“Dancer in the Dark” is cumbersome, tedious and painful, but…

perhaps one of the key films of my life.

I rewatched it the other day, it seems, for the fourth time. And when I hopefully think: “this time I won’t make it,” Trier laughs in my face: “well, yes, sure…”. It is sinful to watch such things against the background. You need, but you can’t be ready to them.

The heroines of the Golden Heart trilogy, to which this film belongs, are selfless, brave and sacrificial. But Trier did a great job: he clearly and boldly showed that their actions are far from unambiguous. Watching the heroine Björk Selma faithfully go to death in the name of her fabulous principles, at some points it becomes simply unbearable. So I want to grab her by the shoulders, shake her like a doll (and I imagine that this is how she will hang out, probably inspired by the final scene) and ask: “What the hell is wrong with you? Who needs such a sacrifice? Wake up!. “ But this time I realized that this is exactly what Trier wanted. As always, he successfully managed to play on my feelings. Genius, damn it.

This film is not 2:20:00, but much longer: after watching it you will have to ask for about half a day in shock, and then go for another week in thought “what was it? Who was right?. “ By the way, Trier eloquently warns about this in the final frame: the camera really flies up “like in musicals,” but we do not see the word “end” on the screen. Because this is not the end — the film and the trauma it caused is now with you forever.

I don’t remember whether the reception “has the creation of a false hope for a good end, but everything will end badly anyway and you know about it” has the name, but it always works with me. And by the way, you can write a separate article about the tears caused by this film: for me they really became a personal discovery. I didn’t even know that I knew how to cry like this, or rather roar in horror, like a driven beast.

This time I drew attention to the opening credits… Something like abstract watercolor drawings, successive. I have a proposal that this is the world through the eyes of blind Selma, and what do you think?