I just saw it again on IFC and I defy anyone to watch the last 20 min. and not cry.
Has anyone else shared this experience?
I bought this movie without watching it first, I didnt think it was all that great. Bjork felt wayy too vulnerable onscreen that it got into camp territory and I couldnt take her seriously enough to care at the end.
/wet blanket
I was more like, Ah, just kill her already! Put her out of her misery!
So I’m the ONLY one who was moved by this?
DAMN - I AM a dork.
No, I started crying when she started singing ‘A Few of my Favourite Things’, and didn’t stop til ten minutes after the credits.
Well the musical parts took the edge of my interest somewhat, but I’ll still say I wasnt affected by it.
Now Requiem For a Dream was a bawlfest for me I’d admit.
I had pretty much the same reaction to both of them. Requiem For a Dream was probably worse than Dancer in the Dark,. but it’s a narrow contest
I watched Requiem For a Dream a few weeks after introducing my friends to Dancer in the Dark.
I haven’t been allowed to pick a movie since.
erm, and by ‘worse’, I mean ‘more sad/depressing/bawlfest-y’, rather than ‘less good’
You gotta admit Requiem is a far better movie than Dancer is though, right?
I love both movies, but I prefer Dancer.
I cried first when she sings with Peter Stormare near the railroad tracks and did a pretty good job of holding up until the end when Selma gets hanged…then I bawled like a little girl.
Dancer made me unhappy for the entire night that I watched it.
Requiem, by contrast, tore me into tiny little pieces, and depressed me all week.
I do agree with you though. I’d reccomend it to anyone over Dancer any day.
[slight hijack]
How do you reccomend these sorts of movies? Because ‘Really, you should rent it, you’ll cry for a week’ does not really cut it for many people
[/hijack]
If you liked Dancer in the Dark because it made you cry, then you would probably also like another recent movie by Lars von Trier; Breaking the Waves.
For some reason the US has it rated so you have to be 18 before you can watch it (only 12 here in Denmark) – wonder why the same movie got rated so differently.
- Rune
Oh my god, I wanted to kill myself after watching this movie, but only because it was the only way I could be sure I’d forget it.
Now, I loved Requim, and Breaking - but they have great performances and powerful writing. Dancer was awful in every way, and I was apologizing to my roommate for renting it for weeks!
I loved Dancer – but I’m coming at it as a fan of musicals. From that point of view it was amazing.
And yes, I was crying like a baby through the whole ending.
Winston said, “For some reason the US has it rated so you have to be 18 before you can watch it (only 12 here in Denmark) – wonder why the same movie got rated so differently.”
Hmmm…maybe because we’re uptight Victorian-minded, republican-governed, frigid freak-wads. Our rating system needs to die.
I loved both movies, cried my eyes out for both, but…Selma was just so fucking sad. Way great movies.
I was really moved emotionally by Dancer in the Dark. I was also moved to go take an entire bottle of Advil because I had a headache from the ‘natural’ camera.
Look Lars, does the whole world shake about when you look through your eyes? I don’t think so! Get a steady cam for Christ’s sakes!
Dancer in the Dark is a masterpiece of postmodern satire; not a single flaw in the whole thing. Requiem for a Dream is good, but not the great film that Dancer is.
I sobbed like a child at the end of Dancer in the Dark. But I didn’t really cry at the end of Requiem for a Dream. I just went away from people for a while. And sat. And looked at nothing.
I’d hesitate to say which is the better movie. I thought they were both excellent, and I’m not sure I could stand to watch either again. But they’re also very different (apart from being horribly depressing), and I can see how another person might adore one and loathe the other. It just depends on what you like.
Arg: that was the worst part for me, because I had been listening to the absolutely gorgeous Thom Yorke duet all summer before getting to see the movie. I know it makes much more sense to have him sing in his real voice, but it was just jarring.
I did cry. I think the soundtrack to that, especially the “New World” theme is one of the best in years.
I agree with look!ninjas impressions of both films, and with the idea that they’re so different as any comparison of them fails in the end.
Both films are incredibly depressing, and affected me pretty deeply. I cried at the end of Dancer in the Dark, and I spent most of the next day at work not talking to anyone. I was disturbed at the end of Requiem for a Dream, and I spent the next day seeing the worst in everything and everyone around me. Dancer was sad but elevating, in a way, while Requiem was a potent reminder of the depths of human suffering.
Both were good films, but in such different ways that I can’t really make an evaluative comparison that says one is better than the other in any meaningful way.
And to add to what Apos said, the soundtrack for Dancer in the Dark is a work of art in itself, but I find it hard to listen to it these days without becoming quiet and sullen, as it reminds me so strongly of the film.