![]() ![]() Perhaps it’s dangerous to empathise with the perspective of an outsider who, till this day, refuses to set foot in the country he’s so confident in making judgements about – yet, having that ‘physical distance’ could also make for a far more objective argument. Piling on one misfortune after another to put her through the wringer, Trier paints the bleakest possible portrait of a foreigner’s experience living in America and gives us front row seats to every painful moment. source: Fine Line Featuresīest described as a ‘recipe for disaster’ style premise, this is precisely the kind of emotional rollercoaster to be expected from Trier, not only because he’s a master manipulator, but because Selma’s predicament feels oddly symbolic of the director’s attitude towards the capitalist mindset that, even now, seems to infiltrate the USA. As the relationship between the two quickly shifts from trusting to tragic, Selma’s grip on reality begins to decay as rapidly as her own vision, but she never loses sight of her sole objective to fight for Gene’s future. To make matters worse, during a moment of shared vulnerability, Selma confesses her devastating secret to property owner, Bill ( David Morse), who takes advantage of her predicament to keep his own head above water with the materialistic demands of his wife. In a desperate attempt to save enough money for his operation before it’s too late, Selma begins working overtime at the factory and by doing so, accelerates the severity of her own condition. Between working in a factory with her best friend, Kathy ( Catherine Deneuve), and attending late-night rehearsals for an amateur production of The Sound of Music, the seemingly mundane routine of Selma’s existence is weighed down by a degenerative eye condition that Gene also shares. This time, we follow Selma Jezkova ( Bjork), a Czech immigrant who relocated to a small town in northern America with her son, Gene ( Vladica Kostic), in hope that ‘the land of opportunity’ will build a more idyllic future for them both. In fact, they almost always portray an admirable strength through their resilience even when faced with the bitter end, and his third ‘Golden Heart’ bearer might just be the most gleaming example of this to date. That being said, the women in his films are never weak. It’s heavy stuff when you think about it, but makes perfect sense from a psychoanalytical perspective you can just see Freud looking down from the heavens, slow-clapping the blatantly obvious, self-evaluating antics unfolding on screen. Needless to say, he claims that a personal grudge with his long-deceased mother could also be partly responsible. All The World’s A Stageįor what it’s worth, it doesn’t matter that Trier’s complicated relationship with women is often compared to the torture he puts his female protagonists through, because the director has no problem with admitting that there’s a correlation between the two. But like all great art, Dancer holds a mirror up to the world with such force and clarity, it’s almost impossible not to catch a glimpse of ourselves in its stark reflection. We’re talking about the man who made a film about a group of misfits pretending to be mentally handicapped as a social experiment, so if crossing the line seems to be his forte, it should come as no surprise that his attempt at a musical would be nothing short of a challenging experience. ![]() Yet, it would have been foolish to think that the self-proclaimed “best director in the world” was going to roll into the new millennium with a prim-and-proper reimagining of Les Miserables – he’s no stranger to controversy. That was until the king of nihilism, Lars von Trier, released Dancer in the Dark, the final installment of his ‘Golden Heart’ trilogy at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and crushed all those fail-safe conventions used to comfort audiences. ![]() 70 Best Romantic Movies to Watch on Netflix Right Now source: Fine Line Features ![]()
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