Mark Carpenter

Hi all,
Which release of Dancer In The Dark would you consider to be the best? I was originally planning on buying the R1 version, but have heard that the documentary "Von Trier's 100 Eyes" is a good documentary on the making of the film and that it's not present on the R1 version.

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0277428

I read somewhere that it's on the Scandinavian DVD, and after some searching i discovered that the Region 4 Australian DVD is the same. (I live in the UK and have found it can be bought quite cheaply from http://www.ezydvd.com.au/)

I think the only things i would miss from the R1 version are the two english-spoken commentaries, but the Australian DVD has a non-english commentary with subtitles. I remember reading from somewhere that the two featurettes on the R1 disc are parts from the "Von Trier's 100 Eyes" documentary, can anyone confirm that?

Thanks,
Mark

Trigger

I liked the New Line release.

Richard Malloy

Wish I could help you with the comparison, but all I can confirm is that the New Line release is exceptional, and the two features may well be from the "100 Eyes" documentary. Both commentary tracks are fantastic, though I actually prefer the one featuring Vincent Paterson over the one that includes Von Trier (among others). There's also a menu where you can select or "Play all" of the musical sequences. The video transfer is typically great New Line, and the DTS track is excellent (generally monaural... that is, until the music kicks in!).

Mark Carpenter

Thanks guys, your comments are appreciated.

While we're talking about it, what are your opinions on the film itself?

For me, it's definately one of the most moving films i've seen, but i do agree with some of the criticism levelled at it. (If you haven't seen what critics have had to say about it, look the film up at www.rottentomatoes.com for an interesting mixture of positive and (strongly) negative reviews.)

One of the reasons i'm eager to see the 100 Eyes documentary is because it's apparently a very revealing look in to the movie and the director. One comment on Lars Von Trier after someone saw it was, "he is a supremely gifted con artist with a penchant for pulling the public's collective leg." Bjork threatened to sue if her scenes weren't deleted from it because it showed her being very eccentric, and allegedly she threw a tantrum and tore up her costumes with her teeth. (And she also went missing for a while.)

I was thinking of seeing "Breaking The Waves" too, the plotline seems to follow a similar theme. There's a lot of critics who are very cynical of Lars Von Trier, here's an interesting one from critic Mark Kermode:

http://www.filmfour.com/ff/ff_channe...tem.jsp?id=249

And another:
http://www.qnetwork.com/movie/DancerInDark.html

Trigger

I loved it. I cried like a little b**ch. Very moving and if you like Bjork's music, that's a bonus. The performances are top notch. It's not for everyone and just like how the reviews are split, moviegoers felt the same way mostly. They either loved it or hated it with the odd person being indifferent. It's the kind of movie that can make you feel uncomfortable in your seat... it also may not be a repeat viewer, so a rental might be in order if you're unsure. I bought it sight-unseen and if I didn't have over 1000 DVDs, I would've watched it again by now.

Richard Malloy

I love this movie. A little portion from a review I wrote just after it was released:

...for myself, Dancer in the Dark mustered a double-barreled impact: the initial gut-whalloping experience that sent me reeling out of the theater, nerves bristling, feeling used, feeling worn-out, and a second, insidious haunting that planted itself into some deep, primal part of my brain and then radiated throughout my entire consciousness. I could not shake the feeling of this film, which seemed to grow and mutate over time. I could not stop thinking about it and did not wish to. I was drawn back to it, irresistably, as though compelled to return to the scene of a crime.

And I've been struggling to understand how it achieves its unique effect on the sympathetic viewer, how it feels simultaneously like a parable and a documentary, achieving a perfectly momentous tragic moment, utterly pure and apart from the strictures of 'reality', generalized and abstracted like Greek and Shakespearean tragedy, while still evoking the feel of a real event.

And I'm convinced it has everything to do with the way Lars works with his actors and other collaborators. It's his intent to provoke randomness, to create an atmosphere conducive to the mistake, the happy accident, the inelegant, clumsy perfection of the actual movements of life. Even the successive jump-cuts - the prevailing cinematic grammar in every scene but the musical sequences - even these do not disrupt the impression that one is experiencing the actualness of time, the moment in which an event becomes reality in the way that every real moment is born. It lends an immediacy that turns us into eavesdroppers, with the unsettling awareness that we are voyeurs gawking at some impending tragedy that seems always just beneath the surface, constantly threatening to push its way through. And we are ashamed for just sitting there, gobsmacked and impotent, cringing at the inevitable, yet unable to lift a finger to stop it.

Mark Carpenter

Great review Richard Malloy!

The film haunted me after i saw it for the first time. A few days later i watched it again with a friend and again was left stunned by the times the credits rolled.

Anyways, i've placed my order now, thanks for the comments!

Dan Average

It's a bit late now but I'd still like to jump in with my opinion:

There are at least six different versions of this DVD -- the U.S. R1, the Scandinavian/Australian R2/R4, the UK R2, the Japanese R2, the French R2, and the German R2. The British disc is pretty much useless (it have an interview with von Trier replicated on pretty much all the other releases and pointless footage of von Trier, Bjork and co. walking down the red carpet at Cannes, which doesn't even include the acceptance speeches). The Japanese and French editions have a lengthy interview with Bjork not on any of the other versions, but that's all they have to recommend them. I don't know anything about the German version.

The R1 version has two commentaries versus only one on the R2/R4, but frankly I like the R2/R4 commentary better than either of those on the U.S. release. For one thing, it's a genuine two-person track (von Trier and sound designer Per Streit), not just two separate commentaries edited together. I tend to like these kind of commentaries more since it's more interesting when the participants have someone to bounce off of. Von Trier is a lot more frank on this commentary than on the R1 commentary, levelling some pretty harsh invective against Bjork. The "100 Eyes" documentary (in Danish and subtitled in English, just like the commentary itself) is great (even though I suspect a lot of it was staged for the camera's benefit) -- and contrary to what someone else speculated earlier, none of the footage from this documentary is on the R1 DVD. It also has a very nice text biography of von Trier (in English) that includes a ton of interesting info and the trailers for Europa, The Kingdom, Breaking the Waves, and The Idiots. All in all I found it a superior package to the R1, but the R1 definitely has better image quality for the film (not a big deal for a movie like this, though) and the DTS track is a nice addition not on the R2/R4.

stingo

Indeed, a very powerful film - not one that needs to be seen often but one that deserves repeat viewings. Actually, an interesting double bill might be Dancer in the Dark and Moulin Rouge for two vastly different takes on the modern movie musical.