Dancer in the Dark… WOW!!!
Halo Stevey/Halo All,
And I cried while watching Dancer in the Dark… my god.. the film gets more and more serious and dark as it progresses… and that mother fucker of a cop who cheats on her? Bastard, asshole, chutiya ka rishtedaar sala… at the same time loved her friend kathy and jeff who initially made me feel is gonna rape her… see how bollywod has conditioned my thinking as to depending upon the kind of personality Jeff has… as in bollywood he d get to be the only Villian or a rapist for that matter… though I am gonna watch the film again… i thought it was very slow paced and dragging in the begining, but as it progresses its just grips you…
I have had two blind friends and i cannot just but keep thinking about them as I just kept recalling my stay as a roomate with this guy called Ashok Srimali at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). I could relate to Bjorks character completey as I have lived in silence and ‘dark’ with Ashok… So i exactly could feel those silences and pauses which for me had a greater meaning…
The scene where the cop waits in her house just to check her level of Blindness really makes us hate him as much as it makes us love him when he comes and ’shares’ his wife and financial problems with him.
Kathy remains to be the sweetheart friend, much like many of our close friends that we have in real life who are always there to help you no matter what ( and i don’t know why but i am reminded of my very dear friends Kops, Ashima, Sourabh Narang, Sanjay Routray, Ramani, Smita Kapoor as the list is endless). Such a lovebale character she has protrayed… Even Jeff comes as a big surprise… so real a character…
The placement of the songs is so superb, and like millions of viewers my favourite too remains “I have seen it all” where she answers Jeff through this song if she cannot see properly… the pace, the simple lyrics, the edit and the beautiful locales and the train make it all so perfect…
The best part of this film is that is so very well manages to capture the ’silence’ that looms in a blind person, plus also her struggle to ensure that her son ‘Novy’ doesnt have to go blind and her efforts and plan to save for his operation when he turns 13 is beautifully crafted as well… Though personally speaking I d have loved to see more interaction between bjork (selma) and her son…
The best moments and my favourite scenes remain to be those simple ones when Selma tells Jeff that she doesnt need a Boyfriend, and ever she did it have been him just touches your heart so much… One angry remark from kathy when Selma is thrown out of her job just shows depth her charcter has ( i mean her character doesnt need the length of the footage to prove her acting prowess, and maybe wannabe actors can learn something from this character).
I cannot stop but mentioning the manager of the factory too where he informs her that he has been ordered to inform her that she has been thrown out also ends up telling us that there is hope as he doesnt have a choice but just to deliver her the news as he too completely feels bad for such a lovely character like Selma.
Last but not the least… the climax just hit me big time… the entire jail portion, the veridict, the reopening of the case, Selma’s fight with Kathy for having to pay the new lawyer and her withdrawal from reopening the case is absolutely mindblowing as the director never lets us out from the major issue from Selam’s life and that is her sons operation after he turns 13 so that he can see his grandchildren just conveys a mother love for her child and to what extent a mom can go to save her kids…
As the execution comes near, the conversation between Jeff and Selma wherein he asks her as to why did she have a baby? and her reply saying “I just wanted to hold a little baby” makes you cry… also when Selma and Jeff and Selma and Kathy talk of whether they can be present while the execution is on gives us goose pimples…
The way the director has picturised the execution scene and what a convict goes through the last stages just minutes before his/her death will change your opinion regarding the capital punishment…
“They Say its the last song
They Dont know us, you see
It’s only the last song
If we let it be”
A must see film…
Cheers…
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…………what a movie..the story n the screeplay..awesome….there were characters we luv..we lik to hate..man..how come they create such characters n weave them such an extraordinary story….thatnx for reminding me of the movieeeeeeeeee..those who didn’t saw this plzzzzzzzzwatch it.watch for that lady..watch it my friends…u will feel what a film is called n wht is an importance of a story to a film..
I know I am going to get so many brickbats and abuses for this, but I saw this movie for the first time during a screening as part of my post grad course and again recently. I thought it was an average movie then and I though it was an OK movie now. The music is amazing .. no doubt but the stryline too dark for me. The biggest problem I had was with the ending which I though was stretched a way too much. Moreover I have never liked Lars von Trier’s Dogme approach. I mean there are times when I was screaming inside my mind…”Come on man.. move the camera” but it would just keep sitting in one place. The movie didn’t deserve to win Palme D’or amid the presence of “Requiem for a Dream” and “crouching tiger, hidden dragon”
Well buddy Pankaj…
I respect ur opinion… while i still continue to like it as much as u continue to fel it ok bro… winkkk LOL…
zzsuuryaa,
have you seen lars von trier’s ‘dogville’? watch it..you’ll like it..
hey surya,
you’ll have to use your PFC contact and source out actor GAJRAJ RAO’S contact nos..if you already have it / will get it..then do message me..
The jail scene is reminiscent of kieslowski’s “A Short Film About Killing”, lars von takes it, dumbs it down and sensationalizes it, basically panders to the impressionable mind. Its a recurring motif in lars von cinema, a young naive woman fallen on hard times, ravaged by male brutality etc. i think he was abused as a child, maybe he has a repressed ‘Anima’ or something.
the movie is so effective just coz it’s DOGMA style filmmaking. the director Lars Von Trier doesn’t believe in “framing” a shot. and also their is no editing pattern. just like in real life. thatz the reason we connect with the characters and everything is so real. i just loved his other movie “The idiots”. i would love to be a “idiot” atleast once in my life.
and btw, did you see “The best of youth” yet?
Benjy,
Thanks for the dope on the director… but havent seen his work as such, maybe will consciously try and see his films… But loved it anyways… there is something about this film that works man..
Shiva,
Do you have those dvds pal??? wink…
i do…but i’m in san francisco
sounds really a must see film
thanks surya for recc this film
So Shiva do u need my address to courier the dvds LOL..
Rree… U will love it…
Hiwarle saheb, you’ll get the dvd in sarvodaya, readsure or any dvd library
Thanks Mr. Cy…
Thanks for ur suggestions… but i think that sarvodaya guy is biggest chut I have ever come across… Plus… I am broke, hence the borrowing business….