Dancer In The Dark

Dancer in the Dark est un drame musical écrit et réalisé par Lars Von Trier dans laquelle Björk tient le rôle principale de Selma Jezkova, une ouvrière émigrée tchèque et mère célibataire. Elle a également composé la BO Selmasongs.

Le film a notamment obtenu la Palme d’or au Festival de Cannes et Björk le prix d’interprétation féminine en 2000.

Genèse

C’est en voyant Björk dans la vidéo de Spike Jonze pour It’s oh so quiet que Lars von Trier a eu l’idée de la solliciter. Après Breaking the waves et Les Idiots, Dancer in the dark clôt la trilogie de ses martyres féminines, qu’il intitule Golden heart ("cœur en or") du nom d’un ouvrage jeunesse danois Guld Hjerte qu’il lisait enfant. Le livre conte le parcours initiatique d’une fillette qui doit traverser seule une forêt en donnant tout ce qu’elle possède.

Info

Danemark - France 1999
Titre provisoire : TAPS
Coproduction entre des sociétés danoises, hollandaises, suédoises, finlandaises, islandaises, allemandes, françaises, américaines, britanniques et norvégiennes
Durée : 140 min
Nombre d’entrées France : 1 166 150

Synopsis

Dans les années 1960, Selma travaille dans une usine métallurgique située dans une petite ville de l’Amérique profonde. Elle trouve son salut dans sa passion pour la musique, plus spécialement les chansons et les chorégraphies des grandes comédies musicales hollywoodiennes. Selma garde un lourd secret : elle perd progressivement la vue et son fils Gene connaîtra le même sort si elle ne parvient pas à mettre assez d’argent de côté pour lui payer une opération...

Affiches

Bande originale

01. Overture (3:38)
02. Cvalda (4:48)
03. I’ve Seen It All (5:29)
04. Scatterheart (6:39)
05. In The Musicals (4:41)
06. 107 Steps (2:36)
07. New World (4:21)

Scènes musicales

Les numéros dansés, qui ont demandé des semaines de répétition, ont été réglés par l’américain Vincent Paterson (chorégraphe, entre autres, de Madonna).

Attention ! Si vous n’avez pas vu le film, la vidéo peut contenir des spoilers de l’intrigue principale.

https://youtu.be/UrWm2oMmUQg

100 caméras pour les scènes chorégraphiées : Lars von Trier, soucieux de prendre le contre-pied du cinéma traditionnel, a opté pour un dispositif de 100 caméras, dont les emplacements furent décidés en collaboration avec Vincent Paterson, afin de filmer les chorégraphies en une succession de plans fixes.

Björk, après avoir vu le film

J’étais un peu triste parce que je pense qu’il aurait pu être bien mieux. Je trouve qu’il y a trop de complaisance dans la douleur et que le film n’avait pas besoin d’être aussi psychologiquement violent. (...) C’était dur de lutter continuellement contre Lars et son terrorisme psychologique. Il aime être sadique, il est le premier à le dire, il en est même fier.

Première, septembre 2000

Accusations de harcèlement sexuel

En octobre 2017, Björk dénonce le comportement abusif du réalisateur lors du tournage. Elle a également précisé avoir subi "des propositions sexuelles constamment gênantes, paralysantes, chuchotées et non consenties, en décrivant les scènes" qu’il fantasmait. Björk est également revenue sur une nuit durant laquelle son harceleur aurait tenté d’entrer dans sa chambre depuis son balcon, avec "une intention clairement sexuelle".

Presse

Some are turned off by what they perceive to be manipulative melodrama or sick sadism, while others praise its innocence and audacity. But most can agree upon Björk’s status as a wonder to behold.

Joshua Klein, The Onion — AV Club

Ce mélo musical [...] a fait verser des torrents de larmes au Festival de Cannes, mais le talent de manipulateur de Lars von Trier en a irrité certains… Les festivaliers se sont partagés en deux camps : l’un, pleurant à chaudes larmes, désintégré par la scène finale, enthousiasmé par la qualité des séquences chantées et dansées ; l’autre, agacé au possible, voire en colère, comme s’il avait été pris au piège d’un charabia romantique à gros budget.

Le Parisien

Interviews

– Je devais avoir le mix final et ils m’ont dit qu’ils ne signeraient pas les papiers de cette façon. Et qu’ils n’étaient pas d’accord avec cela. J’ai demandé de protéger ma musique, cela n’avait rien à voir avec le film. Björk - Zap2It (2000)

– J’ai quitté une seule fois le plateau sans l’intention de revenir. Je protégeais ma musique, c’était uniquement à cause de ça. Björk - Zap2It (2000)

– Lars ne prends pas conscience de sa responsabilité de maintenir les personnes psychologiquement stables après avoir travaillé intensément avec eux. Björk - Index magazine (Juillet 2001)

– J’ai reçu des offres avant cela peut paraître arrogant, mais je ne suis pas intéressée par un autre film. Je suis une chanteuse. C’est ce que je fais. Je ne suis pas une actrice. Je ne suis pas vraiment le genre de personne actrice. Björk - The Daily Telegraph (février 2002)

Récompenses

– Festival de Cannes 2000
Dancer in the Dark # Palme d’Or
Björk # Meilleure Actrice

– Icelandic Film & Television Academy Awards
Björk # Meilleure actrice islandaise

– European Film Awards
Björk # Best European Actress & People’s choice
Dancer in the Dark # Best European Film & People’s choice

– Golden Satellites
I’ve seen it all # Best Original Song

– Online Film Critics Society
Björk # Best Cinematic Debut/ Breakthrough

Lien

– Fiche IMdb

News

– Björk harcelée sexuellement par Lars von Trier

acting
I’m not the slightest excited about the acting. I love music so much that it feels as if I’m unfaithful to it. It feels a bit dirty. I’m cheating on the love of my life. You know, I refused at first.

Expressen Nöje, 11-12 June 1999

acting
I can’t snap into a character one day. For me, the process was a lot more organic, a very slow process. One of the first things Lars taught me was I should not ’act,’ because he can’t stand actors. On that I think we would agree.

USA Today, 2000-10-12

acting
The angle I took on it was that it wasn’t really acting. It was more like an extension of my songs ; it was an act of protecting my songs. Then when we started preparing for the acting I told [von Trier] from the top that I would have to feel it from instinct. And he said ’That suits me fine because I can’t stand actresses and acting.

Vogue, 2000-09

acting
Acting I found was very strange because I would wake up and it would not be an escape into the world of music and the world of dreams. It would be more logic and more confrontation with human beings and more conversation. And this is not my strong side. It is definitely my weak side. I have already forgotten the one thousand or eleven hundred something days (in the development of the film, including four months of shooting). Today I forget all of them. It’s good, no ? It’s a very good magic potion you have here in Cannes. I am very happy. It seems that my journey is complete. There is a big, big pink French ribbon on this year, thank you very much.

Toronto Sun, 22 may 2000

acting
I knew when I said yes that not only would that be my first role but also my last one. And I’m very happy that this experience would be the one.

Toronto Sun, 22 may 2000

acting again
Ah, it was enjoyable. I’d rather be in the studio. It’s just a question of what you’re born to do. Acting, for me, is like a muslim pretending he’s a Catholic or something. It just doesn’t work. I’m getting a lot of outrageous offers, but... I was always so sure that I’d do music. It’s my love. I think I should leave acting to other people. I think there’s something not very solid about dabbling in something that you haven’t given your heart to.

Q Magazine, July 2001

acting being difficult
Clearly you found the experience of doing Dancer in the Dark difficult and you said you would never act again, but do you feel a sense of achievement for it ? Do you look back at it with pride ? There’s a misunderstanding that I don’t want to act because of that movie, but I never really wanted to. I made an exception because of the director [Lars von Trier]. So afterwards it wasn’t that that experience was so horrible that I didn’t do it again it was more like "Oh yes l’m back to music !" I still haven’t been able to watch that movie, but then again I don’t listen to my own albums because you just move on. But I know in my heart of hearts, that emotionally, I went there. I decided to give it my all and I did. So in that sense... I’m not proud of myself in terms of the conflicts...

Attitude - 12.05.2007

becoming Selma
The only way I could become Selma was just to leave all of me behind and slowly become her. so I sort of was her for a year or two, I guess. and I decided not to bother so much about the similarities between me and her because you could look at it in a way that that was something I didn’t have to worry about then because I was already okay. like, I know what it’s like to be a single mom. I know what it’s like to have a son, you know. I know a lot of things, you know.

The New Music, 2001

becoming Selma
It took me 1 1/2 years to slowly become Selma. During the shooting of it, my friends would come and not recognize me, and it would get scary. It took me nine months after the shoot to become me again.

USA Today, 2000-10-12

being Selma
This role is in a way designed for me, but you have to ask Lars yourself, but I think the reason why I got the role is because he sees something in me that is in the role. I haven’t dared to ask.

Expressen Nöje, 11-12 June 1999

Björk vs Lars
There was certainly something very worrying about Bjork’s performance as the martyr, Selma. As von Trier said, she was not acting, but feeling. The shoot ended up in open warfare between director and star. Lars became cruel and manipulative and that was unnecessary because we had something really, really gorgeous that had taken off and taken its own life. All we had to do was protect it and make sure no one disturbed it. I think he got scared and he got quite cruel in the last month, and that was what I did not agree with. Did he shout and scream ? I do not think you have to scream to be cruel. I think you can watch that film and you can see. If you had never heard the rumours about what happened on set and just saw the film, I think it is very obvious that I was suffering. As...

Evening Standard , 15 August 2001

calling this her acting debut
When I did Juniper Tree, my child was two months old, and I was breastfeeding him between takes. The whole thing felt like a dream. I don’t think I was conscious of what was happening. So that’s why I never counted that, really. It’s important for me that I give "all of me" to things I do. Which I certainly did with "Dancer In the Dark."

Bjork.com webchat, 22 june 2000

cheating on music
There were periods in this film when I felt like I was having an affair from music, that I felt dirty... because music has always been the place that sorts me out.

The Times, October 2000

cheating on music
I should be doing music, and I should spend all my time on music. Doing this film felt like I was having an affair. It just comes down to basics, and I would die, literally die for the right tune. But I would not die for a film. It’s just how much you care. I think we’ve all got our mission, and that’s just my mission : music.

Vogue, 2000-09

cruelty
There was a lot of cruelty, not just to me but inside that group, to each other. Really nasty and backstabbing.

W magazine, august 2004

doing the film
Playing the part was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in my whole life. It was a great relief when I received the award afterwards. But I have to point that the acting is in my head - whereas the music is in my heart. This film was just an adventure for me - a very interesting adventure, though. I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy as when I received the price in Cannes. When I make music, I’ve got a certain instinct, which tells me if it’s good or bad. It doesn’t matter if I get bad reviews, because I’m always ten times harder to myself. That’s why I’m not very affected by critics, because I don’t care what other people think. But during the filming I didn’t really know if my acting was good or bad, so I gladly accepted all the flattering talk from the movie-business.

Zero, autumn 2000

eating her own dress
Well, the media always simplifies things and they take one incident that happens for five minutes in one year and then that’s your life for the next ten years. But I had all these other moments you know, and the other 364 days in the year were very different from that particular day. I mean, there is still a grain of truth there, but it’s just taken a bit out of proportion.

The List (Issue 584) 23 August 2007

escaping into music
The fact that I feel more comfortable inside a song than I do in real life. And there’s a great deal of escape from reality and dreamy in both me and Selma. I only feel safe and calm when I make music or sing. I understand the abstract in music but people scare me. Especially their unexpectency. And that is also true for my own way of being unpredictable.

Expressen Nöje, 11-12 June 1999

fighting over Selma
We had different ideas about who Selma really was. I wanted her to be more of an artistic character but Lars, who is a complete fanatic, wants his role figures to suffer, especially the female ones. I couldn’t really accept that. Selma has had a hard life and she is very imaginative due to all the times she has escaped from her problems into a fanatasy world. Her despair gives you an emotional kick, she makes you high ! But Lars thought that was impossible. All the time he just wanted more and more dreadful things to happen to her and in the end she is even being executed. I thought that was a bit too simple, a bit too easy. But I don’t think the whole film is based only on conflicts, it’s a compromise between our different views. It’s a combination between reality and fantasy...

Zero, autumn 2000

it being painful
I would say, Listen, this is the only way I can do it, so get off my back. I actually went deeper in many cases than he wanted me to. So I think I knew from the outset how hard it was going to be, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t get upset about how fucking painful it was at times. I did. But then again, I dealt with it. The big crying scene at the end wasn’t the most painful for me. It was actually a release of pressure.

NYLON magazine, #14 june/july 2001

La Palme d’or
Winning, she says, with a fiendish little grin, was a "Massive bonus, like England had won the World Cup in football and I was the one who scored all the goals."

Vogue, septembre 2000

losing confidence
That film burned up everything I had achieved. All my confidence. I had to start all over again. You could say that was a good thing but I personally think it felt a bit early. Ten years later I would have been up for that crash maybe.

The Daily Telegraph, 14 august 2004

not acting again
The reason I don’t want to act is not because of this film, that it was difficult or something like that. I felt like that before the film. I made an exception and decided to act once... But I think I should stick to music. I feel pretty loyal to music. There were periods in this film when I felt like I was having an affair from music, that I felt dirty. Because music has always been the place that sorts me out. Everything can go horribly wrong, but there’s always music.

Associated Press, 29 september 2000

not wanting to watch Dancer in the Dark
I couldn’t bare to see myself in the movie, but I told them I didn’t care how I looked. Selma would not have worn any make-up at all. I have no visual vanity, really, about myself. If I should care how I looked then I would be running screaming from the theater when I saw how I came across.

Zap 2 It, 2000-09-29

not wanting to watch Dancer in the Dark
I appreciate all the praise, but I really can’t relate to it. I watch it and go ’yecch.’ It’s emotional to watch the film. I was very emotional when I read the script.

Zap 2 It, 2000-09-29

not wanting to watch Dancer in the Dark
I never wanted to see Dancer In The Dark, because for me, it was something that was over and done. It wasn’t that I wasn’t proud of Dancer In The Dark. It was more to do with the fact that it would have been difficult for me to relive those six months in Denmark in any way whatsoever. That was a very strange time.

WOW !, 2001-08-31

offers
I’d had offers before Dancer in the Dark. It might sound arrogant, but I’m not interested in doing another film. I’m a singer. That is what I do. I am not an actress. I’m not really an actressy person.

The Daily Telegraph, 23 february 2002

playing two roles
I was basically playing two roles. I’d been there filming every day for months, having four nervous breakdowns a day and then I’d collapse and be all bloody and I’d come in in the evening and the crew had chopped up my tunes. They’d took five bars out of something that took me like a month to do and just glued it somewhere and it was like, eeeeeeee !

VH1.com, 2000

protecting her music
I was supposed to have the final mix, and they said they couldn’t sign the papers that way. And they couldn’t agree to it. What I was asking for was something to protect my music, it had nothing to do with the film.

Zap 2 It, 2000-09-29

protecting selma
At that point I’d gotten to know this woman so well that it didn’t feel like it would be acting for me ; it felt just like loving her or protecting her ... It was sort of an extension of my songs.

VH1.com, 2000

protecting Selma
I felt like defending her ; I think I’m very innocent as an actress, naive ? The only way I could to do this was from the love of this girl.

Wall Of Sound 2000-09-22

protecting Selma
I felt strongly about protecting her, because I thought I knew her pretty well. We got a lot of things in common. I’ve been very lucky. All of my dreams have come true — and more so. And it’s sort of the opposite with her, right ? But I probably would have reacted like her in the circumstances she was put in. We’re so self-sufficient and so euphoric on our own that we don’t need a lot of the things that the common world has to offer. That for me is a sign of strength.

Associated Press, 29 september 2000

Selma being naive
Selma is perhaps a little bit more naive than me, because she really thinks life can be one long musical. I don’t think so any longer.

Expressen Nöje, 11-12 June 1999

walking off the set
"I only left once, and it wasn’t like I wasn’t going to come back. I was protecting my music, that’s what it was all about."

Zap 2 It, 2000-09-29

wanting to do a musical
I’ve always wanted to do a musical since I was a kid. I’ve talked about it for years and years and years. Except I would like not for the music to just come out of the walls. I ould like it to be very down-to-earth and modern. When Lars came to me with the script, I was like ...this is so close to what I want to do ! I always knew that if I were ever to do music to film, I would do nothing else and have a very intimate relationship with the director and it would be organic and every song would come from the bottom of my toes.

Vogue, 2000-09

whether she suffered while acting
All the working relationships I’ve had have always been positive. I’ve worked with people it’s supposed to have been impossible to work with, and it’s always gone really well. It was kind of funny : it was the first time I’ve dealt with something negative happening. But I think maybe the media took some of the negative things that happened and made them a bit bigger than they were. I don’t know. I don’t think about it so much any more. I’m a bit bored with it now. Whatever.

Q Magazine, July 2001

why she decided to act
I guess I have an obsession to want to finish things properly. And not leave them until they’re perfect. I guess there’s no such thing as perfect, but the side of me that believes in fantasy definitely believes there is. Lars, the director, convinced me that the only way to completely complete the music, was if the person who wrote the songs would also be the main character in the film. He convinced me that it was an extension of my songs.

Bjork.com webchat, 22 june 2000

why she wont make another movie
I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but my mission in life is music - and I’m firm with it. That’s how I felt before the film. Doing the music and the whole thing felt creative, and that’s why I made an exception. These people who do music and are amazing actors, I don’t agree with that. I’m stubborn and loyal, and music has saved my life 9,000 times.

USA Today, 2000-10-12

why she wont make another movie
I knew when I was a kid that I wanted to do one film, and it would be a musical. So, this was the one. A lot of people think that because of this film, I don’t want to act again because it was so painful, and that is not the case.

NYLON magazine, #14 june/july 2001