The Big Picture

Dancer in the Dark

Q: What do you get when you mix Icelandic chanteusse-naif Björk, Danish auteur Lars Von Trier (Breaking the Waves), and 100 Sony PD-100 digital video cameras? Answer: the Cannes Film Festival 2000 Palme d'Or and a whole lotta attention from the world cinematic press corps, apparently. Von Trier has already taken on the whole of modern cinematic theory with his audacious, 10-point plan to shake things up -- the aptly monikered Dogma '95 manifesto -- and Dancer in the Dark, which rigidly adheres to such principles as hand-held cameras and available light sources, may be the nascent movement's crowning achievement. Still, for her part, pop-pixie Björk has vowed never to act in another movie as long as she lives, and Von Trier, whose set was rife with sobbing actors and disgruntled talent, has said of the shoot, "It was not nice." The story, set in small-town, Sixties-era Americana, finds Björk slowly going blind and working alongside the luminous Catherine Deneuve in a gritty, rural factory setting. And then Björk breaks into song now and again. A masterpiece or a digital slice of hellish chutzpah from a once-film and now-digital video director emboldened by new technologies? Likely both, and, just as likely, yet another in a long line of must-see Von Trier triumphs. (Oct. 6)