FilmFestivals.com - Cannes 2000

An apparent protegé of Gilles Jacob, von Trier has had his entire production of feature films screened in the official programme at Cannes from his debut, Forbrydelsens Element (The Element Of Crime) in 1984, via Epidemic (1987) and Europa (1991) to Breaking The Waves, which won the Grand Prix in 1996. Now he is back with a film that is being marketed as the Millennium Movie.

In the meantime, if you're put on hold while trying to get a telephone call through to his company, Zentropa Entertainments, you will hear von Trier crooning his way through the Peter Skellern classic, You're A Lady, taken from the musical video for the first Dogme film, Idioterne (The Idiots), a Cannes entry in 1998. For fans of the controversial filmmaker (or even pop history), this memorable rendition is also available on a CD: "Von Trier And The Idiot All Stars."

Otherwise, though, von Trier would not claim any sense of music. "I only listen to ABBA," he says. Yet for two years, music by Icelandic pop star Björk has been constantly on his mind, while making his $15 million musical Dancer In The Dark, with the former Sugarcube in the lead as a woman pursuing her personal vision of the American dream.

Originally signed solely to compose the score for the film, Björk makes her feature debut as Selma, a Czech immigrant and single mother working at a factory in rural America. She harbours a sad secret: she is losing her eyesight from a hereditary disease, and her 10-year-old son stands to suffer the same fate. Alongside her is French legend Catherine Deneuve, who came to von Trier of her own accord having seen Breaking The Waves, Deneuve learned about the new project and wrote a letter to the Danish director, saying that she would be available for a part. She joined the production almost immediately, and principal photography began in April 1999 on Swedish locations.

With a cast also including David Morse, Peter Stormare and Joel Gray, Dancer In The Dark is described by von Trier as "a big film, a musical melodrama colliding with reality." In the end Selma makes the mother's ultimate sacrifice giving her life to pay for expensive surgery which will save her son's sight.

"When shooting I felt a bit like Albert Speer, who was able to control everything," says von Trier, who announced his retirement from the back-to-basics Dogme movement last year. "We filmed one special dance routine, moved the cameras once, and ended up with 120 hours of footage from the same scene. It is definitely the most difficult production I have ever undertaken. "I have always loved film musicals," he continues, "and looking for a new challenge, Dancer In The Dark came just at the right moment. But being sort of ignorant on music, I had never heard Björk's work before we started looking for a composer. Now I have, and I am very fond of it. Receiving the letter from Deneuve that she was interested in working with me obviously added to the thrill."

Produced by von Trier's regular collaborator, Vibeke Windeløv, Dancer In The Dark was packaged by Zentropa Entertainments (which he owns with Peter Aalbæk Jensen), and co-financed by Cinematograph (Norway), Memfis (Sweden), Pain Unlimited (Germany) and Liberator (France), supported by Scandinavian film funds and Eurimages. Sweden stood in for Washington DC locations, leaving only second-unit work for the US, and all studio photography was shot at Filmbyen, 40,000 square miles of former military barracks at Avedøre outside Copenhagen turned into a production
centre, where the dance sequences were shot simultaneously wuth 100 fixed Sony PD100 cameras.

Able to screen only 45 minutes of the feature at last year's Mifed, with von Trier still half way through the editing, Peter Aalbæk Jensen Zentropa Entertainment's co-owner and ceo decided not to go on with presales there, but to wait for the film's presentation on the Côte d'Azur in order to demand a higher price. "Buyers go home. Save your money for Cannes," he advertised. "I have never before refused that much money," added sales director Thomas Mai, of Trust Film Sales, representing the film in Milan. But Dancer In The Dark has so far sold the US (Fine Line Features, via Good Machine, for a reported $5 million), the UK, Germany and Scandinavia, besides already being licensed to France, Italy and the Benelux through co-production agreements.

Jørn Rossing Jensen.