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Dancer in the Dark: Platinum Series
This Palm d'Or-wining musical tragedy from Danish provocatuer Lars Von Trier is both beautiful and excruciating. Icelandic pop singer Björk is simply magnificent as a dew-brained immigrant factory worker stubbornly defying obstacles in pursuit of a noble, somewhat misguided cause. When things get bleak — and, boy, do they — she retreats into a fantasy that her life is a Hollywood musical, albeit one that sounds as if the songs were written by Björk, which they were. Von Trier's talent at pushing buttons is so deft he'll have you cursing his cruel narrative one second and weeping in empathy the next. An unpleasant work of genius. New Line's Dancer in the Dark is beautifully presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1), with audio in DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, and Dolby 2.0 Surround (all English). The disc includes a fascinating commentary track by the funny and analytical Von Trier, along with producer Vibeke Windeløv and other crew, and dance sequence commentary by choreographer Vincent Patterson. Also included are two documentaries — one about the dance sequences, the other about Von Trier's attempts to film each musical number live with 100 video cameras, that snarky bastard. Alternate scenes, song-by-song access to the film. Snap-case.
—Gregory P. Dorr
