreign Film.

Synthesized by Vinony from 41 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, IMDb, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Film · TMDB

7.8

Selma, a Czech immigrant on the verge of blindness, struggles to make ends meet for herself and her son, who has inherited the same genetic disorder and will suffer the same fate without an expensive operation. When life gets too difficult, Selma learns to cope through her love of musicals, dreaming up little numbers to the rhythmic beats of her surroundings.

Released: 2000-09-01140 minDir: Lars von TrierDrama, CrimeBudget: $12.5MBox office: $40.1M

Cast

  • Björk as Selma Jezkova
  • Catherine Deneuve as Kathy
  • David Morse as Bill Houston
  • Peter Stormare as Jeff
  • Joel Grey as Oldrich Novy
  • Cara Seymour as Linda Houston

Themes

  • factory worker
  • individual
  • immigrant
  • blindness and impaired vision
  • dancing
  • eye operation
  • small town
  • naivety
  • hereditary disease
  • robbery

This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.

Ratings

IMDb

7.9/10

124,230 votes

Year
2000
Runtime
135 min
Genres
Crime, Drama, Musical

via IMDb

Key facts

Directed by
Lars von Trier
Written by
Lars von Trier
Produced by
Vibeke Windeløv
Starring
Björk Catherine Deneuve David Morse Peter Stormare Joel Grey
Cinematography
Robby Müller
Edited by
François Gédigier Molly Marlene Stensgård
Music by
Björk
Production companies
Zentropa Entertainments Canal+ FilmFour France 3 Cinéma
Distributed by
Angel Films (Denmark) , Les Films du Losange (France) , Constantin Film (Germany) , Istituto Luce (Italy) , Sandrew Metronome (Sweden) , FilmFour Distributors (United Kingdom) , Fine Line Features (United States)
Release dates
17 May 2000 ( 2000-05-17 ) ( Cannes ) 1 September 2000 ( 2000-09-01 ) (Denmark previews) 8 September 2000 ( 2000-09-08 ) (Scandinavia)
Running time
140 minutes
Countries
Denmark France Germany Italy Sweden United Kingdom United States
Language
English
Budget
USD$ 12.5 million , (120 million kr )
Box office
$45.6 million , (416 million kr)

via Wikipedia infobox

~14 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Dancer in the Dark is a 2000 psychological tragedy musical film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It stars Icelandic musician Björk as a factory worker who has a degenerative eye condition and is saving for an operation to prevent her young son from suffering the same fate. Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Cara Seymour, Peter Stormare, Siobhan Fallon Hogan and Joel Grey also star. The soundtrack, Selmasongs, was written mainly by Björk, with contributions from Mark Bell and some lyrics were written by Trier and Sjón.

Dancer in the Dark is the final installment in Trier's second trilogy, "Golden Heart", following Breaking the Waves (1996) and The Idiots (1998). It was an international co-production among companies based in thirteen European and North American countries and regions. Like the first installment, it was shot with a handheld camera inspired by Dogme 95.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Dancer in the Dark” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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