Film Experience Blog

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

14 comments:

Glenn Dunks said...: There are NO WORDS. I watched that movie for the first time on DVD with my mum and dad and usually I'd try to mask being a weeping mess but my god me and my mum were bawling. Of course my dad has no soul, so...

:P; 10:35 AM
Aaron said...: It has been WAY too long since I've seen it. My first wife loved it as much as I do. My current wife is a Bjork hater and won't give it a chance...; 10:42 AM
Anonymous said...: Amazing. Jawdropping.; 10:52 AM
Witchiepooh said...: Nathaniel:

Just re-read your review of this film. I'm sorry to say that it took me to a completely different place and I couldn't get past the cruelty. Rather than feeling uplifted, I felt enraged. And of course that's probably the point Von Trier is going for anyway, an intense reacton. So on that level, it did succeed.

I do appreciate your thoughts on it and I wish that I could have been moved.

Oddly enough, I had a similar reaction to Breaking the Waves and Dogville, but I admired those films more. They did move me to more than a feeling of disgust. In fact it was viewing Dogville that prompted me to finally see Dancer. Maybe it was just that seeing two of his works so closely together made the sadism toward his female martyrs more than I could take?

Perhaps I should give it another look.; 12:17 PM
Anonymous said...: I love Breaking the Waves, really really like Dogville and disliked Dancer in the Dark. Make of that what you will.; 12:38 PM
Anonymous said...: I had the most violent crying jag during this movie (I saw it in theaters when it was released) -- unlike in any movie before or after.; 12:48 PM
douglas said...: the movie was ok but BJORK was extraordinary; 12:50 PM
NATHANIEL R said...: yeah the violent crying jag --my reaction too. i've only ever cried that hard at a movie a few times before (west side story when i was a wee tyke, priest the year i was coming out of the closet, and dangerous liaisons I think but the memory is fuzzy. mighta been the Pfeiffer tortured emotionally/physically/spiritually etc... thing); 1:09 PM
OhMyTrill said...: Simply put: the best movie.; 1:41 PM
Vertigo's Psycho said...: Agree 100% regarding your previous assessment of Catherine Deneuve's beautiful work as Kathy. IMO, she's the heart and soul of that devastating final scene, wherein Deneuve's deeply felt emoting triggers those massive crying jags Dancer has inspired across the globe.; 2:15 PM
Sid said...: I LOVED it when I first saw it. Haven't had the courage to re-visit it ever since.; 2:43 PM
Anonymous said...: Exactly, Sid! I don't think I could go through that again -- and I'm also worried I might not feel the same and it would ruin the experience for me.

I remember feeling raw when I left the theater. And then I ate BBQ. --shrug--; 4:53 PM
Glenn Dunks said...: I find it's better to relive my love for Dancer by watching individual scenes and not the entire thing because it is incredibly hard.

BTW, Bjork and Catherine were indeed fan-freakin'-tastic, but there was another performance that I really really liked. It was only a small one, but I thought Siobhan Fallon-Hogan was stunning at the female jail worker.; 2:01 AM
NATHANIEL R said...: laurie & sid.
it took me along time before i ventured back despite my #1 crowning of the film. I felt the same about it on a re-reviewing. It didn't lose impact.

And if anything Deneuve's work gets even better.; 9:29 AM